Unethical behaviour inside and outside of the classroom can impact on the overall social health of the group. Even in prestigious academic laboratory groups, the presence of bullying behaviour can lead to great negative impacts, even when the bullying behaviour is not directed towards a single person. As discussed by Lewis (2019), the observation of bullying behaviour can impact even those who are only observers. As a result of this, there is a greater focus on prevention of bullying in university environments and in the wider educational context. This blog will use the definiton of bullying outlined in Muijs (2017), and use data from the Australian NSW educational context, where the prevalence of bullying is reported to have affected between 34.4-37.6% of Year 8 students measured in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (AIHW, 2019). For Year 4 students, which in the NSW school system corresponds to primary level education, the 95% confidence interval for students who reported experiences of bullying was 43.5-48.5%, of which, 5.8-8.2% reported experiencing bullying weekly (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 2019).
Factors that influence the impact of bullying include individual characteristics, systems and policies in place at the educational context, and understanding the rate and prevalence that is current. Unethical behaviour can be present within individual behaviour, or on a wider systemic level – where that behaviour is accepted culturally as was the case in the prior article by Lewis (2019)
Image by Hatice EROL from Pixabay
In understanding the rate and prevalence that is current (Kaufman, Huitsing & Huitsing, 2019) of bullying behaviour, the following four characteristics were identified as being present, to greater or lesser degrees in most cases of bullying. The experience of bullying then is impacted by “frequency, intensity, power imbalance, and goal-directedness” (Kaufman, Huitsing & Huitsing, 2019), but these features were not present in all described bullying experiences. Power imbalance, for example, was connected to social climate of schools (insert reference here)
Systems and policies in place at the educational context
Individual characteristics ( As the impact of bullying can be felt throughout life)
- Provide a convincing argument backed by careful logic and research
- Three or more excellent arguments are stated in support of the topic that is based on research and logic. : Argument demonstrates a clear understanding of the potential audience and anticipates counterarguments from multiple perspectives.One or more relevant peer-reviewed journal articles are cited in developing the argument.
- Conclude with a final restating of the position and message
Unethical behaviour, whether this is due to individual characteristics or whether it’s prevalence is supported through the systemic policies and procedures in place within educational contexts, is an facet of bullying. The impact of bullying can be felt throughout life and it can occur in a variety of contexts. Even in prestigious tertiary academic situations, the importance of understanding, defining and conceptualizing the related behaviours is of greater importance now than ever.
References
(AIHW, 2019)
(Kaufman, Huitsing & Huitsing, 2019)
Lewis, D. (2019). Head of prestigious ancient-DNA lab suspended amid bullying allegations. Nature 572, 424-425 doi: https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1038/d41586-019-02490-y
Muijs (2017)
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (2019)