Peer Power:Support for Educators in Preventing Bullying in Inclusive Classrooms

The goal of the project is to conduct participatory research among students, inclusive classroom form teachers, pedagogues who work in schools that have inclusive branches, and students with disabilities. Our research will provide scientific data not only for a report, but also for a “custom-made” toolkit addressed to inclusive classroom form teachers.

The toolkit will include:

• Form teacher’s handbook with teaching plans, addressed to form teachers working in secondary schools, such as trade, preparatory, and technical schools. The teaching plans will guide form teachers in managing the group dynamics leading to the formation of supporting peer group that is inclusive for all. Exercises will enable students to independently develop behavioral norms appropriate for inclusive classrooms, help to understand the situation and behavior of other students in the classroom, provide space for getting to know each other, and establishing action plans for difficult situations — for example how to notify the form teacher of a difficult situation in a safe manner.
• 45-minute webinar providing short, practical instructions for using the handbook, including the objectives and goals of the package, and a guide to conducting home room classes and their goals. The webinar will make the implementation of the process much easier for form teachers — just a short webinar and a review of the toolkit, instead of multi-hour training sessions.
• Guide to the dynamics of peer groups that function in inclusive schools, describing the dynamics of teenage groups faced with additional factors, such as student disability, presence of support teachers, and other matters, which we will obtain during the study.

The toolkit will be implemented and made available in 20 schools with inclusive classrooms.

The modified ecological model (Thornberg, 2015; Horton, 2016), coupled with the socio-ecological theory of development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005), and symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969; Charon, 2007) provide a broad theoretical background for the planned research. This approach makes it possible to study the phenomenon of bullying based on the assumption that students and teachers, functioning within a negotiated and established order of power, hierarchy, relationships, and patterns of behavior — as active social agents — create and develop their own contexts and cultures.

In our approach, active participation of research subjects in the research process is crucial. Therefore, we will use the qualitative research methodology. Applying participatory methods, such as joint development of research tools and discussion of research results with the members of the researched community are especially important. Such approach allows researchers to listen to the voices of students, educators and pedagogues, and to capture their unique experience and perspective. This may provide valuable information concerning factors that influence functioning of students with disabilities in the school environment.

Qualitative data will be collected through semi-structured individual in-depth interviews (IDI) with five groups of respondents, such as:

• students with disabilities who are part of inclusive classrooms in secondary schools
• their able-bodied peers
• inclusive classrooms form teachers
• school pedagogues who work in schools with inclusive classrooms
• students with disabilities.

The interviews will be conducted in six campuses of SWPS University (in Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań, Katowice, Sopot, and Kraków) or in places convenient for respondents, including online meetings. With the permission of study participants, the conversations will be recorded, anonymized, and transcribed. Interviews will take 45 to 60 minutes. Prior to the interviews we will discuss goals, provide an overview of the study, explain research ethics, and obtain a written informed consent to participate in the study.

Three researchers will conduct a multi-phase data analysis, following the guidelines of a reflexive thematic analysis (Braun i Clarke, 2019). The phases include:

1. Familiarization with the data
2. Coding
3. Generating themes
4. Reviewing themes
5. Defining and naming themes
6. Writing the report.

Each data set from the individual respondent groups will be analyzed separately, and then, at the next stage, the data will be integrated according to the developed themes. The thematic map and code trees along with the qualitative content will constitute the study’s results, which will be presented in the report and also used to design a set of tools for inclusive class educators.

The experience of our research team working in the Bullying Research Center (BRC) indicate that only the participatory way of developing tools for students and teachers brings expected results. Other researchers also stipulate that students’ perspective is a key factor conducive to making positive changes in school environment (Bradbury-Huang, 2010; Kane, Chimwayange, 2014). It is the students who know best what changes are needed in schools and how to support them in reaching their goals. Drawing upon the experience of all beneficiaries and discussing the effects with them at every phase of the tool development process may improve the effectiveness of the planned products. Moreover, as our previous experience indicates (e.g., Educational Intervention “Closer”, INKLA, and RESQL), the implementation of products developed in collaboration with students, teachers and pedagogues is effective.

The planned products (solutions) will be:

• Compatible — the handbook is a tool dedicated for use with groups during homeroom classes. Our webinar will indicate how to apply it, while the guide will provide information about the key mechanisms occurring in peer groups.
• Easy to implement — easy lesson plans that can be implemented during 45-minute lessons. Thanks to student participation, they will include content appropriate for groups, both in terms of content and student development stage.
• Universal — form teachers will be able to use proposed solutions regardless of student body diversification (e.g., type of disability or education needs), because our lesson plans will be based on universal psychological mechanisms and their impact will be aimed at the whole group, not individual students.

• Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Bradbury-Huang, H. (2010). What is good action research? Why the resurgent interest? Action Research, 8 (1), s. 93–109. doi.org/10.1177/1476750310362435.
• Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative research in sport, exercise and health, 11(4), 589-597.
• Bronfenbrenner, U. (red.) (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Sage Publications
• Charon, J.M. (2007). Symbolic interactionism: An introduction, an interpretation, an integration. New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall.
• Horton, P. (2016). Unpacking the bullying doll: Reflections from a fieldwork at the social-ecological square. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 4 (1), s. 71–95. doi.org/10.3384/confero.2001-4562.170009.
• Kane, R.G., Chimwayange, C. (2014). Teacher action research and student voice: Making sense of learning in secondary school. Action Research, 12 (1), s. 52–77. doi.org/10.1177/1476750313515282.
• Thornberg, R. (2015). The social dynamics of school bullying: The necessary dialogue between the blind men around the elephant and the possible meeting point at the social-ecological square. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 3 (2), s. 161–203. doi.org/10.3384/confero.2001-4562.1506245.