Bullying and Cyberbullying: italian preventing strategies Barbara Marchi in collaboration with Annalisa Guarini and Antonella Brighi Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna Today I’m here to talk about Bullying and cyberbullying with particular focus on some italian preventing strategies

Plan of the talk First part: Bullying and cyberbullying: definition and main features Second part: Preventing the phenomenon. A comparison of different experiences. -The first part is focused on definitions and main features -The second part is about indicators….what literature suggests in order to build an efficient intervention and what we do in Italy. -We will compare some of the main project realized by the University of Bologna which are addressed to different targets of ages. It will be important to focus on the targets and on the methodologies applied to reach the goals..

Definitions: traditional bullying “Those offensive and/or aggressive behaviors, acted by one or more people within a group, repeatedly over the time, damaging one or more individuals with the purpose to exercise power or control over the victim” (Fonzi, 1998) Bullying has been studied since ’70-’80 (Olweus1978; Smith and Sharp 1994) These came out as main features: -Intentionality -Repetition -Power imbalance -Different forms of bullying I will be quick in the definition of traditional bullying as I know most of you already have a knowledge about that. -We can see the main features inside this definition: Intentionality – Repetition - Power imbalance - And as we already know there are different kinds of bullying…

Definitions: cyberbullying Aggressive, intentional behavior, acted by a person or a group of people using different forms of electronic contacts towards a victim who is not able to defend herself easily (evolving definition) Let me introduce cyberbullying, starting form its definition Cyberbullying is defined as:…..

A systemic view of Bullying An intervention in order to contrast bullying should be addressed to the two main educational agencies The School: involving classes, teachers, technicians and all the other people working inside the school The Family: parents The School and The Family represent the main educational agencies to whom an intervention should be addressed, in order to contrast bullying

Projects presentation SEED RELATIONS TO GROW The projects I’m going to introduce are SEED and RELATIONS TO GROW

Preschool and Primary School SEED Teacher training about relational dynamics, with consequent effects on the classroom climate Teachers working with children in the classroom Practical activities with the aim to teach socio-affective skills to children, which can influence affiliation dynamics and dominance within the group in the class - Workgroups with parents and teachers SEED is a project addressed to Preschool and Primary School and it includes different levels of intervention -Teacher training about relational dynamics -Teachers working with children in the classroom - Workgroups with parents and teachers The first one has consequent effects on the classroom classmate And Practical activities with children have the aim to teach socio affective skills

Experiential learning to promote Consciousness Role Play I think it’s important to introduce some experiential learning methodologies to promote consciousness, like the Role play

From Awareness to Action Awareness provides the necessary incentive to move towards action “Given what I think and feel…what do I want to do? For i.e. do I want to be indifferent or do I want help the victim?”

KNOWLEDGE Teachers-parents Groups WHAT’S BULLYING The goal is to express opinions about the meaning of bullying and share the definitions with other educators STUDY OF A CASE The goal is to meditate about: -Roles which students can have in bullying -Parents and familiar environment -Teachers and school environment As this project is addressed to younger pupils: the knowledge part involves teachers and parents. The groups teachers-parents have to work on the meaning of bullying, sharing definitions with other educators In the study of a case: they will focus on roles and on the importance of familiar and school environment

Secondary school - first and second grade RELATIONS TO GROW Education to media Stories about bullying and cyberbullying In the court with cyberbullying From conflicts to condivision