1. 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

2. 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..

3. 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…

4. 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:…..

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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?”

10. 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

11. 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