Bullying Malady in a learning context: Developing intervention guidelines for social work practice

Abstract

Bullying is fundamentally the most common form of violence among peers during the school years. Perpetrators often display aggressive behavior towards their victims. Globally, bullying is seen as a complex social problem that can have serious consequences for the victims, including mental health issues and negative effects on schoolwork and family relationships. Bullying can take not only physical but also technological forms, with learners being bullied through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The aim of the study was to understand the role of social workers in a learning context and the impact of social workers on bullying with the objectives to explore and describe the issue of bullying in a learning context and develop guidelines for intervention in social work practice. This study was qualitative in nature, and the following designs were considered: exploratory, descriptive, and contextual strategies. Interpretivism was also used. Non-probability purposive sampling and snowball sampling methods were employed to select participants. Data was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with school-linked social workers, using an interview guide. Prior to data collection, the researcher obtained participants' consent to participate in the study and to have the interviews audio-recorded. Thematic content analysis was used to make sense of the collected data. Two theoretical frameworks were utilized: ecological social work theory and the strengths-based perspective. The researcher adhered to ethical requirements, including obtaining informed consent, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality, avoiding harm, debriefing participants, and managing data. The study found that bullying has social, emotional and academic effects on learners and further found that recruitment of social workers in schools is key in ending bullying in schools. It concludes that preventatives or proactive programs are important in dealing with bullying. The study recommends that bullying should be made a standing program with resources to be effective.