Reflexões sobre o bullying: análise de uma instituição pública

Abstract

The following essay was conducted with the intent of better understanding the conceptions held by the students of a public school concerning the ocurrence of the phenomenon known as bullying, analyzing if said children’s personal experiences hold any influence over their behavior facing that phenomenon. Further analysis was intended to identify the stances held by the students about the most effective way to deal with bullying, an educator’s (and other parties responsible for childcare) role in the conflict, as well as verifying potential factors stimulating it’s proliferation, thus allowing for the adoption of preventive measures. To create a basis for the essay, a theoretical research was done, focusing on authors who defined important criteria for identifying the phenomenon, as well as the historical development of the concept, oriented by the Works of authors like Cleo Fante (2005), Assis, Constantino e Avanci (2010), as well as Oliveira-Manegotto, Pasini and Levandowski (2013). This reading was indispensable for the completion of this research, thanks to a qualitative approach, making use of dedicated, semi-open questionnaires, answered by a total of 58 students, divided in two separate classes on 9º year, middle school (30 on class A and 28 on class B) in a public school in the city of Ituiutaba – MG, Brazil. After that stage, a dialogue session was organized with the students of each class to mention other issues that haven't been stated on the questionnaires. Based on the resulting data, it was noted that bullying, as a term, is well-known among the target demographic (14-15 years old), be it through the school or personal experiences, but there’s little in the form of precise understanding about it’s meaning, several attitudes that fit the definition, but are not recognized as exemples of the phenomenon by the students approached, since they tend to only consider more extreme cases as qualifying as bullying.