A legal perspective on the establishment of anti-bullying policies in public schools

Abstract

Legal principles need to be considered when anti-bullying policies are established in public schools where bullying is taking place. The purpose of this study is to investigate how public schools establish anti-bullying policies and which legal principles are considered during the cyclic policy-making process. The research questions are: (1) How do public schools establish their anti-bullying policies? (2) Which legal principles are considered during the process of establishing anti-bullying policies? To answer these questions, four policies collected from participating schools were studied using a document study data collection method and eighteen participants were interviewed using semi-structured individual interviews. This research utilised a qualitative case study design. The study involved two primary schools and two secondary schools in the Witbank area. Themes such as needs analysis, type of policy used to deal with bullying, formulation of anti-bullying policy, policy implementation, policy monitoring and policy evaluation were developed. Research findings show that the content of the anti-bullying policies is not clearly incorporated and is not sufficient. Most policies have few legal principles that are relevant to bullying. There is insufficient stakeholder involvement in terms of needs identification, policy formulation, implementation and monitoring, as well as evaluation of policies that deal with bullying. Copyright