A construction of bullying in a primary school in an underprivileged community : an ecological case study

Abstract

This article is based on a master’s dissertation completed through the University of Pretoria. Conversations around behavioural problems in three primary schools in Mamelodi, an underprivileged community in South Africa, explored contextually relevant ideas, in the form of discourse, focusing on the experience of bullying from the perspective of the participants (children identified by the school as engaging in bullying behaviour, school staff, and the children’s families). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the principals (school gatekeepers), and with other participants identified by each other during the interview process. Two figures prominent in the media on the topic at the time of this study were also included to provide discourses on bullying from wider society. An ecological approach within a post-modern social constructionist theoretical framework was used. In this article one ecological case study from one of the three schools was used to explore the aims. Discourse analysis was used in the construction of the various discourses emerging from the conversations. The participants’ ideas around bullying are described, focusing on the discourse themes of “community and bullying”, “profile of teachers in the community”, “bad child, good child”, “undefined problems” and “family discord”. The aim of this article is to provide an ecological description of bullying, through discourse, in the context of this case study by exploring the participants’ ideas on and experience of bullying in a primary school situated in the township of Mamelodi. Implications for intervention are considered.