IEA INSIDER 2024
IEA Research Award Winners 2024 This year, the Richard M. Wolf Memorial Award for an outstanding paper goes to Dr. Stefan Johansson, and the Bruce H. Choppin Award for an outstanding thesis goes to Dr. Saskia van Laar.
Our analysis reveals that bullying is a significant problem worldwide, with approximately 43% of students reporting any bullying behavior at least monthly. However, there is substantial variation in bullying prevalence between countries and among schools within the same country. This indicates that certain schools are more effective in preventing bullying than others. A key finding is the importance of school climate. Schools that foster a positive, safe, and orderly environment tend to have lower bullying rates. This includes clear rules, supportive atmospheres, and proactive measures to ensure student safety. Additionally, when students feel connected and valued within their school community, they are less likely to experience or engage in bullying. The socioeconomic status (SES) of students and schools also influences bullying rates, though this relationship varies by country. In some contexts, higher SES correlates with lower bullying rates, while in others, it has the opposite effect. This complexity underscores the need to consider broader social and cultural contexts when addressing bullying. In conclusion, our findings suggest that educational policies and school management practices should prioritize creating safe and supportive school environments to effectively combat bullying. Further research using longitudinal designs is recommended to understand the causal relationships and develop comprehensive anti-bullying strategies.
School bullying: Prevalence and variation in and between school systems in TIMSS 2015
In this study, we investigated the
prevalence and variability of school bullying among 10-year-olds across countries participating in the TIMSS 2015 survey.
Our aim was to explore how school-related factors influence bullying rates, providing a comprehensive cross- national analysis. Bullying in schools is a critical issue globally, leading to severe short- and long-term consequences for affected individuals. It impacts psychological health, social behavior, and academic performance. Taking a stance on the commonly used definition of bullying, which includes physical, verbal, relational, and cyberbullying, we stress the need to go beyond the individual behaviors that affect bullying to examine the social context in which these behaviors occur. We argue that, in accordance with a socio-ecological model, bullying should be recognized as a multilevel problem. That is, individual students, teachers, and principals bring knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors to school. Schools are shaped by these individuals where certain ways of communication and organization have developed over time. The features of schools, in turn, affect individual students and staff over time. Any research interested in what happens at the school level needs to acknowledge that this level is affected by the characteristics of individuals. At the same time, each school in every country has been, and is, circumscribed by laws, rules, and principles as well as by a wider societal or national culture. It follows that some similar patterns or relations may be detected across countries and that universally applicable conclusions about effective ways of reducing bullying may be identified, but also that between-country differences can be expected.
IEA Richard M. Wolf Memorial Award
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