Constructing Policy Problems and Solutions: A Critical Policy Analysis of Bullying Policies in Ontario, Canada

• In Event: 75.013 - How Leaders Negotiate the Influence of Social Context on Organizational Structures and School Policies

Abstract

As the prevalence and negative effects of bullying become widely known, people around the world seem desperate to solve the bullying 'problem'. A sizeable body of research about bullying and a plethora of anti-bullying programs and policies now exist. Our critical policy study asks: how does Ontario, Canada's bullying support and/or undermine critical democracy? The proposed paper presents findings from a critical discourse analysis of new provincial legislation and related policy texts and demonstrates the policy’s construction of bullying supports neoliberal and neoconservative interests and threatens critical democratic commitments to equity and justice. The paper also identifies how educational leaders can appropriate Ontario’s bullying policy in ways that promote critical democracy within existing legal and policy parameters.

Authors

• Stephanie Diane Tuters, OISE/University of Toronto

• Sue Winton, York University