State-Led Configurations of Gender, Violence, and "Bullying" at School: Essentialism at Work

• In Event: Queer Kids, School Violence, and the Limits of "Bullying"

Abstract

“Violence”, like all linguistic terms, is unfixed and variable—defined and deployed in various ways at different times to a variety of effects. In and around schools, teachers, students, policy makers, governors, politicians, and community members are in near-constant negotiation of the boundaries of what constitutes violence- and these interactions have key implications for if and how disruptions are enacted. As such, policy becomes a central anchor point for decision making about what constitutes violence. ‘Bullying’ policies of the State, or any policies that define and regulate violence in schools, are no exception to these machinations. Violent acts are constituted and informed by broader mechanisms of power, meaning that contextual and relational productions and are not always agreed upon as ‘violence’. Examining the process of naming as led by State policies is a critical exercise in determining how forms of violence in school are constituted and may in fact open up opportunities for violence to thrive outside of definitive boundaries.
This paper shows that a particular outcome dominant, essentialist ‘bullying’ policy and linguistic constraints is the erasure or subjugation of gendered violence- the harassment or abuse which works as norm policing of dominant or idealised masculinities, femininities, and sexualities. Using empirical, qualitative data to argue that existing frames of school violence actively if not purposefully exclude recognition of both gender and sexuality- this paper shows that State policy guidance on bullying obscures the machinations of young people’s complex social lives and structures, including the violence that is enacted against them. Using teacher and school leader reflections from two Australian schools, the data illustrates that the dominant, global preoccupation of bullying policy to identify and name a ‘bully’ and a ‘victim’ through psychological and pathological terms minimises and sometimes erases how bodies and interactions are othered on ‘ordinary’ ways, as part of broader gendered norm setting and policing. Articulations of these polices will also be shown to negatively impact upon teachers who, as agents of the State, become increasingly disconnected from the students under their care.
In this presentation, I will argue that without a reworking of bullying policy, teacher professional development and political investment, these systems will prevail and will continue to erode recognition of contemporary violence that matters in the lives of young people, as well as their relationships with their schools and teachers.

Author

• Victoria Rawlings, The University of Sydney