Poster #225 - Development of a Competency-Based Framework for Teachers to Help Support Bullied Children

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background:
Teachers have the potential to alter classroom dynamics and peer processes that contribute to and maintain peer victimization (Farmer, McAuliffe Lines, & Hamm, 2011). Teachers are often key players in evidenced-based approaches to bully prevention (e.g., Olweus, 1993; Salmivalli et al., 2005). However, most schools in the U.S. lack such programs and many teachers are unsure about how to help bullied children; sometimes, their intervention efforts can make matters worse (Fekkes et al., 2005; Mishna et al., 2005). Using extant research, we developed competency-based framework to help guide teachers' efforts in supporting chronically bullied children. The framework included 25 competencies that represent a range of knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to bullying prevention/intervention.
The purpose of the current study was twofold: 1) To draw on practicing teachers’ expertise to help shape this newly developed framework using focus group methodology and 2) To gather teachers’ ratings regarding their perceptions of the importance and feasibility of using the framework to help chronically bullied children using survey data.
Methods:
Participants: 26 elementary school teachers participated in 1 of 4 focus groups held at their school. Each group included 5-9 teachers; the majority of participants were women (96.3%) and Caucasian (88.9%). An additional 115 elementary school teachers participated in a survey administered by via email. The majority were women (94.8%) and Caucasian (95.6%).
Procedure: Focus groups lasted 90 minutes and followed a semi-structured format with open-ended questions; they were audio-recorded for later transcription. Survey participants rated how essential each competency was in helping bullied children (1 = not at all essential, 7 = very essential) and how realistic (1 = very unrealistic, 7 = very realistic) it was to expect that teachers be competent in each domain.
Results:
Focus group participants agreed that a competency-based framework would be very helpful in their efforts to manage bullying in their classrooms, particularly given their lack of formal anti-bullying training. Teachers agreed that the competencies had little to no potential for harm. Some teachers asked for clarification regarding attitude-based competencies, noting that a few of the statements were double-barreled and overly lengthy as written. Quantitative data converged with focus group data: Teachers uniformly agreed that all competencies were essential and realistic. Teachers tended to rank “skills to identify and prevent victimization” as very essential and the most realistic of all domains to expect teachers to have. In contrast, teachers consistently rated as less realistic and essential “skills to seek additional support and resources.”
Conclusions:
Teachers generally supported this newly developed, research-derived competency framework. We used their feedback to revise the framework, seeking to make it more practical for teachers. We are currently gathering data on the extent to which bully-specific training, school-level support, and teachers’ own experiences with school bullying are predictive of their self-rated competencies. Ultimately, our goal is to develop and evaluate whether this framework can be used to enhance teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills in helping bullied children.

Authors

• Samantha J Gregus, Wichita State University
  Presenting Author

• Timothy A Cavell, University of Arkansas
  Non-Presenting Author