Homophobic bullying and school leadership: \ud an associated view

This thesis investigated whether or not homophobic bullying occurred in Irish primary\ud schools and the response of school leaders to the issue. Principals, deputy principals and\ud those that were acting in either role (n = 283) completed a questionnaire that investigated:\ud • the frequency with which they had dealt with homophobic bullying during the\ud academic year 2012-2013;\ud • the nature of the homophobic bullying they encountered;\ud • if their school’s anti-bullying policies made reference to homophobic bullying as\ud a specific form of bullying behaviour;\ud • the role they played in addressing homophobic bullying, and how they perceived\ud the role of other stakeholders in helping them address homophobic bullying;\ud • their emotional response if dealing with incidents of homophobic bullying;\ud • if their school’s Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) programme made\ud reference to teaching about sexual orientation;\ud • their attitudes to teaching about sexual orientation in the primary school.\ud The evidence analysed suggested that some school leaders had dealt with incidents of\ud homophobic bullying and that these included incidents of physical abuse, exclusion and\ud homophobic cyberbul lying. The data also revealed that pupils had used homophobic\ud language towards each other and to express feelings about things they didn’t like. It was\ud apparent that some incidents where homophobic language was used were not regarded as\ud homophobic bullying by the school leaders.\ud The majority of respondents claimed that their school anti-bullying policies made no\ud specific reference to homophobic bullying. In addition, many implied that they responded\ud to incidents of homophobic bullying in an informal manner. It was evident from the data\ud that most recognized the significant emotional damage suffered by victims of\ud homophobic bullying and acknowledged the importance of emotion in their own decision\ud making when dealing with the issue.\ud The data indicated that while the majority of respondents had adopted an RSE policy in\ud their schools, these policies did not generally refer to teaching about sexual orientation.\ud Many respondents revealed that they were not comfortable discussing sexual orientation\ud with either staff members or with pupils.\ud The implications for this study, addressed in the final chapter of the thesis, are discussed\ud in light of the recently updated anti-bullying guidelines (DES, 2013)