Perceptions of learners and educators on bullying and the implications of bullying for school discipline

M.Ed.This research project deals with bullying as a world-wide problem which has serious consequences for the victim and the bully. The perceptions of educators and learners on bullying in the secondary schools of Witbank, Mpumalanga Province, were investigated to determine the implications of bullying on school discipline and on the lives of both the victim and the bully. The aim of this research is to define bullying and to discuss the nature thereof and to determine whether secondary schools have an anti-bullying policy as part of their code of conduct. The literature study, focused on the nature, causes and consequences of bullying. A qualitative research method was followed to gain an in-depth understanding of educators' and learners' views on bullying and its effects on school discipline. Focus group interviews were conducted to collect data and all interviews were audio-taped and transcribed to verbatim and then grouped into categories. The findings revealed that bullying is in fact a process of wanting to take control over somebody who is physically weaker than the bully. It also emerged from the findings that family background, poor academic achievements and peer pressure are some of the contributing factors of why learners bully. Unattended classes and poorly presented lessons were also highlighted as being a problem. If the learners are alone or unattended, bullying might take place and if lessons are not well prepared for the full length of the period, some learners get a chance to practice bullying behaviour on others. It was further argued that bullying does have an impact on school discipline. Bullying behaviour undermines discipline and can create an unsafe environment for those who are bullied. Therefore, this research recommends that schools need to take decisive action against bullying. To this end, it is recommended that schools adopt and implement anti-bullying policies as well as other strategies to counter bullying