Violence prevention: the involvement of the education community to prevent situations of bullying

Abstract

Preventing school violence requires the involvement of the educational community in order to create relationships between students and teachers in a collaborative environment. This situation is even more complex in multicultural schools. This study has shown that the climate is a key factor for the teacher to anticipate situations and cope with the effects of bullying. Teachers and students participating in the study have expressed their vision of the bullying and the importance of having all the support in the school to make proposals for improvement and overcoming conflicts. The participants revealed the need for a mediation plan and collaboration with the support of educational Administration. Under this scenario students should be trained in social and intercultural skills for the prevention of bullying and creating a climate of empathy, trust and collaboration, which is not sufficiently taken into consideration by all the school representatives’ bodies and the administration. This requires an integrated quantitative-qualitative methodology involving the educational community as a whole.