Who Is Involved?
The following exercise explores the issue of bullying in more depth by examining the social relationships among young people in school, as they were described in Steps 1 and 2 of Module 3.We invite you to observe the social relations of children or teens at school, at parties or wherever you see them congregated.
As you watch, ask yourself the following questions:
- Are there children or teens who are isolated from others?
- Do any of the children or teens seem particularly vulnerable?
- Is an imbalance of power present in their interactions? Do you see some children or teens diminish the power of others every day in subtle ways? Do some interactions indicate an imbalance of power even if it is not bullying?
- What leads you to believe that there is a power imbalance? (Think about the behaviours, words, gestures, body language, eye contact and facial expressions. Do some children or teens speak without being heard?)
- What kinds of interactions occur between different groups of children or teens when one of them tries to dominate another?
- How do children or teens react to this situation? Are some of them uncomfortable?
- When children or teens seem uncomfortable in a situation, what do they do?