Sweden has a low prevalence of bullying and Swedish schools are legally obliged to have anti-bullying policies. Many commercial programs are available. A mixed methods, quasi-experimental, concurrent evaluation of 8 programs, chosen from a pool of 21 widely used anti-bullying programs, was planned. Preliminary data, based on 835 stakeholder interviews, both individual and group, revealed extensive program-contamination in "treatment" schools (n = 31), and extensive program use in nominally designated control/comparison schools (n = 8). An evolved evaluation strategy focused on arrays of program components, use of which was assessed through detailed qualitative data gathered from principals, teaching and non-teaching staff, anti-bullying teams, and pupils. Bullying victimization, Grades 4-9, in 39 schools, was assessed by questionnaire, administered in three waves. Responserates were 76.1% (with N = 10,919) at the first wave, 74.3% (of 10,660) at the second wave, and

70.6% (of 10,523) at the final wave. Longitudinal aggregate and individual outcomes (3,487 pupils answered all three questionnaires) were assessed. Prevalence of victimization was 8.1% at first wave and (7.4% at last). Based on individual data, persistent victimization (bullied at both waves) was estimated at 1.5% with 4.7% experiencing a worsening situation (not bullied at the first wave but bullied at last) and 4.8% with an improved situation. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to designate intervention types (shared arrays of strong, weak, or absent component use) and schools with similar approaches. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal design with individual data and an aggregate cross-sectional follow-up indicated differences in effective, ineffective, and iatrogenic components, component clusters (intervention types), and successful schools.

Vad som särskiljer elever som kränker och mobbar andra undersöks och analyseras i kapitlet. Där berättas om olika roller i mobbningen och begreppen kulturell och strukturell mobbning beskrivs. Utifrån detta analyseras möjligheterna att motverka mobbning med fokus på de som utsätter andra.

Island studies have rarely focused on the role of small schools on offshore islands. Island schools are often impacted by the decisions of national, regional and local educational authorities, particularly in today’s world where diseconomic and disbenefit arguments highlight the non-viability of small schools. Such schools are seen as unable to provide an adequate curriculum, socially disadvantageous and generally inefficient. This raises an important question: How does a small island school promote the participation and engagement of families and the community? This paper reports a bounded case to illustrate the characteristics intrinsic to a single small rural school as a communal hub on one of Ireland’s Atlantic islands. A narrative about the school in past and present times, along with vulnerability mapping, is used to explore the social dynamics of the island school within its community. The findings show how the modern diaspora is different from that of earlier generations. The case also illustrates the differences in vulnerabilities between a perceived attractive environment, supported by a viable school potentially driving in-migration, and communities where the absence of a primary school or the risk of its closure would diminish the attractiveness of an island as a place for young families.

Island studies, important in the history of science, have rarely focused on the role of small schools on offshore islands, not least because there is no agreed definition of a ‘small school’. Demographic trends and rationalization principles put increasing pressure on national, regional and local authorities to make consolidation choices about school size policies.  In these considerations, diseconomic and disbenefit arguments are made pertaining to the retention of small schools. In Norway and Sweden, due to the geographical dispersion of the population, policy makers have accepted that in maintaining communities in sparsely populated areas higher costs associated with maintaining education in rural and remote areas are inevitable and acceptable, while Iceland views schooling in rural areas as a national responsibility. There is little information available about pupil outcomes in small multi-grade classes in the Irish context. Small schools are frequently objected to as being non-viable, being unable to provide an adequate curriculum, being socially disadvantageous and by being generally inefficient. While smaller schools face economies of scale there is evidence that small size yields some achievement advantages. How does a small island school promote the participation and engagement of families and the community?  The present study examines the role played by the single primary school on one of Ireland’s offshore islands. While a process of “learning and leaving” is not an uncommon island experience, some studies have suggested that small rural schools can have integrative benefits for the local community helping to promote local vibrancy and community viability. In this descriptive case-study vulnerability mapping is used to expose threats to the island school. The dynamics of diaspora (dis)engagement and (dis)affection are examined through the curricula vitae of alumni. It is argued that the modern diaspora is uniquely different from the diaspora of earlier generations. The island school nurturing of local memories and histories is explored through the example of the schoolchildren’s annual Christmas concert. Demographic drivers such as birth rates and ageing population are examined. This island’s experience is as an example of the ‘new mosaic of rural regions’ in Europe, where communal sustainability, viability and vitality often hinges on the attractiveness of a particular living space. While perceived “attractive” environments may drive in-migration, the absence of a primary school would diminish the attractiveness of an island as a place for young families.  The symbolic capital of island life is examined. Headship, local management and multi-grade teaching challenges are explored.

There is wide variation in how exposure to violence is conceptualized. Perceptions of ordinary violence are linked to people's actual experiences, which may be direct, indirect, observed, or vicarious, and all through filters of gender, class, community, and culture. Event-recall interviews were conducted among a convenience sample of Swedish males (n = 132) and females (n = 202) aged 6 to 45 years. Respondents spontaneously recalled 703 events (averaging 2.3 events for males, 2.1 for females). For men, 93% of events were male(s)-on-male(s), 2% female-on-female, and 2% male(s)-on-female(s). For women, 42% of events were male(s)-on-male(s), 19% female(s)-on-female(s), 24% male(s)-on-females, and 10% female(s)-on-male(s). Interviewee's roles differed. Of males, 17% were aggressors, 40% victims, and 43% observers. Of females, 12% were aggressors, 30% victims, and 58% observers. For males, there was a significant increase in degree of seriousness of events from junior-, to high school, to college. For females, events became more serious as interviewees progressed from aggressor to victim to observer. For males, violent events between strangers were significantly more serious than all other combinations of acquaintanceship. Most recently recalled events were the most serious for males (no effect for females). Participation in sports was linked to seriousness of events recalled by females, events being described as more serious by females who participated in sports, this effect being stronger for those females who participated in contact/collision and self-defense sports. The significant correlation between trauma and seriousness is nearly twice as strong for females which might be taken as an indication of stronger moral pathos.

There is a dearth of research into the consequences of systematic reductions of prevalence of target behaviors, such as bullying, in school-based prevention science.  Reducing prevalence may also result in making bullying more difficult to uncover (Cunningham et al., 2015). Preventing bullying at school is a much researched field (Ttofi & Farrington, 2011).  In international comparisons, prevalence of bullying at school varies widely, with rates for Swedish schools regularly being lowest (e.g., among 66 countries, Due & Holstein, 2008).  Conditions influencing program efficacy are likely to vary as prevalence of target behavior is reducing.  School-wide prevention strategies, in schools with one or more victims in every class, present a very different challenge compared to schools where victims are found in every second of third class.  Recent longitudinal data from Sweden (Swedish Agency for Education, 2011; Hellstedt, Johansson & Gill, 2016 forthcoming) has revealed a cyclical replacement of victims, after successful intervention, showing that while rates at cross-sectional measurement intervals may remain the same (typically 6/7% in Swedish schools), up to 75% of victims at one time will self-report not being victimized at one-year follow-up (op.cit.).  Low rates of bullying in Sweden are the result intervention strategies based on a wide variety of ‘standard’ (International, Scandinavian & National) prevention programs, at least 21 according to Skolverket (2003).  A national evaluation revealed extensive program cross-contamination, proving the unviability of “gold standard” evaluation practices. “What works” conclusions were described in terms of program components.  When “promising” evidence for effective program components is produced, there is an inevitable momentum to package components into replicable “programs”.  We argue that this momentum may hamper response flexibility, particularly when program providers, in seeking to be “evidence based” may place more importance on implementation functions such as program fidelity and dosage rather than individual outcomes. We argue that considerations such as dosage and program fidelity are less relevant when anti-bullying initiatives are being adapted to variations in school contexts and climates (Gregory, Henry & Schoeny, 2007).  Component efficacy and effectiveness may also be masked by confidentiality requirements in program evaluations and outcome assessments that are based on follow-up, cross-sectional, cohort statistics.  What works in Sweden, for example, found by Frisén, Hasselblad & Holmqvist (2012), based on evidence from former victims, in descending order of importance: Support from school personnel; Transition to new school level; Change of coping strategies; Support from parents; Change of appearance or way of being; Change of school or class as a deliberate attempt to make the bullying stop; New friends; The bullies changed their attitude; No particular reason; and Support from peers, may not translate to other cultures, school systems and traditions.  With observed low prevalence, extensive program implementation, research evidence on effective components and extensive judicial obligations, it is likely, that in most Swedish municipalities, active anti-bullying programs may, theoretically, be located at the later phases of an implementation research continuum (Chalamandaris &  Piette, 2015, after Flay,1986, & Flay et al., 2005).  This, late stage program/component developemt, also has an impact on schools’ potential capacity to improve (Oterkiil & Ertesvåg, 2012).  Given these contexts, it is important to research the present state of evidence based anti-bullying strategies in Sweden.  Using best practice in program implementation evaluation a descriptive case study of scaled-up, school district-wide (Rhoades, Bumbarger & Moore 2012), research-to-action (Guhn et al., 2012) anti-bullying strategies in a Swedish municipality is presented. The goal is to investigate conditions, participants, hindrances, responses and outcomes at different stages of a rolling implementation process.  This Swedish example may be of value in other European school systems where prevalence is reducing toward Swedish levels.

In striving to organise learning experiences it is important to understand how children perceive and relate to the learning environments they are presented and confronted with. It is important therefore to study how children perceive the notion of 'leisure' as an abstract concept. An example of how concept-mapping can be used to study children's conception of 'leisure-time' is presented. Forty-three Swedish 5th (n = 18) and 9th (n = 25) class children (average ages: 12 and 16) were presented with otherwise blank A4 pages with the root concept 'leisure-time' encircled and were asked to draw a spontaneous concept-map. For a sub-sample (quasi-experimental design) some additional concept-nodes, based on research findings (levels of location practice), were indicated in their maps. How maps may be analysed using numerical and content analysis, and ranges of hierarchical organisation of descriptive terms is described. About 1000 concepts (with repetitions) were inscribed. On the basis of one map per subject, numerical analysis was used to search for differences in width, depth and hierarchical structure (no age-group (school class) or gender differences were found). Content analysis was used to show how deep gender differences in conceptualisations could lie hidden behind statistical similarities. It is concluded that concept-maps may be used successfully to study abstract concepts such as of children's notions of leisure.

A crucial feature of school classes, as intact social entities, is that members share certain values (Boehnke & Schiefer, 2016). Saarento, Garandeau and Salmivalli (2015), argue that the influence of classroom- and school-level factors on bullying involves demographic, structural, peer contextual and teacher-related dimensions. Swearer et al. (2014) use a theory of “homophily and bullying” to argue for a homophily hypothesis where within group similarity leads to bullies physically or relationally rejecting those who are different and withdrawing any social support for victims.  However, Saarento, Garandeau and Salmivalli’s conclusion (op.cit.) was that the contributions of demographic, school structural and school-class characteristics remain inconsistent.  On the other hand, recent Swedish research (Thornberg et al., 2015 & Thornberg et al., 2016), after controlling for factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, school-class size and gender composition, found that relational climate and experience of moral disengagement within school-classes was a significant predictor of between-class variation in victimisation.  Victimisation was less likely in classes characterised by supportive relational patterns and lower levels of moral disengagement in the classroom, a result confirmed by Grundherr (et al., 2016). The research reported here builds on a presentation at ECER 2016 (Gill, Larsson, Matton, Simonsson & Levin, 2016) that explored some consequences of systematic reductions of prevalence of bullying at school. It was argued that Swedish anti-bullying programs are being delivered at the later phases of an implementation research continuum (Chalamandaris &  Piette, 2015).   Uncovering new or persistent cases of bullying becomes more difficult as prevalence of bullying reduces (successful implementation). Being bullied at least 2 to 3 times a month between 2009–2015, among 200,000 children in 1500 Finnish schools (grades 1–9) decreased from 17.2% at baseline to 12.6% after six years of implementation of the KiVa program (Herkama & Salmivalli, 2016). Even though creating reliable measures of bullying prevalence is difficult (Vivolo-Kantor et al., 2014), Finnish prevalence is considerably higher than in Sweden, national average is about 7/8%, which in turn, is higher than the average in the municipality where this research has been carried out (4.9%, Spring 2016).  With prevalence rates at this level it is possible to envisage realistic “zero-vision” and “zero-tolerance” strategies. (For a critical review of zero-tolerance, see Borgwald & Theixos, 2013 and James & Freeze, 2006). Any goal of reducing a low prevalence of bullying in Sweden, even lower, is mediated by the discovery, from individual-level, longitudinal data, where successful cases of ceased victims are regularly replaced by new victims (Flygare, Gill & Johansson, 2013: Hellstedt, Johansson & Gill, 2016), revealing a cyclical replacement of victims. While up to 75% of victims at one time will self-report not being victimized at one-year follow-up, rates at cross-sectional measurement may remain the same (typically 7/8% in Swedish schools, op.cit.).  The Norwegian “Zero Program” (Strohmeier and Noam, 2012) is based on a “zero-vision” manifesto. Köhler (2006) in outlining health indicators for Swedish children argues that while some ideal zero-outcomes might not stand up as credible operational targets, using “zero vision” as a reference point may be reasonable in some cases. In the municipality that is the focus here, evidence is emerging that some schools and school classes are coming closer to a zero-vision reference point.  In a school with 200 children, in 8 or 9 classes, a point prevalence rate of 3% would indicate that at least two, possibly three classes in that school had no victims of bullying.  It is argued that this circumstance creates new challenges for prevention strategies.  Therefore, it is important to delve deeper into changes in “the picture of bullying”.  That is the goal of this research.

Method

Since the initiation of the rolling intervention (2011/12), where participation was voluntary, 6 schools have become 29 (including independent academy schools).  Since Autumn 2016, all 4th to 9th graders, in these schools, have participated in the municipality’s web-based “School Care Questionnaire”.  Included in this questionnaire is the instrument used by the National Agency for Education in estimating prevalence of bullying (see Flygare, Gill & Johansson, 2013, for details).  The questionnaire is delivered twice during the school year (October and April).  These measurements will allow for follow-up comparisons for 6000 children distributed between 300 school classes in 29 schools. Descriptive statistics will be used to establish realistic estimates of prevalence of bullying victimization. Rates for individuals categorised as “bullied” will be matched by a global index of “no involvement” (that is, no self-reported “incidents” of any kind, including events we refer to as “fun-like rough and tumble).

Expected Outcomes

Fluctuations in point prevalence estimates, at classroom level, will be revealed.  These will be examined with reference to indicated cases (school classes) where bullying is recurring (at follow-up) or is seen to be exceptionally high.  Statistical patterns will be tested against practitioners, responsible teachers, head-teachers, schools anti-bullying teams and municipal supervisor’s hands-on experiences of the school year in question (2016/17).

Most accounts of bullying and intervention programs against violence in school deal with aggregate prevalence estimates and outcome measures. Case studies are rare. Bullying occurs regularly within classrooms. Psychological aggression through teasing and harassment is more difficult to detect. Bullying and bullies are relatively persistent, victimhood less so. The aim of this study is to increase understanding of the mechanisms by which bullying persists and to identify some of the factors which may facilitate successful single-case interventions. A single-case, holistic design based on opportunistic (that is, non-professional) involvement is used. One of the authors was a participant observer throughout the period of the case and acted as an action-researcher in implementing the intervention strategy, including contacting and informing the 'facilitator.' The case arose opportunistically within a rural, close-knit community. The bullying occurred in a one-teacher school with one classroom and 28 children aged 5-13. How the nature and extent of the bullying was discovered is described. A facilitator agreed to act, did act by enlisting three of the bully's peers to “police” the bully, and followed up the outcome until it was clear that the bullying had ceased. The successful outcome was put down to the facilitator's perceived seriousness, the collective intervention by peers, the immediacy of the reaction, the legitimacy of the physical force used (restraint of a schoolyard bully by peers), continued peer threat of it and the obvious intentionality of the intervention. The most important outcome for the victim was an expression of justice having being done.

Cross-sectional studies of bullying mask variability in categories of and persistence of bullying victimization. Longitudinal, individual-level data offers a greater insight into schoolchildren’s psychosomatic maladjustment as a consequence of bullying. Swedish schoolchildren (n = 3,349), with unique identifiers, in 44 schools (4th–9th grade), answered a questionnaire at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Longitudinal trends for nonvictims (88%), ceased victims (4.7%), new victims (5.7%), and continuing victims (1.6%) revealed that new victims had the largest decrease in well-being; continuing victims had a smaller though not significant decrease; while ceased victims showed a small, (nonsignificant) increase in well-being over the measurement period. It was also discovered that children not bullied at baseline but bullied subsequently, differed, at baseline, from their never-bullied peers through lower levels of overall well-being. It is argued that this finding has implications for prevention strategies.

Seeking social justice in education for pupils with disabilities creates certain dilemmas. A ‘school for all’ means that educators are faced with a dilemma where the notion of ‘disability’ is perceived as ought not to matter, but where in actual fact it seems to matter very much! This article explores ways out of this general educational dilemma using the context of physical education (PE) for pupils with physical disabilities within the compulsory school as an example. Justice theories of resource distribution and cultural recognition affect educational outcomes, where demands are for justice and equity. Fraser’s (2000/2001) notion of ‘social status’, together with a pluralistic approach to identities where personal experiences are given a place, is used to suggest a solution to the dilemma. It is concluded that a redistribution of economic resources and social recognition is necessary if social justice within PE is to become a reality.

Definitions of violence vary and are almost always operationalized by the researcher. Perceptions of violence often determine levels of tolerance of violence. Little research has focused on lay definitions. A total of 309 Swedes (78 children, 85 teenagers, 99 younger adults, and 47 adults (30+); 48% male) were interviewed using a specially developed interview protocol. Content analysis was used to assign definitional categories. A folk taxonomy emerged. Immediate physical violence accounted for 73% of all assigned categories. Hit was the word that occurred most frequently. If global physical violence was included, physical violence accounted for 89% of 780 assigned categories. Immediate non-physical violence accounted for 9% and vicarious violence (including media violence) accounted for 2%. Distributions of categories by respondents' gender, age, and participant role in incidents of violence showed the underlying definitions of violence to be extremely stable. The conclusion is that ordinary Swedes share a robust lay definition of violence as a behavior that is immediate, done in close quarters, and physical.