Understanding bullying in schools: challenges and strategies of anti-bullying training in schools of Kurdistan

Bullying is one of the forms of aggressive behaviors with many negative consequences that is widespread among students today and preventing and dealing with this phenomenon and examining its obstacles and challenges, has become one of the priorities of the education system of many countries. the purpose of this study was to investigate the level of awareness of bullying and the challenges and strategies for training to deal with this phenomenon in Kurdistan province schools.

The research was methodologically mixed and explanatory-follow-up design. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect information in a quantitative part and semi-structured interviews were used for a qualitative part. The research population consisted of school staff and teachers of the second primary and secondary schools of the province. For quantitative sampling, first in two stages, by cluster random sampling, four education districts of the province and eight schools were selected and all school staff and their teachers responded to the researcher-made questionnaire "Awareness of bullying a and strategies to prevent and deal with it". In the qualitative phase, among those who received the highest scores in the questionnaire, 20 people were purposefully selected to semi-structured interviews. The interviews continued until the data reached theoretical saturation and Finally, 14 interviews were conducted.

Quantitative findings from univariate t-test showed lower than average knowledge of both school staff and teachers about bullying and strategies to prevent and deal with it (P <0.05). In the qualitative part, data were analyzed by interpretive analysis and challenges of bullying education in schools were classified in the four final categories: a) lack of priority for department of education, b) systemic and organizational challenges, c) formal education-related challenges, d) family-related challenges, and twelve sub-categories, that all of them indicate many problems in the management of bullying and its effective education in the schools of the province.

Based on these findings, it is suggested that the Kurdistan Education Department put the practical and comprehensive suggestions presented in the present study on its agenda in order to facilitate bullying management and remove obstacles to effective bullying education in schools.