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EDFD617 – Research Project

Research Proposal

Teacher’s perceptions of the cyberbullying amongst

upper-primary students

Student

Anirudh Singh
S00071543

Supervisor

Mr. Matthew Campbell

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Introduction

An exploration of the topic of cyberbullying presents as timely research with it being a recent
phenomena that is yet to be fully researched, and given the increased focus on it in the media and
schools. Cyberbullying is often seen and heard on television and read in newspapers and
magazines (for e.g. ‘The rise of cyberbullying’ Australian Reader’s Digest February 2008 and
‘The bullies playground’ a recent episode of Four Corners, ABC TV 6/4/09). The researcher too
had been a victim of cyberbulling himself and has borne the brunt of its repercussions, with the
effects somewhat still present. Though the problem has been overcome it has left a scar that keeps
the concern ongoing regarding this issue and provides the motivation for this research.

This study aims to explore the teachers’ viewpoint about the issue of cyberbullying amongst
upper-primary students. The researcher believes that a teacher is an integral part of a students’ life
and he/she can make a considerable difference in their lives through the means of education to
bring about an understanding of the responsibilities as well as make them stand up for their rights.
This research will help explore the extent to which the teachers are aware of the issue of
cyberbullying, how do they weigh the gravity of the situation, are they adequately trained to deal
with it in their classrooms and beyond and what ways, do they think, they can they impact upon
the students who face this issue. It is believed by the researcher that teachers can be highly
instrumental in combating the problems that can arise due to cyberbullying. Teachers are in a
position which can expose the issue and help victims and perpetrators understand its effects and
manage ways to deal with it. Thus this research is significant as it explores an important issue
facing our youth and adds to teachers’ awareness and knowledge of the issue.

Literature Review

Holly, a student of sixth grade, enters her school library, which attracts the attention of Anne, her
school librarian. The girl has been showing some sign of depression, which Anne has noticed
lately. As she works on the computer Anne watches her vigilantly and grows even more
concerned. She looks upset while reading something online. Anne approaches Holly with an
assuring and soothing smile but she logs off hurriedly and rushes out hastily in tears.

What is the matter? Anne gets suspicious about Holly being a victim of ‘Cyberbullying’.
(adapted from Willard, 2006)

Welcome to the age of high-tech harassment in the modern world. As the world shrinks its
demographic and political boundaries with neoteric advancement in science, technology,
medicine and politics, the problem of social cruelty expands manifold with a change in the form
from traditional to cyber (Stover, 2006). In this ‘Information Technology Age’, with a rapid influx
of knowledge and where information has become the birth right of every child, cyberbullying has
grown up to become a Frankenstein monster (Frankenstein created a technological beast that in
the end came to harm him).

Bullying is a problem that cuts across social boundaries and is reaping devastating results causing
psychological and emotional trauma which include low self-esteem, poor academic performance,
depression, and, in some cases, violence and suicide. The rise of bullying, and specifically
cyberbullying, has been widely reported in the recent media (for example Four Corners, ABC, 6th
April 2009 and Reader’s Digest, February 2008).

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For the purpose of this study the concept of ‘bullying’ can be considered as an aggressive,
intentional act or conduct that is carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time
against a victim who can not easily defend himself or herself (Olweus, 1993). Drawing from this
position there can be several main types of bullying; namely physical, verbal, relational (e.g.
social exclusion) and indirect (e.g. rumour spreading). Within the electronic environments of the
Internet (such as email, online chat and online games) and mobile phones, the physical form of
bullying is replaced by virtual realities where similar behaviours of aggression and intimidation
can still occur. Within these spaces such behavior has been labeled as ‘cyberbullying’ (Li 2006).

Understanding ‘cyberbullying’

While face-to-face bullying is often visible and is restricted to real world interactions, limited in
time and space, cyberbullying, on the other hand, is able to be undertaken anonymously anytime
anywhere, including inside safe areas such as the victims’ home (Four Corners, ABC, 6/4/09).
Cyberbullies have a greater capacity to avoid detection with their actions often being restricted to
‘intimate’ and personal communication means, rather than in the public domain of physical real-
world social interactions. While traditional bullying has long been recognized as causing
psychological harm to targets, cyberbullying has the ability to be just as harmful, and some, such
as Li (2006), would argue that it presents as even more damaging given the personal and invasive
nature of the act.

Digital devices like mobile phones and the Internet often allow users to apply actions and
thoughts to online activities that they apply in a face-to-face setting. Learning can be considered
as primarily a social process mediated through interactions using tools (Vygotsky 1978; Wertsch
1999) whose use is appropriated through intearactions in the social and cultural worlds. Children
appropriate the ideas and mannerisms of those with whom they interact most (Leont’ev, 1981),
through what they see, hear and read. However, children often do not distinguish in the intricacies
of different social settings and therefore appropriating the ways of interacting in informal
situations and applying them to formal interactions, that is a transfer of offline informal
friendships built through informal verbal interactions into an online environment with primarily
formal text based interactions, often occurs. Furthermore, the online digital world also generates a
new language shared amongst users that is often foreign to those, such as parents and teachers,
who can act to protect children, this extends beyond the normal generational gap to deeper level
of being, with Prensky (2001) describing it as a divide between ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital
immigrants’. With burgeoning internet usage, which on one hand helps children to access a vast
array of information and interactions helping learning to take on a greater pace both in quality
and quantity inside and outside of the school, also puts children at risk of being bullied digitally.

Cyberbullying takes many forms include flaming, flooding, harassment, cyberstalking,

denigration (putdowns), masquerading, outing and exclusion. These terms are explained by
Willard (2004) and have been summarised into Table 1.

Table 1: Forms of cyberbullying (adapted from Willard, 2004)

Type Form Feature
Flaming Angry, rude, vulgar messages This type involves Anonymity of the
perpetrator and let him/her perform
power play over the bullied.
Online Offensive messages It involves repetition in which the
harassment perpetrator can exercise bullying for

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more than single time increasing in the

impact as well as can be anonymous at
the same time.
Cyberstalking Threats of harm and intimidation This type involves Anonymity of the
perpetrator and let him/her perform
power play over the bullied.
Denigration Harmful, untrue, or cruel statements This does not involve a direct
(put-downs) communication via digital means but
involves sending out messages, pictures
and other types of things of denigration
about a person to other persons and not
the victim directly.
Masquerade Posting material that makes that person This type does not only involves
look bad anonymity and power play as consistent
with the other forms but also gives a
facility to pretend as someone else than
the actual perpetrator.
Outing Sensitive, private, or embarrassing This type involves Anonymity of the
information, including private messages perpetrator and let him/her perform
or images power play over the bullied.
Exclusion Abandoning, excluding someone. This type involves a unanimous harm not
just confined to one perpetrator but
abandoning the victim from a space and
time frame from the whole group (may
be by just a single perpetrator) making it
appear to have been directed by many
perpetrators. The harm is increased, as it
is directly/indirectly inflicted by many
who are the part of that group.

Bullying can be direct or indirect in nature, with indirect bullying often labelled as ‘relational
aggression’, which is indirect verbal bullying characterized by psychological attacks such as
humiliation and/or manipulation of relationships. In ‘relational bullying’ verbal methods are used
to threaten relationships or social standing of victims and may spurt into spread of rumors or
exclusion from important social activities in order to inflict harm (Raskauskas, Juliana 2007;
Stoltz, Ann, 2007 & Li, 2006). Cyberbulling, given the nature of the medium, is often a form of
relational bullying. It can also be quite instrumental for reinforcing physical forms with such
type of violence apparent through terms like ‘happy slapping’, where a victim is slapped or made
to appear silly by one person, filmed by another, and the resulting pictures circulated on mobile
phones. Cyberbullying can also be understood to be in other forms as such as the idea of ‘stranger
danger’ (a phrase made popular by the media) that taps a deep-rooted fear in parents of their child
being abducted or abused by the online predators stalking Internet chat rooms, creating a ‘moral
panic’. Furthermore, the fact that anyone can tamper with digital images and create false
pornographic material is a shocking reality of the realms of cyberbullying, further exacerbated by
the increased used of social networking spaces, such as Facebook®, allowing for quick and easy
spreading of these images in an almost viral manner. Such an example is evident in the recent
events affecting students in schools in the eastern suburbs of Sydney where slanderous comments
and images were circulated via MySpace® and became known across an entire region within
days of being posted to the Internet (ABC TV, 07/05/09).

Forms of cyberbullying and the effects vary according to gender. As shown by Maher (2008) all
the boys, in his study, who interacted online engaged in “flooding” (a process of pressing the
submit button repeatedly preventing others from communicating and acting as a form of

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intimidation) while using the chat room. He found that the students didn’t like being the victim of
flooding, because they had no control over the situation. Girls mostly masquerade, that is posting
material to make another person look bad. Bullying also occurred between the boys in the guest
book of the girls. It was found that even the topic of bullying was not just related to the opposite
sex, musical taste also became a topic of bullying. Although no gender difference was found in
relation to victimization, males were more likely to be bullies and cyberbullies than their female
counterparts.

Rates of cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is not an isolated or rare occurrence. As demonstrated by Smith, et al. (2008) the
incidence of being bullied, sometime in the month preceding their study was 45.6% compared to
cyberbullying with a rate of 22.2%. Furthermore, their research identified that many cyber
victims were also traditional victims, indicating that the cause and effect of both forms can be
comparable. These rates are further supported by recent research published by McLoughlin et al.
(2009) indicates that within Australian schools 1 in 4 students had undergone some form of
cyberbullying. Though incidences of being cyberbullied was found to be less prevalent these
variations are offset by advantages for the perpetrator of being ‘in disguise’, thus being removed
from the immediate impact and able to be unnoticed by others who could normally prevent the
incident from occurring. It could be argued that there is increasing pressure for bullying to move
to this form with increased vigilance within the playground around real-world bullying.
Moreover, children, who are victims of cyberbullying, have been shown to be reluctant to tell
adults about abusive online material or text messages, fearing retribution or the restriction of their
own Internet or cell phone privileges (Sharples, Graber, Harrison & Logan, 2009) and thus the
repercussions of such acts are often more significant.

One possible explanation to this ever growing problem of cyberbullying and its prevalence in a
number of countries worldwide can be an increase in access of internet and other digital media,
such as mobile phones. Furthermore the generation of today has grown up in a society in which
the Internet is an integral part of daily life (Clarke and Kiselica 1997; Hoover and Olsen 2001; Li
2007). The Mobile Life Report (2006) found that 51% of 10-year olds and 91% of 12-year-olds in
the UK have a mobile phone. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the 12
months to April 2006, “65% of children aged 5–14 years accessed the internet either during or
outside of school hours” (ABS, 2008). Such rates of access breed opportunity for cyberbullying
to occur. As these rates increase it is reasonable to assume that similar increases in cyberbullying
will also occur.

Causes and effects of cyberbullying

The problem of cyberbullying is not just a by-product of technological advancement in the age of
globalisation but a conflation of this technology and an outburst of hormonal and biological
growth during adolescence (Maher, 2008).
Pellegrini and Bartini (2000, p.700) explains adolescent changes as follows:

Adolescence is a period of abrupt biological and social change. Specifically, the rapid body
changes associated with the onset of adolescence and changes from primary to secondary school
initiate dramatic changes in youngster’s peer group composition and status. Changes in peer group
availability, individuals’ status within groups, and peer support confront youngsters as they are
entering new, larger, and typically impersonal secondary schools. One way in which peer status is
achieved in these sorts of environments, especially by boys, is through the selective use of
aggression and other agonistic strategies.

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Adolescence, which can be defined as beginning as early as 8 years of age, is definitely evident in
upper-primary classrooms (Maher, 2008). This period of growth is a time when physical
aggression increases in frequency and intensity and for this reason it has been labeled as a
‘brutalizing’ period (Pelligrini and Bartini, 2000). Correspondingly this period also witnesses a
series of abrupt changes in the social lives of youngsters. During this period of social change,
increased aggression and attempts to shape their identity children are increasingly more likely to
be engaged in acts of bullying. The child today bears the risk of being followed by acts of
bullying in all the walks of his/her life. This is a significant development within the area of
cyberbullying as opposed to what would be considered ‘normal’ bullying behaviour. In today’s
society a child’s natural innocence seems to have taken a serious beating with the omnipresent
and timeless digital facilities of communication thriving in the society. Schools have also not
been aloof from the hold of this problem effecting learning.

Research has shown that involvement in bullying is related to poor educational outcomes for
those who bully (Nansel et al., 2001) as well as for those who are victims of bullying (Espelage &
Swearer, 2003). The effect increases as peer relationships increase in importance, occurring
within the timeframe of adolescence, but can also be considered as beginning from the time a
child is exposed to school life as they aim to increase their social boundaries. However, positive
peer relationships are related to successful identity formation among children, improved sense of
self-worth, healthy self-esteem, and developing skills for romantic relationships (Gavazzi,
Anderson, & Sabatelli, 1993; Hightower, 1990; Kupersmidt & Coie, 1990). Also stable peer
relationships during adolescence have resulted in improved mental health in later life (Hightower,
1990). Bullying or aggression from peers can disrupt adolescents' emotional and social
development. Schools and teachers have a role to play in reinforcing the positive aspects of
social relationships and counteracting the negative.

Responding to cyberbullying

The difficulty of schools is how they respond to cyberbullying. Some studies suggest in favour of
growing self-understanding among students as opposed to banning or preventing access to digital
media. A recent study by Sharples et al. (2009) argues that as with any prohibition, children
become expert at finding ways around it, aided by the many websites offering techniques for
‘backdoor access’ to forbidden content and services. Thus a response by schools, and/or parents,
to block content or access is often circumvented and the problem persists. By focusing on
developing within children abilities to understand the behaviours they may encounter online it is
possible to have them police their own interactions. It is argued that teachers, and other adults,
are required to work alongside children as they become familiar and capable in working in the
online environment. As Dunkels & Elza (2008) concluded children are aware of their position
requiring adult guidance, even when it comes to contemporary technology, as a child responded
in their study, ‘I’m so young so anyone can trick me’, showing the importance of guidance.
Drunkel and Elza (p.179) further discovered that most children have developed their Internet
strategies on their own or together with peers. They explain it as follows:

To many adults, the fact that anyone can tamper with digital images and create false pornographic
material is shocking. But to a digital native it might not be as frightening because she knows that
technically she herself can create the same thing. Should she find a friend’s face in a pornographic
image, she would suspect that the image is fake and not pay it much attention. This particular child
has unveiled the medium and developed an understanding of its affordances.

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By equipping students with the capacity to understand and dismiss acts they can build a level of
resistance to the bullying. There is, therefore, a significant role for teachers to play in preventing
the behaviour from occurring and by supporting those who are victims, and sometimes
perpetrators, to resolve and deal with such acts before they have long term detrimental effects.

Significance of the study

The argument that cyberbullying does occur, but not to the extent reported in the media (Maher,
2008) suggests a silver lining in the cloud to the optimists, but in the light of the rapid spread of
digital communication media its future implications remain alarming. As per Paulson (2003), in
the year 2000, 1 in 17 children in their study had been bullied online and one third of those
incidences were enormously disturbing to the victims. In 2009 the rate has increased significantly
to at least 1 in 4 children being victims of cyberbullying (McLoughlin, et al., 2009), presenting as
a significant increase. Paulson (2003) found that it jeopardises the mental, emotional and
physical well being of the children and puts society at the risk of ethical and moral deterioration.

Recent media coverage of cyberbullying, such as by Four Corners (ABC TV) gives a good insight
into the widespread and significant nature of this issue. The episode, titled “The Bullies
Playground” focuses on the serious nature of the issue presenting as one which breaks the
boundaries of time and space in its existence in the life of children with cyberbullying infiltrating
into children’s bedrooms as well. Unlike face-to-face bullying, it does not end from the time the
school gets over but follows the child back home with an easy access to the various forms of
digital communication (as per Susan McLean, Cybersafety Advisor).

One emerging issue from this coverage of cyberbullying is an assertion that teachers are either
aloof or not seriously aware of cyberbullying and are still relating the ways of approaching to it
by aiming solely on correcting the perpetrators of the problem (as in the face-to-face bullying).
They are not addressing the whole problem in the light of cyberbullying’s nature and form, which
is different from the traditional form of bullying. It is evident from the case of a child named
‘Thomas’, whose mother Sara Henderson told in interview that the teachers neglected the incident
of bullying in some cases and in other cases Thomas was punished in turn without going deep in
finding the roots and the impact of the problem and resolving it but just aiming to correct the
misbehaviour. For her child the change of schools did not prove any beneficial too.

To make our foray into teaching in primary schools as responsible teachers it becomes utmost
important to investigate the root of this problem and help students to deal with it while
simultaneously keeping the students technology savvy. It is found that adults (parents and
teachers) intervene in the matters to prevent cyberbullying only 4% of the time and thus there is a
need for the teachers to get involved (Wolfsberg, 2006). It is also argued by
Froeschle, Mayorga, Castillo and Hargrave (2008) that cyberbullying is relatively unknown to
teachers and parents and teachers and parents are poorly prepared to deal with it (Strom & Strom,
2005). Several troubling developments like that of the aftermath of "Cedar Fest" by Face book
postings publicising the event and the suicide committed by a teenage girl named Megan Meier
after being bullied online by a woman (Raskauskas, Juliana 2007; Stoltz, Ann, 2007 & Li, 2006)
make it more important to put our best foot forward as teachers for keeping our new generations
well informed and prepared to negotiate the problem of cyberbullying.

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Research Questions
The purpose of this study, therefore, is to consider:

What are the perceived impacts of cyberbullying on upper primary students, as

viewed by the teachers?

This broad question can be understood through the following, which will inform the shape of the
research study.
1. How do teachers’ understand and recognise the problem of cyberbullying?
2. What have been the teachers’ experiences of the problem of cyberbullying amongst their
students?
3. How have the teachers’ and their broader school communities responded to the issue of
cyberbullying?

Methodology

This study is an empirical investigation of the phenomenon of cyberbullying. It has been

developed from an objectivist perspective of knowledge, which considers knowledge as
something that is external to the researcher and that truth can be understood through research
(Goodrick, 2008). Such a position views the objective of research to explain what persists in the
world and understands the role of the researcher as being objective to the data rather than an
interpreter of others experiences. This concept of knowledge affects the choice of the approach of
this study with the approach being grounded on a standard questionnaire administered to a large
number of teachers and analysed from a quantitative viewpoint. The researcher is distant from the
participants during the research process and can be understood as, at best, a peripheral member
researcher (Adler & Adler, 1987). The questions, asked of the teachers, is related to demographic
information, their experiences and involvement in the issues of cyberbullying and the training
they have obtained relating to the issue.

Participants:
The participants of the study are drawn from teachers within Catholic Primary schools within the
Archdiocese of Sydney. Schools are selected for convenience with proximity to the researcher
being an important aspect for ease of dispersal of questionnaires and collection of data. Initial
contacts are made by the researcher to the Principal of the school to seek their permission for the
involvement of their staff in the questionnaire. Questionnaires were distributed to all teachers
within these schools with responses to these being voluntary on the teachers’ behalf.
Approximately 200 questionnaires were dispersed.

Method of data collection:

The method of collecting data is through the means of an open-ended questionnaire (attached,
appendix 4). This questionnaire is required to be filled by every participant based on his or her
experiences and perspectives of the research topic. The questions asked in the questionnaire are
related to the research questions and help gain a comprehensive and an intensive understanding in
order to answer the research questions. The schools and participants are informed, via the
attached information letter (attached, appendix 1) that is also be a cover page for the
questionnaire and the letter to principals (attached, appendix 2) that it may take 20-30 minutes to

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fill the questionnaire. The questionnaires were either posted and/or handed in personally to the
schools with return addressed envelops that can be posted back or handed in personally.

The advantages of the questionnaire, as opposed to interviews, are that they will be cheap,
covering a larger population and with all the respondents responding to the same questions there
is convenience in analysis of the data. Such an approach though does present some limitations
such as no facility to clarify questions, an inability to adjust the questions to better accommodate
the experience of the phenomena and the possibility of respondents not answering to the target of
the questions (Galpin, 1987).

Ethical issues:
This research study presents minimal ethical issues beyond the standard considerations of
informed consent (consent letter attached, appendix 3) and confidentiality. The questionnaires are
designed to not require any specific identifying information of participants, thus ensuring
confidentiality. Participants may participate only if they wish to with no requirement for any
participant to complete the questionnaire; however, participants will consent to the research
through the completion of the questionnaire. It is also proposed to ensure not only the anonymity
of the teachers or the participants but also the schools. Participants remained anonymous
throughout the study even to the researchers themselves. Approval of the university (Australian
Catholic University) and the CEO (the body under which all the catholic schools that are involved
in the research) and the school principal’s (letter sent to principals or assistant principals attached)
were also duly taken.

Conclusion

The review above makes a firm ground about the gravity of the issue and the need to be dealt
with seriously. The magnitude of the problem as is rightly presented in the review is ever-
increasing and accelerating gradually with the increase in the access to technology by the students
(for example, internet sites like MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Second Life etc.
and the devices like iPhones, Blackberries, Sidekicks etc. ). This research aims at focusing on
teachers’ view about cyberbullying in the modern world context. This will help to gain knowledge
of how much are the teachers aware of, and how can they make a difference to help their students
cope with the issue of cyberbullying. This study will help to know whether the teachers are aware
about the seriousness of the issue and are prepared to address it to the benefit of they students’
safety, will they view this problem in any special and unique way and do they know and apply
some unique ways to deal with it? The study will also begin to understand the level of support
required for teaches to adequately manage this increasingly important issue. This study will prove
significant as the role of teachers and educators in the prevention and management of
cyberbullying is crucial for ensuring the ongoing safety of students (Hinduja & Patchin, 2009).

Data

Data for this study was collected through questionnaires. Participants posted back the completed
questionnaires in return-addressed envelopes. Participants were drawn from selected primary
schools drawn from the local area, for reasons and convenience, and all being Catholic due to the
extent of ethical approval for the project. Of the 25 schools contacted, 11 gave their consent to
participate in the research. Contact was first made with the school principal to gain their consent

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for staff participation, and then a package of questionnaires were sent to the consenting schools
for distribution to the teaching staff.
With the participating schools there were a total of 200 teachers. The teachers were both full- and
part-time positions and, given the nature of the schools, currently involved in the teaching of
primary school students. Out of these 200 participants who were forwarded the questionnaires
only 36 responded, which is 18% of the sample size and is comparable to other research studies
(Smeeth & Fletcher, 2002).. The name of the respondents and the name of the schools were kept
anonymous in the questionnaire and had no mention directly or indirectly anywhere. All
responses were therefore valid and able to be used in the data analysis.

Demographics of responses.

Within the questionnaire respondents were asked to provide some details of their age and
teaching experience to allow for some grouping of responses. 50% of the respondents fell in the
age group of 20-30, 13.89% in the age group of 31-40, 25% in the age group of 41-50 and none in
the age group of 60+. The various grade levels been taught mostly in their teaching career till date
were also asked and it was found that 11.11% of the participants taught kindergarten/preschool,
33.33% taught infants (i.e. yr. 1/2), 25% taught junior primary (i.e. yr 3/4) and 30.5% taught,
upper primary (i.e. yr. 5/6). The amount of teaching experience the respondents have had so far
were also collected in the groups and it was found that 5.5% of the participants were in their first
year of teaching, 25% had 2-5 years of experience, 33.33% had 6-10 years of experience, 5.5%
had 11-15 years of experience, 5.5% had 16-20 years of experience and 25% of the participants
had 20+ years of experience. The above mentioned demographics are represented in the graph 1,
graph 2 and graph 3 respectively.
As evident from the graph 1 most of the respondents were young teachers between the age group
of 20 to 30 and most of the teachers dealt with upper primary students (yr. 5/6) and infants (yr.
1/2). Most of the respondent teachers had 6-10 yrs. of teaching experience or 21+ years, making it
evident that young teachers and highly experienced were both interested in addressing the issue
out of their awareness and experience of cyberbullying.

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Instrument and analysis

An anonymous questionnaire was used to collect data for this research. The qualitative analysis of
survey was used to know the teachers perception of cyberbullying. The questions in the
questionnaire were divided in two parts. Part 1 of the questionnaire presented the demographic
information of the respondents and the part 2 related to questions on cyberbullying. The 2nd part

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of the questionnaire relating to cyberbullying consisted questions on understanding of the

respondents about cyberbullying and its perceived impacts, the expected response of the school
and its policies regarding cyberbullying, Professional Development/ training undertaken
pertaining to the issue and instance/s of cyberbullying experienced and measures taken to deal
with it. The question helped answer the research question and achieve research objectives to a
great extent.

Results and discussion

Understanding of teachers about cyberbullying:

The understanding of cyberbullying as evident in the responses is, at best, limited. Most of the
teachers (n=26 i.e. 72.22%) viewed cyberbullying as being in relation to the Internet and/or via e-
mails; a common understanding of cyberbullying, but quite limited in its appreciation of the
diverse nature of electronic media available for communication amongst young people. There
were few (n=6) ( 16.66% )who also mentioned mobile phones as a mode through which
cyberbullying takes place and even fewer (n=4) (11%) knew that other digital media devices,
such as (Willard, 2004) can be the modes as well. Thus, of all responses only n=4 in total (11%)
were able to appreciate, fully, the diverse nature of cyberbullying and the modes through which it
can be conducted.
Understanding of cyberbullying did not correlate with age, with both younger and older
respondents providing a similar spread of responses. Among responses falling in the group of 20-
30 yrs. of age n=2 classified cyberbullying related to mobile phones and other media while n=4
teachers in the age group 40-50 thought it not just confined to internet and e-mails but to other
digital media. For example one respondent in the age group 40-50 stated cuberbullying as “any
type of bullying that occur through electronic and digital devices like computer, internet, email,
text, mobiles etc.” which is consistent with the description of media used in cyberbullying by Li
(2006). Such a spread on most understandings of teaching is not unusual nor an area of interest.
However, given the recent nature of cyberbullying and the new nature of the technologies that are
used to bring it about, one would have expected younger teachers, closer to the demographic most
at harm, would have a better understanding of the area. The data from this study does not support
this hypothesis and instead concludes that understanding, or lack thereof, is equally distributed
across the various age brackets of teachers and it is not a fair assumption that younger teachers
have a better understanding.
Instead of age being a determining factor, there was a more significant correlation to improved
understanding and the successful completion of Professional Development around the area of
cyberbullying. Those respondents who had undertaken Professional Development mentioned
digital media, internet and other electronic devices as the means to commit cyberbullying and
also mentioned about social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace as a significant
medium. They had a clearer knowledge of the features of cyberbullying too for example a
teacher having a Professional Development in cyberbullying iterated that “cyberbullying is
ordinary bullying just over the net and other digital devices, less personal and distant in nature
where people can say things that perhaps if face to face they wouldn't”. Such a view is
consistent with the literature presented earlier, in particular Maher (2008). From this is
reasonable to conclude that an effective training relating to cyberbullying must be given to the
teachers.
Also intersesting to note is the fact that the teachers did not mention of any gender differences in
the ways of committing cyberbullying and being victims as well. It can come logical from the fact
that none of the teachers mentioned about the different types or forms of cyberbullying, so there
were no mention of particular type of cyberbullying being associated with a particular gender
which is inconsistent with Maher (2008) who associated boys with mainly ‘Flooding’ and girls

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mainly ‘Masquerading’, also boys to be mostly being bullies from their female counterparts. This
further focuses on the requirement of broadening the knowledge of teachers (Wolfsberg, 2006) in
order to equip them better to deal with this issue in side and out side their classrooms. It was also
found that n=4 teachers with Professional Development in cyberbullying were able to spot the
instance of cyberbullying occurring with their students the next day (with one of the teachers
finding it overnight) than n=5 of their other counterparts without Professional Development who
found these instances after few weeks or some days. This gave enough time for the effect of
cyberbullying to deepen on the victim. This can be explained form the possible argument that the
teachers with Professional Development had a good exposure to the issue and were trained and
skilled enough to spot the instance through their observation of the students activities and
whereabouts and acting upon it by intervening and enquiring further into the matter which proved
helpful in bringing a quick solution and diminishing the effect on the victim. Such an argument
accentuates the need to increase the know-how of the teachers to be able to deal with the issue
rather seriously and promptly.

Rate of cyberbullying as per teachers’ view point:

It is also interesting to note that out of the n=36 respondents only 1 i.e. 2.77% believed that a lot
of students are affected nevertheless n=2 i.e. 5.55% believed that it occurs rarely at the same time.
However n=13 i.e. 36.11% teacher respondents believed a significant no. of students is affected
and n=20 i.e. 55.55% believed that a few students are affected. So the majority believed that
only a few students are affected which is inconsistent to the findings of McLoughlin et al. (2009)
that 1 in 4 students have undergone some form of cyberbullying. This further accentuates the
need to address this issue with the teachers as they are probably less aware of the burgeoning
problem of cyberbullying. Out of n=36 respondents only n=10 i.e. 27.77% have had an
experience of cybercullying within their class which implies either its fewer occurrences or their
unawareness about its occurrences with their students. This explains the fact that the teachers
have a limited knowledge of cyberbullying and that their exposure to it is also fairly less which
focuses on the need of providing training to the primary teachers about the forms in which
cyberbullying can come in viz. flaming, flooding, harassment, cyberstalking, denigration
(putdowns), masquerading, outing and exclusion etc. (Willard, 2004) and also the signs and
symptoms that can help them recognise a possible victim of cyberbullying. One possible reason
for this finding can be that the children, who are victims of cyberbullying, have been shown to be
reluctant to tell adults about abusive online material or text messages, fearing retribution or the
restriction of their own Internet or cell phone privileges and due the fear of getting exposed to
their peers (Sharples, Graber, Harrison & Logan, 2009). Thus the teachers do not come across as
many instances of cyberbullying as these occur actually. The teachers’ deeper knowledge will
help them keep a check on the use of digital devices and focus and address the issue outside their
classrooms as well.

Teachers views on Causes and Effects of cyberbullying:

The main cause of cyberbullying as per teachers are the biological, hormonal and psychological
change that the children undergo during their adolescent period of life during which they
increase their level of aggression and resort to bullying as a way to shape their identity (Pellegrini
& Bartini 2000). They feel that this is complemented by the advancement in the digital
technology which offers them modern devices as instruments to exercise their state of being
(Maher, 2008)and at the same time keeping them safe by offering anonymity and let them
perform power play over their peers.
The effects of cyberbullying seem to be well enunciated by the teachers encompassing all the
major effects which are duly coined by Paulson (2003) that it jeopardises the mental, emotional

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and physical well being of the children and puts society at the risk of ethical and moral
deterioration. The teachers view it as emotional, social and academic harm. One of the teachers
mentions the effects of cyberbullying as follows:
“It can have profound emotional effect especially will escalating emotions from puberty. It could
cause insecurity, low self esteem and low self worth. Students may not realise it happening as
they know bullying happen just in the playground. It can cause identity crises among the peers.
Children are impressionable and so they have a major impact. Students get isolated, ridiculed. So
it becomes hard to trust future friendship, people and group in general”.
The comments of the teachers on the effects of cyberbullying present a very profound picture.
This has come from their understanding of the phenomena and to some extend being in relation to
the traditional bullying as well, as per n=28 i.e. 77.77% teachers who relate the effects of
cyberbullying as much similar to that of traditional bullying (Nansel et al., 2001). Yet n=8 i.e.
22.22% teacher respondents feel the effects are a bit more intense in psychological and emotional
aspects.
The n=10 i.e. 27.77% teachers who have encountered the incidents of cyberbullying with their
children provide a detailed understanding of the effects on children. They feel that the children
are effected not only academically with degradation in achievement of the curriculum out comes
but also psychologically, morally, mentally as well as physically. They provide a detail account
of their classroom experiences on the short term and the long term effects of cyberbullying and
through the consultation of the parents as to what are the effects seen at home too. There is an
obvious equality seen in their understanding of the effects of cyberbullying and the effects on the
children that fell prey to it in their classroom.
One of the teachers who have had an experience of instances of cyberbullying with her student
describes the effects as follows:
“Cyberbullying can cause psychological trauma, nervousness, isolation, withdrawal, degradation
of school grades, general well being and safety. It can cause physical illness, absence of school,
crying, sleeping problems, eating habits etc. Most importantly cyberbullying cause change of
personality and can promote self harm”.
It also became clearer from the findings that teachers having Professional in respect to
cyberbullying are more informed about the perceived effects on the children as they describe the
effects in detail. These teachers take this issue more seriously and see cyberbullying as a
substantial threat to the learning and the development of their students. It was found that there
were n=5 i.e. 13.88% teachers in total out of 36 who had undergone Professional Development
for cyberbullying and all these teachers feel that a significant number of students are impacted.
They give a great deal of importance to using restoration practices to deal with the guilty and
urgently putting the victim to counseling because, as one of the teachers put it as “children would
not know how to deal with it and this can make their condition worst”. They viewed taking the
issue seriously to the parents and the principal.

Responding to cyberbullying as perceived by the teachers:

Teachers had various suggestions to responding to cyberbullying. Most of the teachers believed in
educating parents and students and show ways to block harmful sites and dealing with the
situation in case it occurs. N=28 (77.77% ) teachers out of 36 highlighted mostly on making
children aware and training them about the ways of dealing with the situation by special sessions
or classroom lessons. All these suggessions pertained to making the children more aware and
prepared to deal with cyberbullying (Dunkels & Elza, 2008). In order to achieve this they mostly
stress on inviting guest speakers, holding workshops about cyberbullying and designing a
contract required to be signed by students and parents about the responsible use of the internet
and consequences incase of breaching the contract regulations. One of the respondent teachers
suggested “developing Parent and Student forums”. N=6 teachers also laid emphasis on

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conducting meetings of the parents, children, teachers and the community members in order to
make policies regarding the use of technology in the schools and keep a check outside the school
as well. For those who have already become the victims of cyberbullying the respondent teachers
suggested counseling them with immediate effect and ways to gain back their sense of worth and
power in the class should be adopted to make them come round with the issue. Teachers were
fairly strict in dealing with the perpetrators. They emphasised on monitoring the use of
computers, punishing those who are involved, following through the consequences and dealing
with the issue seriously. However, it is interesting to note that all the (n=5) teachers with
Professional Development in cyberbullying viewed abandoning children from the access to
internet and other digital technology as an ineffective way (Sharples et al., 2009) of dealing with
the situation whereas 4 out of 31 without any Professional Development in cyberbullying felt
banning the use of access of internet to the students can be one of the possible ways to curb
cyberbullying from occurring. The teachers with Professional Development laid emphasis on the
use of restoration justice techniques- mainly about how it affects individuals/community etc.
They also suggested the curriculum to be integrated into value education and Resilience skills be
taught to the guilty. Students can be taught ways to report cyberbullying instances with their
friends to parents and teachers. One of the teachers who have had Professional Development in
cyberbullying suggested “visit by ACMA in the school for the teachers and the students which is
a very good resource”. Yet one of the teachers with out a Professional Development presented an
interesting comment that “it is the responsibility of the parents to keep an eye on their children’s
use of the technology and all school can do is to have filters to keep the students away from
accessing porn and inappropriate sites”. This suggested that teachers with Professional
Development had practical and productive solutions to keep a check on cyberbullying from
occurring possibly due to their good exposure to the issue of cyberbullying. However not a single
teacher felt that students have the capability to deal with the issue by their own and that every
child would need a support from the teachers, parents and the community as opposed to the views
of Dunkels & Elza (2008) who discovered that most children develop their Internet strategies on
their own or together with peers. This explains the fact that the teachers feel a need to address the
issue to the students, parents and community and view a need to support children with regards to
cyberbullying inside and outside the school.
13 teachers out of 36 have individual policies regarding the use of internet and defining the
subject of cyberbullying in their schools while others do not or are on the verge of designing
them. It is found that all the schools follow the policies of Department of Catholic Education with
regards to cyberbullying but lack their individual policy within their own milieu of the different
backgrounds of the students and that the teachers find it important to guide students through the
peripheries of their individual school policy on the responsible use the internet and other digital
devices. This throws light on the fact that teachers and schools are not adequately prepared to
deal with the issue of cyberbullying (Strom & Strom, 2005) as they lack in addressing it,
testimony to which is the absence of individual policies in the schools and teachers being
unaware of such policies if any. Thus there arises the need to take this issue to the teachers and
the adults (Wolfsberg, 2006) to stand up to the support of the younger generation to deal with
cyberbullying.

Implications:

Emerging from this research study is a range of implications both for future practice and future
research. The following attempts to present some implications and a justification for their
consideration.

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1. There is a need to better educate teachers about the form and characteristics of
cyberbullying to allow them to better identify and respond to such acts.

2. There is a need to address this issue to the teachers in order to expose them well to
cyberbullying and train them to deal with this issue.

Teachers do not consider the influence of cyberbullying as quite significant over their
students given the fact the n=20 i.e. 55.55% teachers out of 36 believed only few students
are affected by cyberbullying which is not consistent with the study of McLoughlin et al.
(2009), which states that within Australian schools 1 in 4 students had undergone some
form of cyberbullying. This explains a need to address this issue to the teachers in order
to expose them well to cyberbullying and train them to deal with this issue. Teachers need
to be provided training pertaining to the issue of cyberbullying. It becomes a fair
inference that the teachers who have had a Professional Development in cyberbullying
showed more understanding of cyberbullying, was prompt in spotting out the incidents
with their children and were able to better deal with it than their counterparts without any
Professional Development. These teachers with Professional Development noted the
incidents of cyberbullying with their students in a period of a day or two or overnight
whereas the other teachers without the Professional Development got to know about the
instances in a week or so. They had better ways like restoration justice techniques, value
education and resilience skills etc. to prevent and cure the problem of cyberbullying.
They had suggestions for the parents and the community to contribute positively to the
problem of cyberbullying. Thus it becomes apparent that teachers in this modern age of
technological advancement should intervene equipped with right skills to stop
cyberbullying from escalating.

The teachers need to know more about the types of cyberbullying as it becomes evident
from the research that due to a lack of deep understanding of cyberbullying the teachers
show a miss-match in opinion about the perceived effects of cyberbullying on the
students and the measures to be taken in order to curb the issue. They do not seem well
equipped (Wolfsberg, 2006) with the skills to find out the instances of cyberbullying
happening with their students and then necessary ways to deal with it when it occurs. The
lack of knowledge of different forms in which cyberbullying can occur viz. flaming,
flooding, harassment, cyberstalking, denigration (putdowns), masquerading, outing and
exclusion, lead to less possibility of spotting the instances with their students. Thus with
the limited knowledge of cyberbullying instruments the perceived symptoms of its
occurrence is limited and thus this limits the spotting of the instances. Testimony to the
fact is that the teachers that are well trained on cyberbullying through a Professional

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Development session, seemed to spot the occurrence of cyberbullying in their students

not only earlier then their counterparts but also dealt with it successfully by bringing in
the appropriate corrective measures.

The teachers need to be more aware of the advanced digital devices as it is also made
evident from this research that most the teachers are either not aware of the different
devices (digital devices) that are being used in everyday life of a child today like mobile
phones , digital recorders, blackberries, mini-computers etc. other then internet , can also
be the instruments in perpetrating the menace of cyberbullying. This is consistent with
the view of Clarke and Kiselica 1997; Hoover and Olsen 2001; Li 2007, The Mobile Life
Report (2006) and ABS, 2008 that found that today internet has just become an integral
part of the children’s life, 51% of 10-year olds and 91% of 12-year-olds in the UK have a
mobile phone and 65% of children aged 5–14 years accessed the internet either during or
outside of school hours respectively. The limited knowledge of the media through which
cyberbullying can be inflicted on children also make their skills inedequte to address the
problem and deal with it.

3. There is a position for moral, ethical and/or values education within classrooms as a
counterpoint to the rise in cyberbullying.

also an important inference drawn from the responses of the teachers that moral and
ethical education and Resilience skills should be made more prominent in the classrooms
through value education during the lessons and every day behavior management. As most
of the teachers view educating the students as the main way to curb the problem of
cyberbullying, it becomes important to note that educating children about the various
effects and the consequences of inflicting cyberbullying just for fun or otherwise, is
pivotal. Therefore students should be made sensitive to this issue. This will not only keep
cyberbullying at bay within the school but also help prevent it from happening outside
too. This can be done, as rightly suggested by many teachers by meetings, workshops,
guest lectures, classroom lessons and everyday beahviour management by the teachers,
parents and the community.

4. Schools have a role to play in fostering positive peer relationships and improved
community knowledge of cyberbullying as a means to combat its rise.

An another important inference that can be drawn from the study is that a positive peer
relationships should be developed in order to develop successful identity formation
among children, improved sense of self-worth, healthy self-esteem, and developing skills
for romantic relationships (Gavazzi, Anderson, & Sabatelli, 1993; Hightower, 1990;
Kupersmidt & Coie, 1990). This would help keep a sense or responsibility towards ones’

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peers and keep the mentality and the environment healthy and would result in improved
mental health in later life (Hightower, 1990). Schools and teachers can play an important
role in reinforcing the positive aspects of social relationships and counteracting the
negative. This will keep the possibility for cyberbullying to occur at the least.

Most of the teachers in the research believed that the schools, parents, community and
their own selves should bear a responsibility to act upon for eliminating the causes of
cyberbullying and do away with the problem. They laid emphasis on developing policy in
the schools to guide the students for the responsible use of internet and other digital
devices. The teacher felt that such a thing will keep the students in the boundaries of
norms and would thus be saved from inflicting and getting inflicted by effects of
cyberbullying to a great extent. The effective policy should include what the students will
‘ensure and do’ when using any digital devices or internet, what they ‘will not do’, what
they ‘will never do’ points to guide them. These can include keeping the passwords
confidential, promptly tell the teacher in case of any spams or viruses, keep personal
information private, do not disable setting for viruses or blocking of sites etc., do not
deliberately use any other persons identity for any purposes, do not open social
networking sites and chats without the permission of the teachers, never send
unacceptable or unlawful material or remarks and offensive or discriminatory comments
etc.

The study found that the teachers have less depth of understanding of cyberbullying and a further
research is recommended to generate the ways in which the knowledge of cyberbullying can be
taken to the teachers in effective ways.

Conclusion:

As modern times have seen a rapid advancement in technology and its spread and influence on
youngsters, the effects on upper primary students of its by-products like cyberbullying has led the
society especially teacher fraternity to ponder over the ways to deal with the issue of
cyberbullying. On one hand where these technologies make the life go smoother and easier than
ever before, these can be leveraged for nefarious purposes by those who wish to inflict harm on
others like harassing, teasing, intimidating, threatening, or terrorising another person. To check
cyberbullying from harming the lives of our children teachers can play a vital role in bringing an
understanding and teaching children to prevent themselves from cuberbullying and also not mete
it out on others for fun or wrong purposes.
General public should confront the issue, informing potential perpetrators of the ramifications of
their actions; best counter-measure is prevention, i.e. stopping it at its source. The scale of study
limits to make significant generalisations. Yet teachers in the schools feel it as a real threat and
issue worth addressing as opposed to many possible views, based on perceptions of traditional or
face-to-face bullying that do not consider it as significant. Because in cyberbullying there is a
lack of direct physical hurt, skeptics of cyberbullying feel it is not as harmful as traditional
bullying. But the teachers, parents and community are now feeling it an issue of concern looking
at its gruesome psychological damages like feeling trapped, frustrated and distracted etc. caused
by cyberbullying. The study concludes that there is a need to increase the awareness of parents
and other interested adults such as teachers and school administrators. Schools should also have
policies on cyberbullying explained clearly to teachers, parents and the students with the
consequences of not abiding by them. Students are also need to be reminded that what they do in
cyberspace does not necessarily remain anonymous but they need to know their behaviors and
words are printable, downloadable and sometimes punishable by law if inappropriate. It can thus
be drawn from the research that teachers must develop "netiquette" in children and that the loss of

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computer privileges, detention, suspension, separation, or expulsion from school are not the only
and solely measures to prevent cyberbullying but moral education and resilience skills must be
provided to change the attitudes of young children and grown out of them responsible, sensible
and rational human beings.

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Questionnaire

Part 1 - Demographic information

Your responses to the following questions will allow the collected data to be analysed across
various groups of teachers to consider whether age and experience informs attitudes, responses
and understanding of cyberbullying.

Respond to the following questions by marking the most appropriate response.

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1. In your teaching career which group of students have you most often taught?

 Kindergartern / Preschool  Infants (i.e. Yr 1/2)

 Junior Primary (i.e. Yr 3/4)  Upper Primary (i.e. Yr 5/6)

 Other ____________________ (please specify)

2. Which year group(s) do you currently teach?

 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 None

3. What is your current age group?

 20-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 60+

4. What is the number of years you have been teaching for (including both part-time and
full-time positions)?

 This is my first year.  2-5  6-10  11-15  16-20  21+

5. What role(s) do you have within your school?

 Generalist Classroom Teacher  Specialist Classroom Teacher (e.g. music; special needs)

 Coordinator  Executive  Other _________________ (please specify)

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Part 2 - Cyberbullying
The following questions explore the issue of cyberbullying. You are encouraged to be as honest as
possible in responding to the questions. Please do not name any other person in your
responses.

Generally, for these questions please respond, to the best of your understanding of the question, in
the space provided. If you require additional space to write your response please feel free to
indicate this and complete it on a separate piece of paper.

6. What is your understanding of cyberbullying?

7. How common do you believe cyberbullying to be amongst upper primary students?

 Alot of students are affected  A significant number of students are affected

 A few students are affected  It rarely occurs

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8. Are you aware of any school policies regarding cyberbullying in your school?

 Yes  No  Unsure

If you answered ‘yes’;

a) How was the policy developed (i.e. who contributed to its writing, when was it
formulated, how is it reviewed)?

b) How were you informed about the policy?

c) What areas does the policy cover and how does it respond to the issue of
cyberbullying?

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9. Beyond any activities mentioned above, have you received any professional
development about cyberbullying and how schools and teachers should respond to this
issue?

 Yes No Unsure

If you answered ‘yes’;

a) Describe the professional development.

i.e. Who delivered the sessions; how long did you spend on cyberbullying;
what did you do in the program; what follow up occurred; how relevant was
it to your practice.

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10. Have you ever been directly involved in a cyberbullying incident with one of your
students or at your school?

 Yes No Unsure

If you answered ‘yes’;

a) How did the bullying begin?

b) How, and how long, did the bullying take to become known to the school?

c) How was the incident managed by the school?

d) From your observations, what impacts did the bullying have on the victim and
perpetrator?

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MTeach Research Project - Cyberbullying Anirudh Singh (S00071543)