A difficult school environment

Over time, the school had worked with the school environment at several levels. The school had several cases with students who had experienced being excluded from friendships and play over a long period of time. In several cases, a clear tendency towards bullying behavior had developed. Cases had persisted over years, without students or parents experiencing improvement. The cases were experienced as difficult to resolve.

The meeting that became a turning point

On this day, the school and the Bullying Ombudsman met for a working meeting. How were we supposed to see and understand the issues we were facing? How were we supposed to find a solution? 

This meeting was a turning point in the school's work on these issues. It was also the start of the collaboration that later developed into the Omnimodel.

Social mechanisms that promoted exclusion and bullying behavior

By this meeting, the school had conducted thorough and systematic surveys and investigations in its own school environment, and had gained a clearer picture of the problem they were facing. The survey showed how social mechanisms promoted exclusion and bullying behavior on several levels.

The student was played badly through bad passes in social life

They had found out how individual students were often put in situations by other students that made the student appear as someone who it was okay to make fun of.

The student was played badly through bad passes in social life, and ridicule when the student was not allowed to receive. When the student then reacted, the student was singled out as someone who did not understand the social rules of the game.

The student was talked about as someone who made many bad choices because the student did not function as well socially as the others.

Parents and staff who "understand"

This understanding of the student was often reinforced by the parents of the other children. They encouraged their children to distance themselves from the student, to avoid getting into conflicts themselves. The parents expressed that they understood their children, who kept this student out.

The problem, as they understood it, was that the student did not master the social rules like the others, and that this meant that their child became involved in unnecessary conflicts and unwanted incidents.

This understanding was also shared by several staff members at the school. “I understand that the other children get frustrated and withdraw, the student makes so many bad choices,” they would often say.

Distance and distrust between school and home

The situation with the troubled school environment was inflamed, and characterized the everyday lives of all the students. Both students and parents were frustrated, and parental cooperation was characterized by this. Parents spoke condescendingly about each other, and each other's children.

There was distance and distrust between school and home. 

A recognition that one had not previously been able to see and understand the whole picture of the situation

Through this thorough mapping, the school had gained a clear understanding of how these perceptions and attitudes towards individual students contributed to playing the student off socially, and led to the student not having the opportunity to show off. This led to the student being exposed to bullying behavior which in turn reinforced the exclusion and the perception that the student was someone who was not like the others. 

The thorough mapping work led to a realization that they had not previously been able to see and understand the whole picture of the situation. With a good and precise understanding of the problem they were facing, the school was able to begin working on the school environment in the various school classes with targeted and appropriate measures.

Finally, the school succeeded with measures that worked. 

Development of the Omnimodel

This collaboration meeting was the start of the development of the Omnimodel. Following the work on these cases, we saw the need for a tool that could provide a greater common understanding and common concepts. A comprehensive understanding that can help ensure early action, cooperation and dialogue between all parties.

We have seen the need to increase understanding of the extent to which groups of children, parents and staff mutually influence each other, and how we can use this knowledge in our collaboration to promote safe and good growing environments for our children.

Through collaboration, dialogue, reflections, experiences, systematic school environment work and professional knowledge, we have gradually developed this model. 

What does Omni mean?

Omni is a prefix that means all-encompassing, and is used for something that applies to everything or everyone (Store norske leksikon, 2022).

The Omnimodel is about the upbringing environment of children and young people, and attempts to provide a comprehensive explanation of how a upbringing environment works, and how we can understand it and work with it. What is all-encompassing, and which applies to everyone in this context, is the framework surrounding the children's and young people's environment. This framework is culture.

Culture is something that arises between people who meet regularly over time (Bahn, 2013). It arises largely unconsciously and we do not think about it happening, it just happens. We meet and act, react to each other's actions, and then patterns and structures arise in the way we interact. These patterns and structures consist of a set of shared norms, values and perceptions of reality (Bahn, 2013). These influence the interaction and attitudes of everyone who belongs to the group.

Norms

Norms are unwritten rules for action. Norms set guidelines for how we are expected to behave and act in given situations. They set guidelines for how we are expected to react to events or actions, and what is and is not allowed to do. Norms affect everything that happens in a group. For example, when there is a tendency for unwanted language in a group, with slurs and negative comments, something has happened to the norms that allows it. If a group has developed a tendency to backbite others, it is the norms that prevent us from reacting to it and allow it.

Social roles

Social roles are categories we use to understand each other. We give and receive social roles. Often social roles are broad, giving us a lot of room to be ourselves. We can try, fail and be ourselves. Other times social roles are narrower. We understand each other in narrow categories. For example, as "easy-going kids", "drama queen" or "rage kid". We categorize someone as "this" or "that". Social roles affect the way we understand each other. It affects the way we interpret each other and meet each other. It affects what we expect from each other. Sometimes these interpretations and expectations can seem so strong that they exceed what actually happens. Think of the person who always gets the blame for what goes wrong, even if he was not there. Think of the children who are referred to as "the bad guy in kindergarten", and how this affects the interaction and understanding of the child. Think of how the descriptions and stories about these children limit possibilities and have a self-reinforcing effect, because we do not expect anything else.

Perceptions of reality

Reality perceptions are ways we understand and interpret the world around us. How we understand the world around us. Reality perceptions consist of constructs and concepts that give us an explanation of the world around us. For example, what is considered normal or what is socially accepted.

Opinions

Perceptions of what is right and wrong are also part of the culture that arises between people who meet regularly over time. Perceptions of what is nice and not, what is important and not important, and what values we stand for, are also part of the culture creation that occurs between people.

These beliefs also affect everything that happens in the group. It affects the norms, the attitudes and the choices we make. It affects what we allow and what we don't, and our justifications for it.

When bullying behavior occurs in a group, something has happened to the norms, social roles, and our perceptions of each other and our surroundings. There are cultural mechanisms at work, as part of the group dynamics (Eriksen, 2018).

What is so difficult about culture is that it is largely an unconscious construct consisting of a series of invisible social mechanisms. Culture influences everything that happens in the group, without us being able to see it (Bahn, 2013). We only see the consequences or the outcome.

The name Omnimodel refers to this complex social system that surrounds a group of children and young people. The Omnimodel is intended to help us see, understand and work with this system. It is intended to help us understand how a growing-up environment works and what happens when tendencies towards undesirable behaviour arise.

The name Omni also refers to the shared responsibility we adults have for the children's upbringing environment, and how we are also a part of it. It is about adults who have and take responsibility for promoting a community where all children and young people can participate and have the experience of belonging. It is about giving everyone the opportunity to take a positive place in the community.