Characteristics
Just as parents can be misled by convincing legitimization, so can employees in daycare and schools. The social structures that underlie bullying behavior, the distribution of roles, and social hierarchies are not visible to the eye. Nor are the proactive mechanisms that underlie bullying behavior.
What is visible is the victim's reactions. An additional burden can often be that one must react and stop the victim's reactions in cases where they are physical in the form of punches and kicks, verbal in the form of swearing, or otherwise of such a nature that they must be stopped. The victim may have reacted with behavior that we "understand" that the other children/students react to, while at the same time we find it difficult to understand the victim's reactions. We see the reaction isolated from the whole, and react with correction, and do not understand the reason for the reaction.
Emotions play a major role in behavior
When children and young people are exposed to bullying behavior, strong emotions are involved. Emotions play a major role in behavior, but are not as visible as behavior. Children who are exposed to bullying behavior may experience not being able to master the social arena. This can lead to a need for protection. This need for protection can lead to protective behavior such as anger, combined with feelings of inferiority such as shame.
Emotions are important initiators and drivers of behavior, and affect how we navigate and how we act. Children/youth who are exposed to bullying behavior are often plagued by painful and difficult emotions. These emotions often manifest themselves through behavior that can be difficult to both understand and handle, even for professional adults. We risk putting labels on children/youth, which becomes self-fulfilling prophecies, and which contributes to a negative spiral for the victim who needs warmth, recognition and understanding, but is met with the opposite.
This mechanism can lead to staff in daycare and schools misinterpreting and adopting legitimization of bullying behavior directed at a child/youth. We do not understand the victim's behavior, but we do understand the other children's reactions to it.
In this context, we can sometimes hear adults pronounce:
- "She makes bad choices."
- "She probably has some blame for this herself."
- "She just needs to toughen up!"
Employees adopt the legitimization of bullying behavior
When employees also adopt the legitimization of bullying behavior directed at a child/youth, we have a very serious development and situation for the victim. Employees who adopt the legitimization of bullying behavior are at risk of taking part in bullying behavior themselves or contributing with actions that directly or indirectly promote children's/students' bullying behavior. Such actions can be:
Adults place the responsibility for tidying up on the children/youth
As part of growing up, children and young people should learn, among other things, how to face resistance, assert themselves, and handle disagreements and conflicts. It is important that we allow children to practice and develop the skills they need for adulthood. When it comes to bullying or other offenses, that is a different matter. In that case, it is the professional adults who are responsible for resolving this, in collaboration with the person concerned and the parents. 6 The responsibility for resolving such a matter should never be placed on the children. Part of the role of a professional adult is to monitor, uncover, stop, handle and follow up on bullying and other offenses. If we place the responsibility for sorting things out on the children, we are not fulfilling the professional adult role, and we are not fulfilling the requirements of the Kindergarten Act and the Education Act. Adopting a passive attitude, where the responsibility for sorting things out is placed on the children, allows bullying behavior to continue and develop further.
Does not sufficiently fulfill the duty to accompany
Part of the obligations arising from the Kindergarten Act and the Education Act is the duty to observe. 7 Part of this duty involves developing a competent eye, which enables them to recognize bullying and other violations. Another part of this duty involves being present in the children’s play and activities, in order to be able to detect bullying and other violations. 8 The duty to observe is strict, and involves an obligation for the individual to be vigilant and actively observe how the children are doing and acting in interaction. 9 Violating the duty to observe violates the role as a professional adult and the requirements of the Education Act and the Kindergarten Act, and enables bullying behavior to continue and develop.
The adult lacks/does not use the competent gaze/the competent gaze is dulled
The competent gaze implies that each employee has the necessary knowledge about bullying and harassment, the cause of bullying and harassment, and what this may look like. 10 The employee must be able to recognize when bullying and harassment is occurring. The employee must also know when, where and how to use the competent gaze. The competent gaze is closely linked to the duty to follow, and is a prerequisite for fulfilling the requirements in the Education Act, Section 9 A-4, and the Kindergarten Act, Section 42. Adults who lack the competent gaze are not sufficiently able to recognize harassment and bullying, and are therefore unable to stop it. A factor that is closely related to a missing or dulled competent gaze is when the ability to take on the professional adult role becomes tired or dulled.
Does not sufficiently fulfill the duty of investigation
If an employee in a school or kindergarten suspects or becomes aware that a child is not safe and well, the matter must be investigated as soon as possible. There must be a low threshold for conducting investigations, and investigations must be carried out both on the basis of one's own observations through the duty to follow up, and if one receives a report that a child is not safe and well. All cases where the child reports themself must be followed up with investigations, to ensure that the duty to take action is fulfilled. 11 The duty to take action requires that measures be taken when the child's subjective experience is that they are not safe and well in their kindergarten or school. For kindergarten children, this also applies when parents report on behalf of the children. If one does not investigate the matter sufficiently when one suspects or becomes aware that a child is not safe and well, one risks not being able to take appropriate measures, and one does not meet the requirements of the law. It is possible that bullying and other violations are not detected and addressed adequately and in a timely manner.
The trivialization trap
As part of the duties related to the work for safe and good kindergarten and school environments, there is a duty to acknowledge, acknowledge and respect children’s subjective experience of their kindergarten or school environment. 12 Children should not experience that the experiences they express are questioned, or that they are trivialized. 13 This applies to both children who speak up and children who give nonverbal signals that something is not right.
Despite this clear obligation in the law, children and parents may experience statements such as:
- "You have to endure that."
- "I can see for myself that you are playing in every break."
- "Boys are boys."
- "That's how it is at this age."
- "We've finished with that matter and sorted it out."
Descriptions of children's own experiences of their kindergarten or school environment are one of the most important information channels for how the environment in the children's group is experienced. If we trivialize children's experiences, instead of listening, acknowledging, recognizing and respecting them, we are unable to fulfill our duty to act. We risk overlooking important information about conditions that we are obliged to investigate and address.
The excuse trap
The excuse trap is related to the trivialization trap, and involves doing the opposite of listening, acknowledging, acknowledging, and respecting. You start explaining how you think things are connected. When you start explaining, instead of listening and acknowledging, it can be perceived as not acknowledging and respecting the child's experiences. The explanations can be perceived as excuses.
"Know the family" trap
The “know the family” trap is closely related to the excuse-making trap and the trivialization trap. It means that one initially has a negative attitude towards the child, based on knowledge of other siblings and parents. One explains behavior and emotional expressions with “conditions in that home/in that family” and overlooks the child’s subjective and own experience of their kindergarten or school environment.
Does not sufficiently fulfill the obligation to take action
When we become aware that a child/youth is not feeling safe and well in kindergarten or school, a duty to take action is triggered. We have a duty to take appropriate measures to rectify the situation and ensure that the child is feeling safe and well again. Appropriate measures mean measures that are in the best interests of the child/youth and that safeguard their interests as best as possible. In this context, it is important that the child/youth's voice is heard. The measures must be justified professionally and based on research-based knowledge, principles and values. The measures must be adapted to the specific case and be put in context with the investigations that have been carried out. The duty to take action is closely linked to the requirement for continuous evaluation. The measures we take must work and resolve the problem within a reasonably short time. If it turns out that the measures are not working as intended, and the situation does not improve, we must take other and more intensive measures. If we do not fulfill the duty to take action sufficiently and actively implement measures, evaluations and adjustments until the issue is resolved, we do not meet the requirements of the law, and we are facilitating the situation to continue and possibly develop further.
Does not sufficiently fulfill the activity obligation
The activity obligation involves five sub-obligations:
- The duty to follow
- The duty to intervene
- The duty to notify
- The duty to investigate
- The duty to take action
The duty to act is one of the cornerstones of the work to ensure that all children have a safe and good kindergarten or school environment, which promotes health, well-being, inclusion and learning. The purpose is to act quickly and correctly when one or more children are not safe and well. If you do not know, understand or for other reasons are unable to fulfill the duty to act, you are not fulfilling your role as a professional adult, and you are not taking the responsibility you are given to ensure that all children have a safe and good kindergarten or school environment, which promotes health, well-being, inclusion and learning.
Negative child view/attitude problems
In order to fulfill our responsibility in the professional adult role, a number of requirements are placed on us. We must be able to build safe and good relationships. We must see the individual child/student, tolerate and acknowledge differences and different needs. If we have negative attitudes or perceptions of individual children, or children in general, this can hinder our exercise of a professional adult role. This can lead to us trivializing, explaining away, failing to follow up on the duty to act and not seeing what lies behind the children's behavior. This can lead to us having a greater risk of participating in legitimizing bullying behavior. We must develop and learn together with children/students, guide them and care for them. We must listen to their experiences, acknowledge and acknowledge them, and respect them. These requirements are value-laden and cannot be fulfilled without a positive view of children. If we do not have a positive view of children, we must learn it!
Statements that may reveal a negative view of children may include:
- "A little must be endured"
- "No wonder he doesn't have friends, he's so grumpy!"
- "This is not that serious"
- "She is very cunning"
- "She probably has some blame for this herself"
- "She just wants to run around and ruin other children's play"
- "Don't have time."
- “Children should learn to sort things out themselves.”
- "It will only get worse if you interfere."
- "It will probably pass."
- "It doesn't seem that serious/it doesn't go that deep."
- "The roles are switched, that applies to everyone."
- "It's no use what we do, as long as the parents keep doing it like that."
If we have attitudes like this, it hinders our ability to listen, acknowledge, recognize and respect children.
The employee violates the child and participates in bullying behavior
An employee with a negative view of children or bad attitudes is at risk of taking part in abuse or bullying behavior directed at the child/youth. Such abuse can come from a lack of understanding of the child/youth's behavioral and emotional expressions. Children/youth who have invisible wounds with strong emotions that ravage them are often difficult to understand. It can be difficult to react correctly to them when we do not understand ourselves. We risk putting labels on these children/youth, which can harm them and lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. We may perceive them as provocative, impossible, hopeless, rude, lazy, destructive, angry, evasive, sabotaging, troublesome, frightening, confusing or unstable, and we place responsibility for the behavior on them without considering the underlying reasons. With the goal of setting boundaries, we can fall into the trap of giving repeated talk that is served with negative emotions. The child/youth perceives criticism and scolding, and feels violated.
As adults, we have a great deal of influence on children. Our behavior and treatment of students reflects our attitudes towards them. This is picked up by the children/young people who adopt these and make them their own. Bullying behavior directed at the child/youth carried out by the employee can be both direct and indirect. As an employee in kindergarten and school, we are often in a position of power towards the child/youth and have great influence on the environment. Participating in bullying behavior towards a child/youth, either directly or indirectly, involves a serious breach of trust in the role as a professional adult and caregiver, and must be seen in the context of the fact that the person who offends and participates in bullying behavior is expected to prevent and prevent offenses and bullying from occurring.
Risk factors
Tools and measures
- FFS
- Analysis room
- Guidance