Academically At-Risk High School Students: Bullying, A Phenomenological Perspective
\nDr. Brad Grot, Dr. Annette Abel, and Dr. Holly Abel
\nLindsey Wilson College
\n210 Lindsey Wilson Street
\nColumbia, KY \u00a042728
\n859-213-2631
\ngrotb@lindsey.edu<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n This investigation queried the phenomenological perspective of the school counselor within the high school setting. The counselors\u2019 perspective was sought in this qualitative investigation to determine the impact of bullying on the academically at-risk population. The literature at present has neglected a population of high school students. The omitted population is the academically at-risk population. Researchers have identified many sub-populations of the \u201cat risk\u201d school category that traditionally included: culture, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. The academically at-risk student is another category and is inclusive of traditional \u201cat risk\u201d students. This population experiences (1) a grade point average below 2.0\u2014C, (2) absenteeism more than 15 days in a 90-day semester and (3) behavioral issues that impact successful matriculation. \u00a0At present, no research has been conducted about the academically at-risk high school student, and how bullying, contextually, impacts students, and how their counselors understand and perceive bullying.<\/p>\n Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n Michael Brewer (Kotz, 2009), Raymond Chase (Judd, 2010), Tyler Clementi (Foderaro, 2010), and Jeffrey Johnston (Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004) all share one commonality\u2014they have been victims of bullies. Unfortunately, of all the names listed, only one is a survivor of bullying; the rest are deceased because of bullying. Tyler Clementi received national attention in 2010 when he took his own life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Clementi recognized no other option than to end his own life after his roommate posted online a secret, sexual encounter with another man. Similarly, Raymond Chase and Jeffrey Johnston committed suicide via hanging as a result of bullying. Lastly, Michael Brewer, a 15-year-old from Deerfield Beach, Florida was bullied by five youths, who doused Michael with rubbing alcohol and then set him on fire. The victim was burned over 65% of his body and will never recover from the internal and external trauma.<\/p>\n Brewer, Chase, Clementi, and Johnston are only four victims of an omnipresent, universal form of hatred. Bullying is a form of violence that has been recognized as aggression and has been seminally defined by Olweus (1993) as having the following characteristics: (1) an individual is harmed; (2) the victim is not equal in size, strength, or power to the bully; and (3) the victim is abused repeatedly over a period of time. Likewise, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (\u201cWhat is bullying,\u201d n.d.) defines the bullying act quite like Olweus (1993), yet, builds upon Olweus\u2019s seminal definition. Bullying is multifaceted and composed of three specific types: verbal, social, and physical (\u201cWhat is bullying,\u201d n.d.).<\/p>\n Despite the prevalence, importance, and significance of bullying behaviors they have not received adequate research until recently (Lee, 2010). A short time ago, researchers began to concede the importance of social contexts that may well be explicative of bullying behavior (Espelage & Swearer, 2004; Morrison, 2006). Lee (2010) researched bullying behaviors utilizing an ecological system theory framework, demonstrating an evolving multilevel ecological model. Lee (2010) identified a best-fitting structural model of bullying behaviors and discovered that the ecological multi-level model accounted for 56% in variance in bullying behaviors. Bronfenbrenner\u2019s (1979) ecological systems approach to bullying behaviors was utilized to guide this investigation. Bronfenbrenner\u2019s theory (1979) is one that concentrates on the individual child, and these researchers have chosen to follow his theoretical tenets of an ecological systemic approach to investigate bullying behaviors.<\/p>\n Statement of the Problem<\/b><\/p>\n Quantitative research on bullying has looked at students\u2019 characteristics such as gender, age, race\/ethnicity, sexual orientation, health status, and learning\/developmental disabilities (Barboza, et al., 2009; Birkett, Espelage, & Koenig, 2009; Espelage & Horne, 2008; Rose, Monda-Amaya, & Espelage, 2009). \u00a0Contextual factors such as family background and relationships, school connectedness, and school climate have also been investigated (Espelage & Swearer, 2004; Spriggs, Iannotti, Nansel, & Haynie, 2007). In their review of research on bullying and victimization, Hong and Espelage (2012) concluded that racial\/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ students, students with health problems, students with learning\/developmental disabilities, and low-income students are at risk for bullying victimization in schools.<\/p>\n After completing a thorough literature review, it was found that researchers have neglected a significant population of high school students. The omitted student population is the academically at-risk population. Thus, the gap that exists at present is that no research has been conducted in reference to the academically at-risk high school student, and how bullying, within these exclusive at-risk high school environments, impacts students, and how their counselors understand and perceive bullying.<\/p>\n Purpose and Significance of the Study<\/b><\/p>\n The purpose of the current study is to gain phenomenological insight from high school counselors who serve the academic at-risk student about the \u201cwho,\u201d \u201cwhat,\u201d \u201cwhen,\u201d \u201cwhere,\u201d and \u201chow\u201d bullying presents itself and how it is perceived and understood from the perspective of the school counselor. Utilizing the phenomenological perspective, it is hoped that an understanding of bullying as experienced by the school counselor will be found by searching for commonality among lived experiences.<\/p>\n The importance of this study, primarily, is that no research to date has explored the phenomenological perspective of the school counselor about the at-risk high school population regarding bullying. This omission has ignored an important aspect of the experience of the bullied at-risk student. \u00a0By not fully understanding the ways in which the school counselor makes meaning of this phenomenon, educators cannot fully develop best practices for the academic at-risk students regarding this issue.<\/p>\n Research Questions<\/b><\/p>\n The overarching question in the current study is: What are the perceptions of bullying with at-risk students from the perspective of the school counselor within the school environment? \u00a0The sub-questions posed are (1) How do school counselors make meaning of the incidence of bullying within the academic at-risk school social environment? (2) What factors do school counselors feel influence bullying in at-risk students?<\/p>\n Literature Review<\/b><\/p>\n As portrayed in Charles Dickens\u2019s literary classic, Oliver Twist<\/i>, bullying has long been associated with childhood (Vaillancourt, Hymel, & McDougall, 2003). \u00a0However, despite the long-standing recognition of bullying in the literary world of fiction, bullying has only recently attracted the attention of scholars. \u00a0As a point of reference, the first study of the phenomenon was published only 49 years ago in 1969 by a school physician, P. P. Heinemann (Olweus, 1993). Subsequent to Dr. Heinemann\u2019s study, Olweus (1978, 1993) conducted an extensive empirical inquiry in Scandinavia during the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n According to Vaillancourt et al. (2003), bullying is a multifaceted behavior that is displayed by both males and females and has plagued the school system for eons. \u00a0School bullying has been a topic of discussion among educators, parents, and students (Patchin & Hinduja, 2010) for the last five decades, the topic has received attention from noteworthy researchers (Ericson, 2001; Olweus, 1978). There has been a plethora of research within the United States and internationally on the prevalence of student bullying and the correlates of bullying (Grossman et al., 2009).<\/p>\n As bullying has continued to draw attention internationally by educators, parents, researchers, and victims, bullying is now being recognized as a behavior that is \u201cnot a rite of passage,\u201d or acceptable behavior, and federal and state governments have begun to take proactive action. On the Federal level, Title IX of the 1972 Federal Education Amendment prohibits harassing behavior in schools. Title IX states that harassment includes a pattern of behavior or a single event, perpetrated by anyone that creates an intimidating or hostile environment where the targeted person cannot work or learn. Similarly, the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution has been used to protect against bullying and states that all schools are responsible for equally protecting all students, and that all citizens are due equal protection under the law (Ericson, 2001; Olweus, 1978).<\/p>\n A review of the literature finds that there are inconsistent findings in relation to the correlates of bullying. \u00a0Most of the studies have used quantitative research designs, and the inconsistencies may be related to varying definitions of bullying (Vaillancourt et al., 2003) and diverse operational definitions of the correlates in terms of how they were defined and measured. \u00a0While there are some qualitative studies looking at bullying from the perspective of the child or adolescent (Mishna, Wiener, & Pepler, 2008; Thornberg, 2007), there are limited qualitative research designs that explore bullying from a more holistic perspective, and few qualitative investigations of bullying from the perspective of the school counselor. \u00a0The goal of the current study was to address this gap in the literature.<\/p>\n Research Methodology<\/b><\/p>\n While a great deal of quantitative research has been done about bullying, there is limited authoritative research on the topic from the perspective of the school counselor who works with at-risk students. \u00a0The current research investigated the school counselors\u2019 phenomenological perceptions of bullying in an academically at-risk high school. For the current study, a qualitative methodology was used to explore the social phenomena of bullying among the academically at-risk high school population. \u00a0The qualitative paradigm was selected because there are multiple realities\/perceptions of bullying from the point of the individuals involved and the context. The goal was to ascertain context bound generalizations while utilizing flexibility in methodology. A phenomenological approach was utilized in this study as described by Edmund Husserl. One of the key principles of phenomenological inquiry is to ground the radical foundations of knowledge so the attacks on its rationality and procedures can be overcome. \u00a0Husserl understood that one would have to focus on how individuals perceive objects and events through their conscious state (Giorgi & Giorgi, 2008). The researchers also employed Creswell\u2019s (2007) phenomenology method to suspend all judgment about what is real (i.e., epoche). Epoche or bracketing was the first step in data analysis where the researcher sets aside their perceptions to understand the experiences of the participants of the study (Moustakas, 1994).<\/p>\n Sampling<\/b><\/p>\n