Australian Indigenous

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• The Friendly Schools Bullying Intervention Project: adapting resources for use in remote Indigenous school settings added 1 October 2004

1. Literature review to identify successful processes for applying health promotion programs in Indigenous school settings.
2. Consultation with key Indigenous individuals in the WA Aboriginal Education Directorate to gather information about issues related to bullying behaviours in Indigenous schools settings.
3. Analysis of qualitative information collected to identify key themes.
4. Discussion and recommendations related to key themes.

The thirteen District Offices of the WA Aboriginal Education Directorate were approached to participate, and interviews (either face to face or via telephone) were conducted with a range of Managers, Coodinators and Aboriginal Liaison Officers from across WA. A total of 25 individuals participated in this process. Fifteen trainee Aboriginal Health Workers from Marr Mooditj Aboriginal College also participated in a group discussion.

A set of open-ended questions was developed in order to gather information in relation to the characteristics, management and prevention of bullying in Indigenous school settings, along with ideas on processes for the appropriate cultural adaptation of resources.

With consent from participants, each interview was recorded either by hand or audiotaped, and later transcribed. All original tape recordings have since been destroyed, and no individual names have been used when reporting the findings.

Analysis of the information provided by participants has identified a number of common themes related to the characteristics of bullying, the influence of Indigenous culture, the impact of the school environment, issues relating to Indigenous students and their families, and the impact of racism on bullying behaviours.

Despite the many stories of individual schools and teachers working closely with Indigenous families and communities to deal with bullying issues, there was a general impression that on a larger scale there is an apparent lack of acknowledgement by the larger education sector of the significance of Indigenous culture and its influence on bullying behaviour in the school setting.

This was reflected in the common themes of:

• the generally poor understanding and management of bullying behaviours
• some teachers' lack of cultural awareness and interest in same
• the negative attitude of some teachers towards Indigenous students
• the variable role of AIEOs in behaviour management
• the lack of recognition of cultural diversity in many school systems
• the lack of Indigenous family involvement in many school communities
• the poor management of racism issues

Many of these themes are supported by the findings from previous research.

The findings of this research project suggest that before any attempts are made to adapt current bullying resources for use in Indigenous school settings, suitable processes must be determined to enhance the promotion of cultural awareness, improve teacher understanding and appreciation of the behaviour of Indigenous children and its management, and promote a whole-of-school approach to address bullying issues, which encourages both family and community participation. Indigenous views must be listened to and respected.

There must be further investigation of those situations where bullying issues are managed well, and the question asked 'why does this work?' Non-Indigenous teachers, AIEOs, Indigenous students and their families must be given the opportunity to contribute to this discussion, and it is apparent that further research is required beyond the scope of the current project.

Consequently consultations with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals and groups across the larger education sector are planned to continue and will be used to enhance the development and testing of suitable bullying intervention programs for both rural and remote Indigenous school settings.

Abstract reproduced with the permission of the author

Last updated: 11 January, 2005