Troubles between Students that were Constructed as a “Bullying Problem” and the Responsive Action taken by the School:

An Analysis of Local Reality through Teacher Narratives

Abstract

In the process of making the “bullying problem” a social problem over the past 30 years, criticism aimed at schools continues to be strengthened. In such a society, a teacher who becomes a party to the “bullying problem” is cornered into a situation where he or she cannot insist on the logic of his or her own educational practice during the discourse in public space.

This paper proposes a clarification of the educational practice of a school which confronts student troubles through the narrative of a teacher who is a party to the case of City A, where a social problem was turned into a case of “bullying.” The local reality that is analyzed through the teacher’s narrative gives suggestions for considering today’s “bullying problem.”

First, the school did not treat troubles between the students as a “bullying problem” either before or after being recognized as a social problem. This does not necessarily mean that there was an error of recognition by the school. The school paid sufficient attention to both kinds of students, guided students who tended to cause damage, and supported students who were in a vulnerable position at the school. This suggests that it is not necessary to define trouble in terms of how the teacher guides and supports both types of students.

Second, after being recognized as a social problem, the school fixes its eyes on the lives of students in the future, supports learning for both the students on the offender side and students on the victim side and establishes an opportunity for apology between their parents. This clarifies the role of the school as the coordinator between the people concerned in the case. It is possible to understand that the school and the teacher struggle as coordinators between the people concerned, including the parents, to examine the “bullying problem” through the teacher’s narrative.

Lastly, the constructive approach contributes to deconstruction of the discourse of the “bullying problem” in public space. It has not, however, paid attention to how the school and the teacher recognized the trouble before turning a social problem into a “bullying” case. By comprehending the situation where it is recognized that there is a necessity for some kind of responsive action at the school regarding the concepts of trouble, it becomes possible to take up for discussion troubles that were previously recognized as social problems. Furthermore, it becomes possible to consider the “bullying problem” while recognizing the possibility that the school experiences problems that are different from the “bullying problem” discussed in public discourse. In other words, the study of the “bullying problem” can be the study of trouble occurring between students during everyday school life. Therefore, it becomes conclusively important that the teacher expresses how he/she recognizes and responds to trouble between students, and that the researcher describes educational considerations that derive from the teacher’s narrative.