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The goal of implementing the EUBULLY project is to provide information and techniques to secondary school teachers in Timis county to decrease the incidence and effects of bullying. We have partnered with 24 schools and conducted workshops to train teachers on strategies to address bullying. The project includes initial training, self-directed learning, school visits, monitored activities in the classroom, and a final evaluation workshop.
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THE GOAL OF IMPLEMENTING THE EUBULLY PROJECT IN OUR REGION • The main goal of implementing this project in Timis county is to pass down information and techniques to a significant number of teachers from a seconday school level, in order to decrease both this phenomenon and its effects.
II. OUR NATIONAL PARTNERS & PLANS • Our main partners on a regional base are schools. We have chosen a number of 24 schools that sent a number of 58 teachers to join us in two workshops that took place in Lugoj and Timisoara. • We discussed with the directors of the schools, and the only criterion that we really insisted on was that the teachers who attended the workshops must be class masters and they must teach in secondary school. The main reason why we chose this criterion is the possibility of changes in child behavior that the age provides. • With each of these institutions we created a contract of partnership that lasts for one year, with the possibility of extending it for as long as it is needed in order to complete the requirements of the project. • The one-year activities that each teacher subscribed and finalised: • Initial training workshop • Self directed learning with coaching from trainers • School visits • Monitored activity delivered in the classroom • Final evaluation workshop
III. THE PREPARATION OF THE WORKSHOPS • As we mentioned earlier, we prepared two workshops, one in Lugoj, on 4th June 2015, and one in Timisoara, on 5th June 2015. • For these two workshops we prepared a significant number of activities that we were taught to use during the two trainings where we attended: the training in Timisoara with InSite Drama and the training in Birmingham with Spectacle Theatre. Both of these trainings had a significant role in the development of the EUBULLY project due to the fact that we came in contact with professionals. We had to absorb a lot of information that was not familiar to us, but the trainers helped in making things easier to learn. • For these workshops we had the following agenda
IV. THE AGENDA • Central theme: understanding the impact of bullying and the responsibility of different actors • Aims towards analyzing and debating the phenomenon : • - participants will get the chance to investigate the problem from different perspectives, and think about the responsibility of different actors in bullying, • - those who experienced bullying from one perspective (the bully /accomplice / bystander / the bullied) get the possibility to place themselves in other roles, • - participants get the possibility to understand the adults’ (parents’/teachers’) point of view as well • - group members get the chance to give advice and offer solidarity to the victims of bullying indirectly.
IV. THE AGENDA • Aims towards gaining certain features in practicing drama : • - Knowing the necessity of actively involving the members of the group. • - Knowing the fact that the information must come from within the group, not being presented in a simple way. • Gaining a good capacity of facilitating a given situation presented through a drama improvisation. • All this will happen within a fictive situation, under the protection of a role.
IV. THE AGENDA The structure of the drama Introduction Introduction by the facilitator. In case it is the first time she/he is meeting the group they could introduce themselves as well. “I brought you a story that we could look at together”. Warm-up game: to learn names / an energizer/ to make the group concentrate and ready. The use of this can depend on the needs of the group (optional element in the structure). Discussion: What does it depend on how a young person feels in his/her comunity?
IV. THE AGENDA Sharing the problem Marking the space: a bus stop near Timisoara. The bus stop is marked using three chairs by the facilitator. The surrounding is described with the participation of the group, what can be seen, what is the feeling of the space, what are the smells, etc. The chairs have strips of masking tape stuck on them. We ask the participants to write/draw the graffiti that is on the bus stop on to strips. These are then shared back, and discussed. The facilitator narrates: she/he will take on the role of Victor, who is 11 years old. We will see him on a school day in the afternoon. A short scene: Victor is fleeing, he throws his bag on the ground. “Fuckers.” Reads the graffiti, takes out a pen and writes something on top of one of them. Discussion: what did you see?
IV. THE AGENDA Analysing the situation from the victim’s side Narration: a teacher from the school saw Victor running away, but did not see what happened. The teacher follows Victor to the bus stop. Improvisation: one of the participants can play the teacher. The facilitator remains in the role of Victor, he does not tell what happened, tries to diverge the discussion, and says everything is fine. Discussion: What is stopping Victor in talking? The ideas voiced by the participants are written on masking tape and stuck between the spot where the teacher sat and the spot where Victor sat by the facilitator.
IV. THE AGENDA Analysing the situation form the perspective of the bully, the accomplice and the bystander A whole group still-image: Something happened at the school gate. The site is created with the group, the schools motto is put on the gate. We discuss what might have happened, but do not fix the roles of all participants. Whether the bullying brought in is physical or verbal, and the extent of it is decided by the participants. The image is set up step by step with the active participation of the group. Everyone should place themselves in the image finally. The facilitator stays in the role of the victim. Thought tracking: The facilitator goes around and asks everyone who she/he touches on the shoulder to say something or do a gesture. What is said could be something that their role would actually say or do in that situation, or a thought that remains in their head.This is the only situation in the drama where a participant plays the role of the bully, in all other moments both the role of the bully and the victim is taken on by the facilitator. It might be useful to reinforce the fictional nature of the situation, that everyone is playing a role.
IV. THE AGENDA Creating depth: the bully, an accomplice and a bystander is chosen by the facilitator, they are all given fictional names. We discuss the following in all three cases: action / what is she/he doing? motivation / why is she/he doing it? investment / what is at stake for her/him? Working in groups on images or scenes: three groups work on a different role, either the bully, or the accomplice or the bystander, and look at what their model for action was. Where did they learn to do this? These scenes or images are shared. While they are shared the facilitator discusses: what is their stance - what do they say with their action what is life for?
IV. THE AGENDA Possibilities to change the victim’s situation Small group discussion: what could the different actors do to improve the situation? The participants collect ideas about what the following people could do: classmates who are bystanders teachers parent victim The groups share their ideas with each other. Whole group improvisation: There will probably be suggestion for the bystanders to do something. We should choose a situation where this could actually happen and test it out as an improvisation. The victim is not present in this moment, and the role of the bully is taken on by the facilitator. The situation should be taken in the direction of placing the bully (facilitator in role) to stand opposed to the group and make it possible for the group to get their message through in the safety of the fiction to the actual bullies in the group by aiming it at the facilitator.
IV. THE AGENDA Reflection and closing the process Discussion about any issues arising from the whole group improvisation. One possibility is discussing the responsibility of different people in letting this situation develop. What could have been done at other points? Recapping the main objectives that must be achieved: • The facilitator must always take care of the children within a group (he will never place them in a delicate situation). • The facilitator must always use fictional names. • The facilitator will always play the active role of the victim. • The facilitator will always guide the scene according to his goals, accepting all the ideas coming from within the group. • The facilitator will receive answers from within the group, while actively involving every member of the group.
IV. THE AGENDA Closing The facilitator asks the group to stay in one of the corners of the room and he places an object on the other side of the room. He tells the group that the object represents the highest level of knowledge gained by the group, then asks every member of the group to position themselves according to their own beliefs. According to every members’ positioning, the facilitator asks the participants to make groups of two people and to have a discussion between them through which to emphasise the ups and downs of the workshop.
V. ACTIVITIES AND REACTIONS • During the workshops we managed to apply every activity written in the agenda, actively involving every teacher and discussing every point of view. • We encountered a huge variety of reactions, both optimistic and pessimistic. Teachers are not used to this kind of approach and were afraid of not achieving the expected results. After discussions regarding this matter, they fully agreed that this innovative way of approaching the phenomenon has a lot of potential, especially due to the fact that the age of the children allows changes in their behavior. • As always, another problem was that the play and discussions trended to escalate in other, more serious areas, in which we did not want to enter, but we did analyze them shortly.
V. MONITORING PERIOD & SCHOOL VISITS • During October 2015 – January 2016 23 schools were visited, monitoring activities happened. • Each enrolled teacher made a class and / or school activity with the children and EUBULLY trainers were invited. All teachers have chosen to use drama. • For each activity we have a monitoring sheet explaining what the activity is, an attendance sheet with the involved children, photos & videos made by the children. • During this period a number of 686 pupils attended and got involved in the activities: • Primary cycle: 1st grade (26 children) • Secondary cycle: 5th grade (162), 6th grade (176), 7th grade (111), 8th grade (60) • High school: 9th grade (32), 10th grade (12), 11th grade (56), 12 grade (51)
VI. THE SECOND PERIOD OF WORKSHOPS According to the schedule of events that were programmed in Timis county for the implementation of the EUBULLY Project, in May we organized a workshop in Timisoara and one in Lugoj, at the same location at which the first workshops were held, Strelitia Hotel for Timisoara and restaurant Royal for Lugoj. Thess workshops’ main goal was to discuss the conclusions and feedback of the activities that took place in each school after the initial workshops.
VI. THE SECOND PERIOD OF WORKSHOPS Once the 58 teachers were informed of the means in which we wanted to tackle the problem of bullying, they had to organize in each school at least one activity similar or identical to those revealed during the first workshop. The ones responsible with the surveillance of those activities were members of the CPIP crew and took part in each one: Mr. Bacioiu Florin for the schools from Timisoara and Pistrui Paul for the schools from Lugoj, under the direct surveillance of CPIP Director, PanaRodica. .
VI. THE SECOND PERIOD OF WORKSHOPS During these meetings the teachers who participated had mixed opinions about the feedback and the effects of this way of tackling the bullying behavior. Whilst many of them did agree it had a powerful impact on the children’s behavior, some of them remained silenced when we asked about the effects. Although there were mixed opinions regarding this procedure, the teachers wanted to make this kind of activities a habit in their schools, but they insisted that each lesson must have something new, something that catches the children’s attention. The same lesson reapplied several times tends to bore the kids, and the goal of these types of lessons won’t be achieved.
VI. THE SECOND PERIOD OF WORKSHOPS Again, the discussions escalated a little, because we talked about alternative ways to combine these lessons with the help of important authorities like psychologists who are involved in schools. The main problem which was discovered was that teachers cannot communicate properly with children and their parents and tend to lose their authority during classes. They said that it was a problem of mentality that affects the partnership teacher-student-parent. A lot of them emphasized the fact that family issues tend to affect their students’ behavior (divorced parents and families that have one or more parents working abroad).
VI. THE SECOND PERIOD OF WORKSHOPS Overall, the activities were a success, the children’s behavior changing drastically. A lot of them changed their gestures and language, becoming supporters of bullying victims, even the ones that practiced bullying. Teachers were interested in this new, innovative way of trying to solve the problem, some of them were even asking for a sustained partnership that could go on beyond this project’s time limits. The following slides will be dedicated to showing you a couple of photos that were taken during the workshops with the teachers and during the activities which were held in schools.
