O fenômeno do bullying: implicações do ambiente escolar na prática da violência entre pares

Abstract

Violence in school environment has been an increasingly common problem. Bullying is characterized by an interpersonal relationship marked by an imbalance of forces, involving aggressive attitudes, intentional and repeated actions, taken by a student against another. Bullying does not occur by itself, but is related to various environmental factors. The research aimed to investigating the relationship between the school environments in all its aspects (physical and psychosocial) in bullying manifestation. The reference for this study was the Psychosocial Environment approach which is inserted in social relationships, the place and space dimension where they occur. We still had an attempt to bring to the critical discussion the traditional studies about the bullying phenomenon. Thus, the study contemplated a meticulous analysis of the school environment and the use of social subjects that constitute the routine of this phenomenon under investigation, since these aspects are inalienable dimensions in human behavior, particularly violence. In addition, we analyzed the perceptions of directors (N = 2), teachers (N = 8) and students (N = 24) enrolled in elementary school II (6th to 9th grade) about the phenomenon in two public schools in Manaus, where these phenomena were frequent. The research techniques were: participant lesson observations, semi structured interviews with directors and teachers. Regarding students focal groups were formed and analyzed by the use of graphic techniques. The results show that the school environment is a decisive factor for the manifestation and maintenance of bullying. Although relationships established between student-student, teacher-student, student-director and teacher-director are vital in the constitution of bullying, they are also influenced by aspects of organizational and spatial arrangement of the school. The study suggests that in order to have a psychosocial intervention on bullying it is necessary not only identify the contributing factors of bullying but also the environment where this phenomenon happens. In this sense, spatiality has its contribution that should not be ignored, if so, that could result into an incomplete analysis of the complexity of this phenomenon that brings repeated and permanent suffering to all involved.