Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)
Bullying behaviour is an increasing problem in secondary schools. As such, it should not be overlooked and ignored by the school authorities and communities. The secondary school principals, educators, SMT members, as well as parents have a responsibility toward the effort to eradicate bullying behaviour in schools. Failure to eliminate bullying in secondary schools would result in high dropout rates and poor concentration on school-work among learners.
A qualitative method was used in this study because it allows an in-depth, explorative, descriptive, and contextual approach to the topic. In the particular context of this study, the qualitative method involved extensive data collection on many variables, over a period of time, as the research explored bullying behaviour in its environmental setting, from a holistic perspective. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted with school principals, educators, school management teams and learners.
The analysis of the collected data revealed the need to adopt a whole-school approach to managing bullying behaviour in secondary schools, if this problem is to be effectively addressed. Indeed, a whole-school approach aims at using positive strategies to lessen bullying and help both the bullied and the bullies. Thus, special policies for dealing with bullying behaviour in secondary schools should be instituted and, learners should be made aware of the consequences of the non-observance of the anti-bullying policies.
Findings from the research were discussed with the participants and, the researcher indicated the contribution of this study to the effort to address the problem of bullying in secondary schools.