Bullying is part our culture, so bullying in schools just reflects that.

And anyway, bullying can have some positive effects .

This paper will look at the above statement and shall be discus the key aspects it addresses. Firstly a definition of culture will be given so that the culture of bullying within society can then be discussed. Following on from looking at bullying within society, bullying within schools shall be looked at, including the prevalence and severity of it, to compare and contrast what goes on in schools to what happens in society as a whole. To finish the notion that bullying can have some positive effects shall be discussed, and an overall summery of the above statement shall be given. Culture has been defined by many different people, in many different ways. Haralambos and Holborn (1990, p.2) defined it as a "way of life" that is learnt. Bauman (1999) looked at culture in a number of ways, he looked at; culture as a concept, culture as a structure and culture as praxis. It is when looking at his views on culture as a concept he states culture is used to explain differences between communities of people (p.13), by splitting them into a number of small groups, almost as a way to segment different communities. And there have been many others who have provided definitions for culture such as; Ned (1984), Hofstede (2003) and Berlage (2009). It is clear that there is a large amount of debate about the precise meaning of culture, however Raymond Williams (1976) who carried out research into the definition of culture, and he has identified three broad categories of the definition in general use: A general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development A particular way of life, whether it is of a people, a period of history, a group or humanity in general The works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity. Raymond Williams, 1976, p.90

From the definitions looked at by this paper, Williams (1976) definition of "A particular way of life, whether it is of a people, a period of history, a group or humanity in general" shall be considered to be correct throughout. The notion of bullying within society as a whole needs to be identified, Eisenberg and Aalsma (2005) looked into bullying and peer victimisation, focusing on three main areas; harassment, victimisation and bullying. They used these three areas for the same reason, and used them as they defined all three as; behaviour that is intended to harm, which is carried out repeatedly over time and occurs in an interpersonal relationship where there is an imbalance of power. Further to this, research carried out in the U.S. showed an estimated 37% of workers, around 54 million people, have been bullied in their workplace (Hulijich, 2012, online). However research in the UK has shown a higher percentage with research carried out by Hodson, Roscigno and Lopez (2006, P. 391) showed that 49% of the total workplaces analyzed experienced bullying on a "routine bases". So it is clear to see that bullying occurs in a large amount of work places, in many different peoples way of life, in a large amount of current day cultures. Heinz Leymann was a German physician and he was studying bullying in adults in the 1980's and 1990's (Leymann, 1990). So it is also clear that bullying in workplaces is not a modern day phenomenon, it has been happening for well over 30 years. Bullying therefore is something which is prevalent in today's society and across human cultures, therefore why should our school system be any different. Within schools students can be defined as being bullied when "he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students." (Olweus, 1996, p9). This definition is very similar to the definition given above by Eisenberg and Aalsma (2005) for bullying within society and in the workplace. It is clear to see that bullying is part of our culture, and by having a similar definition to bullying within schools compared to within society as a whole, it will be easier to show how bullying within schools reflects that. Within Schools there are many different sub-cultures, Blatchford (1998) carried out a study of children as young as 7 and found sub-cultures forming in the playground, Glover, D., Gough, G., Johnson, M., and Cartwright, N., (2000) did

a large amount of research into bullying within schools, they found that 21 per cent of reported physical bullying and 50 per cent of teasing occurring in the classroom, so by having different sub cultures within the classrooms' as well as externally, it is more than possible for students to be bullied by different groups I different situations. The research Glover, D., Gough, G., Johnson, M., and Cartwright, N., (2000) carried out gave numbers of 1 in 10 pupils were bullied physically, however they also stated that they believed the figure could actually be twice that. They also suggested that 1 in 8 did the bullying, indicating that there are more bullies than there are victims within a school setting, this is mainly down to larger groups picking on individuals. However, like in society the true nature of bullying within schools is not fully known, Sharp, Thompson, and Arora (2000) surveyed children using a questionnaire based on work by Olweus (1994) and found that 49% of the students reported that they had been bullied in the year preceding the survey. Whitney and Smith's (1993) carried out research on over 6000 pupils, across 24 schools and found an average of 10% of secondary school pupils reported being bullied. It is clear that the number of pupils who are bullied varies from school to school, but it seems to be not too dissimilar from the number of adults bullied within the workplace. It is also interesting to notice that similarly to within society as a whole, as Aalsma (2005) noted that bullying occurs when there is an imbalance of power within the interpersonal relationships' between people. The research carried out by Glover, D., Gough, G., Johnson, M., and Cartwright, N., (2000) within schools, shows that the imbalance of power is primarily physical with victims likely to be those who can be picked on for these problems; height is a factor in 41 per cent of cases; weight problems a factor in 28 per cent; and a range of disabilities, of which poor eyesight, asthma and acne each affect over 25 per cent of the victims. The negative effects of bullying on students has been very well researched and is widely known, bullies are more likely to drop out of school and to engage in delinquent and criminal behaviour. also the victims are more likely to have higher levels of anxiety, stress, greater levels of depression and increased likeliness of illness, as well as an increased tendency to suicide (Morrison, 2002).

However, there has been some research into the possitive aspects of bullying and how it can not only help the bully, but also the victim. Sutton, Smith and Swettenham (1999) looked into the bully, they noted that they were at a social advantage as he or she generally "possessed social cognition skills that were superior to the Followers and the Victims". This means that bullies themselves learn a lot about the social hierarchy as well as how to act and control a group, potentially leading to the development of high level leadership traits. Olweus, D. (1993) looked more into the victim, he noted that more proactive victims can use the experience as a positive, and are able to increase their own social skills, and by acquiring a better understanding of informal social rules they can reduce bullying and fit in within their school and society as a whole much better. Olweus did also find that when a student is bullied, parents who do not allow their children to deal with the issues on their own and are too overprotective can actually increase a Childs isolation from his/her peers.

This paper does by no stretch of the imagination support bullying as a practice, however, it does suggest that bullying is something that happens, it happens in primary school, up through secondary school and then even once your an adult in a work place setting, bullying is still prevalent. There have been many different attempts to reduce / stop bullying, both in the work place and in schools (anti-bullying alliance, anti-bullying network, childline) however it is clear that this is one of the hardest things to stop, therefore, people who are bullied, and bullies themselves should get the most out of the experience as possible, they should learn from it as an experience and improve their social skills. So as the statement claimed 'Bullying is part our culture, so bullying in schools just reflects that. And anyway, bullying can have some positive effects .

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