Responding to the Culture of Bullying and Disrespect
New Perspectives on Collaboration, Compassion, and Responsibility
- Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin - Bay Area Family Therapy & Training Associates (BAFTTA)
- Maureen Taylor - Elementary Teacher
"The book gives excellent ways to empower children, help them solve their own issues, and give them real strategies that will help them deal with difficult situations in the future."
—Elizabeth Barrett, Civics Teacher
Clark County Schools, Winchester, KY
Create a safe learning environment so students can achieve!
Bullying is an ongoing concern for students, with as many as half reporting that they have faced aggression or harassment at some point. This updated edition of Breaking the Culture of Bullying and Disrespect provides the tools to successfully respond to bullying and other negative behaviors by creating an environment that discourages negative behavior and encourages greater responsibility and respect.
The authors offer a comprehensive, therapeutic approach, complete with sample transcripts and activities. Instead of using punitive measures, which can model the very behaviors they are trying to eliminate, educators will discover how to establish a cooperative, caring environment and guide students in thinking about positive alternatives to misbehavior. This new edition features:
- Updated research, including real-life examples of successful experiences
- Additional case studies and a list of problem-solving questions
- A new chapter on brain research and how children learn
- An all-new section focusing on prevention methods
Empowering, enlightening, and practical, Responding to the Culture of Bullying and Disrespect is a necessary resource for teachers, administrators, and support staff dedicated to promoting respect, tolerance, and responsibility in their schools.
“The authors present respectful ways for dealing with bullying and disrespect, something that most educators, therapists, and parents will welcome.”
“The book gives excellent ways to empower children, help them solve their own issues, and give them real strategies that will help them deal with difficult situations in the future.”
"Provides educators with positive and realistic approaches to help alleviate bullying and disrespect in schools."
"This book is a well-organized, easy-to-understand resource to help teachers make appropriate accommodations for children displaying a variety of difficult behaviors."
Written for a broader age group, this new expanded edition provides readers with inspiring ideas in two new areas: First, how to use the fascinating findings from brain research to respond more effectively to existing difficult situations; Second, how to pro-actively prevent the development of relationship problems in the current world of bustling school cultures. Drawing from social research and neuroscience, this edition provides not only thought provoking insights into the thinking of students who struggle with various problem behaviors and how to help them, but also effective ways to cultivate their personal preference for respect in the school community. Rather than attempting to over control students, educators are invited to assist young people in the development of their own intrinsic motivation to be respectful. More specifically, this book provides concrete ideas to reduce the development of underground resentment, and, encourage students to make choices based on their personal values. This is done by providing a number of real life scenarios and respect promoting responses, transcripts of conversations with students who "hate" or "don't care", interviews with successful teachers, solutions to tricky situations, fun classroom activities, examples of programs and the detailed profile of a public school with low bullying rates. A particular emphasis is placed on changing problematic interactions that repeat themselves over and over again between either groups of students or a specific student and an educator. Ways of changing these pervasive patterns of interaction and avoid their escalation throughout the school year are discussed, as well as ways to develop more constructive and collaborative ways of relating.
With three new chapters loaded with strategies and creative ways of supporting positive changes, this book offers a realistic understanding of problems and many possibilities of actions to help all students become more response-able and respectful.
In sum, this new revised 2nd edition contains the material of three books in one: 1. The socio-cultural understandings of relational problems such as bullying and disrespect, 2. Effective and brain congruent ways of responding to such issues without damaging the precious educator-student relationship; and 3. Proactive ways to prevent relationship problems from escalating in a school community. This is an ideal book for educators and counselors who are interested in learning new skills to bring the best out of each and every person in the school regardless of their struggles, age, gender, race, and ethnicity. When adults and students co-create a culture of respect, collaboration, compassion and responsibility, schools can finally become safe places for learning.