Date of Graduation

2008

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This study addressed the overarching question: Can the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire provide a framework for a better understanding of school bullying in the United States? In order to address the overarching question, the following questions were answered: (1) What is the state of information available on bullying in the United States? (2) How does selected works authored by Paulo Freire provide an understanding of oppressive relationships? (3) What has been written about Paulo Freire's influence on selected educators who teach in America? (4) What were the perspectives on bullying from selected educators whose practices are grounded in Freirean ideas? and (5) How did selected educators who teach in America describe bullying in their school contexts and their approaches for managing it? This descriptive study included three questionnaire/surveys completed by those whose teaching and learning practices are influenced by Paulo Freire which takes the form of emancipatory education. The sample included one –male and two females. The educators responded to seven open-ended questions. The results showed that low-level aggression has the potential to escalate into the kind of violent acts prevalent in the news since the late 1990s. Bullying must be understood as something that can occur at more than one level. For example, there is bullying among students, and there is bullying done to students by teachers, who are guided by ideological beliefs and structural components. There is no quick fix for managing bullying. It is through the efforts of everyone in a given school context that bullying can be managed overtime. Paulo Freire believed that oppressive relationships dehumanized the oppressed and the oppressor. In the case of bullying, the bully, victim, and bystander are dehumanized. Structural components that coerce teachers and students to “fit” into dominant ideologies dehumanize teachers and students. The full development of any human being requires a living and learning space that nurtures freedom and justice. Freire's work provided alternative ways of parenting, and teaching and learning that could break the cycle of authoritative, hierarchal, asymmetrical relationships, and oppressive relationships.

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