Bullying and teacher training: contributions for a diagnosis

Abstract

This study analyzed the relation between theory and praxis among the curricula of 10 Public Universities, from two European countries, and the European Committee for Higher Education guidelines. These guidelines’ aim is to make universities offer training that properly addresses the European societies needs. Considering that bullying is a critical subject in schools, we decided to find if the word was even mentioned on a sample of about 1300 official syllabi. The results exposed an extensive absence of the term. The great majority of the documents we accessed showed no real adoption of the European recommendations regarding bullying and the praxis at pre-service teachers’ training programs. This study exposes the need to intensify coherence and strategy between 21st century important topics, educational policies and universities pre-service teachers’ training programs. Clearly, teachers need better training at the universities in order to be prepared to prevent, identify and deal with bullying in schools.

Bullying; Cyberbullying; Education policy; Curriculum; Teacher training