Experiences, Perspectives, and Meanings of Bullying Among Students in an All-Girls School

Bullying has been a growing concern in the Philippines, yet there seems to be a scarcity of research on school bullying (Suba, 2001; Bayhon, 2001). This study is an addition to the limited number of qualitative studies on bullying. Similar to other qualitative studies, this paper revealed what bullying means to those who experienced it. More importantly, this study addresses the gap on the inclusion of the bystander’s bullying experiences since most literatures missed out the significance of their experiences in the phenomenon.

Using Phenomenological Research Design, this study examined the perspectives on bullying, explored the bullying experiences, defined the effects of bullying, described how the school handled bullying experiences, and determined the understanding and meaning of bullying for those who experienced it—bullies, victims, and bystanders. Phenomenology studied the essence of these experiences from the point of view of those who experiencedit (Smith, Husserl, 2007). It captured the participants’ experiences of bullying focused on the core of shared experience (Patton, 1990). Participants of this study are fourteen Grade 4 to Grade 8 female students of Colegio de Sta. Rosa, Makati as identified bullies (N=5), victims (N=6), and bystanders (N=3).

Based from the findings of this studyit can be implied thatbullies, victims and bystanders view bullying as an undesirable behaviordirected towards a victim as a result of the bully’s dislike of her. The students’ perspectives of bullying are different from the meaning of bullying they developed based from their actual experiences. A student can play more than one role in a bullying circle—bullying another person, being bullied, witnessing bullyingor all those three. Bullying affected the students both positively and negatively; being most positive effects experienced by bullies and bystanders while negative effects experienced by the victims.

In order for the students to disclose their experiences to school authorities, they have to find them trustworthy and perceive that they would act to resolve their bullying experiences. Students find the counselor’s intervention mostly effective and satisfying.

Bullies felt empathy toward their victims but used this feeling to hurt their victims more; however, they experienced regret of hurting others. The victims believed that bullies have small chance to change and that bystanders were unwilling to help them. Meanwhile, bystanders believed that victims refused to be helped and that bullies had influenced them. The Counseling Framework developed from the study can serve as a basis for guidance counselors in processing the bullying experiences of the students and prevent bullying in school.

On the basis of the findings, it is recommended to research on the dynamics of the bullying phenomenon among older students and among boys for the basis of gender comparison in bullying. It is also recommended that in providing appropriate intervention for bullying, educators must understand the meaning of the phenomenon, collaborate with all the whole school and encourage parental involvement. The Counseling Framework derived from this study may be implemented in schools.