Using the quality circle approach to empower disadvantaged youth in addressing cyberbullying: an exploration across five European countries

ABSTRACT

Digital communication technologies play an important role in the social development of young people, but can create vulnerabilities to cyberbullying and other negative online experiences. The Blurred Lives project aimed to tackle cyberbullying innovatively using a co-participatory approach, collaborating with 14–16-year olds living in areas of socio-economic disadvantage in five European countries. In phase one, 2,658 teenagers were surveyed on their internet use and any unpleasant online experiences. This data informed the second phase where the participating countries worked together with 237 adolescents across 10 schools with adult facilitators to create original anti-cyberbullying resources for teachers, parents/carers, peers, and social media providers using the Quality Circle approach. This methodology adopts an ethos of working together to solve a problem in small, peer-led groups. Each group was tasked with creating a resource for one of the target audience groups. The final resources comprise a rich variety of different formats including videos, comic strips, a board game, leaflets, posters, and newsletters. The pupil feedback highlights, for most but not all participants, an increased knowledge of cyberbullying and e-safety skills, as well as enhanced problem-solving skills, levels of confidence, and group work skills. Several operational challenges are also discussed, including the importance of school-level support, planning, staffing, and finding an appropriate balance between facilitator support and pupil agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyberbullying
• co-participation
• quality circles
• social disadvantage
• adolescents

Acknowledgments

With thanks to all participating staff and pupils, project team members and additional QC facilitators across all five partner countries (listed below by country):

England: Emma King, Simone Paul, Susanne Robinson, Binbin Gu

Germany: Annegret Roschlau, Amrita Choudhuri, Maria Stoykova, Madita Siddique

Italy: Laura Menabò, Felicia Roga, Luana Fusaro, Sandra Maria Elena Nicoletti, Margherita Baldi,Carla Salvatore

Netherlands: Lizzy van der Linden

Disclosure statement

Dr Barbara Spears was an advisor to the Blurred Lives project; she is an editor of this special issue.

Notes

1. https://www.ou.nl/web/blurred-lives.

2. https://www.ou.nl/web/blurred-lives/resources.

3. See Appendix 1 for pupil evaluation questions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Erasmus+ under Key Action 2: Strategic Partnerships for School Education [Project Code 2017-1-UK01-KA201-036554].