Children's strategies in addressing bullying situations in day care and preschool

Abstract

Bullying is a common phenomenon in early childhood education. It is also difficult to erase from the classroom activities and it may have long-lasting effects on children. In this article, bullying is studied from the perspective of the victims. Three- to seven-year-old children answered the question ‘another child comes to tease you, what do you do?'. Children's strategies were classified as accommodative, participative, dominant, withdrawn or uncertain [Reunamo, J. T. (2007). Adaptation and agency in early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(3), 365–377]. The classified interview data were inserted to the observation data of children's activities. The participatory strategies for tackling bullying increased with age. The different strategies described in the interview were connected with children's observed action. These tendencies resulting in different kinds of learning are discussed. Both the victims and the bully should get practice with a rich variety of strategies for participation to find more positive strategies for interaction.

Keywords:

• bullying
• early childhood
• agency
• peer relations
• participation

Notes on contributors

Jyrki Reunamo, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor and university lecturer at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His research interests include early childhood, research methods, IT, sustainable education, physical education and language. He is the director of the Orientation project (http://blogs.helsinki.fi/orientate/), an early childhood research and development project. Reunamo’s list of publication is at http://www.helsinki.fi/reunamo/article/lto-art.htm.

Milla Kalliomaa is a master of education who made her master's thesis on children's strategies in bullying situations using the data described in the article. She is working as a director in Mannerheim League for Child welfare in Finland.

Laura Repo is a Ph.D. student at the University of Helsinki in the Department of Teacher Education and Early Childhood Education. Her research interests include bullying in early childhood education and psychological well-being in early educational settings.

Essi Salminen is a master of education who made her master’s thesis on how children orientate in disturbing situations using the data described in the article. She is working as a pre-school teacher in the city of Lahti, Finland, and studying special education at the University of Helsinki.

Hui-Chun Lee studied her Ph.D. in England during 1996–2002. She has been an associate professor since 2003. During her academic career, she has five years of experience as a head in a government-owned, university run day-care centre. Her special interests are teacher’s professionalism and knowledge to practice in the early years’ Educare. She has participated in the Finnish-Taiwanese research project since 2009 and moved her career to Tzu-Chi University at Hualien in 2011.

Li-Chen Wang, Ph.D., is an associate professor of the Department of Child Education and Care at Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Her academic disciplines include early childhood education, curriculum studies and bilingual education. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from the Kent State University, Ohio, USA. Dr Wang’s research interests focus on children agency, sociolinguistic studies and outdoor play in preschool.