Abstract:
Bullying and aggression are significant problems worldwide. Early childhood may provide an important window for intervention, highlighting a need for better knowledge of how teachers approach bullying and aggression in early childhood settings. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the experiences and beliefs of 17 early childhood teachers about positive social behaviour, bullying, and negative social behaviour, specifically aggression, in three-and four-year-old children. Teacher beliefs about bullying were explored, using each teacher's own definition and a traditional research-based definition, which includes three criteria: imbalance of power, intent to harm, and repetition. Strategies used to promote children's positive social behaviour and reduce negative social behaviour and bullying were also examined as well as where teachers had learned these strategies for supporting children's behaviour development. This study provides new information about New Zealand ECE teachers' attitudes and strategies for promoting positive social behaviour. The most common categories of positive social behaviour that teachers thought it was important to promote included positive social dispositions and empathy, cooperative working skills, relationship skills, and positive communication skills. The study found wide variation in the way teachers promote social learning, and that some teachers may not consistently use planned, proactive approaches to teaching positive behaviour. Participants identified a range of aggressive behaviour, including pushing, hitting, punching, spitting, disrupting play, exclusion, manipulation and saying, "I'm not your friend". Participants differentiated between relational and physical aggression in terms of how they perceived and intervened in incidents. However, most teachers were concerned about relational aggression and some thought it might be more serious than physical aggression at times. Teachers used a variety of contextual factors to decide whether to intervene and might intercede even in incidents they perceived as trivial if children were distressed. Study findings indicate that teachers' definitions of bullying may be closer to the research-based definition than prior research has suggested. Many of the teachers thought that young children could bully. Teachers in this sample appear to have had little training in managing children's behaviour overall. The study provides support for the view that it may be beneficial to provide bullying prevention training to early childhood teachers.