Citation

Moosa M. Acta Criminol. 2020; 33(2): 58-74.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Criminological Society of South Africa)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research shows that first-year pre-service teachers enter initial teacher education programmes with certain beliefs in place about schooling. This paper explores first-year preservice teachers' experiences of, beliefs and attitudes about bullying. Social Learning Theory and Theory of Planned Behaviour are used to shed light on bullying as a learned behaviour and the impact this could have on how pre-service teacher will handle incidents at school. Three hundred and five first-year pre-service teachers participated in a mixed-methods research study. Multiple-choice and open-ended questionnaires were collated and analysed. The paper argues that pre-service teachers use their personal experiences, beliefs and attitudes about bullying victimisation to make decisions on how to assist learners. The findings of this research indicate that more than half of this cohort has witnessed bullying at school at some point. They did nothing about it because of fear, inadequate reporting systems at schools and lack of action been taken by teachers. Should they witness bullying in schools as teachers they might opt to take the same approach if they are not adequately prepared. Nonetheless, they are willing to use their experiences of bullying to become proactive teachers and stop the cycle of bullying.

Language: en