This thesis starts with a detailed review of studies on the short-term and long-term effects of bullying on children’s physical and mental health (part A).  Many cross-sectional studies show that children’s involvement in bullying is related to several physical and psychological problems.  Longitudinal research indicates that bullying is a strong risk marker for anti-sociality and future criminality.  The necessity arises to examine the extent to which bullying prevention programmes are effective in tackling bullying. Part B presents a systematic and meta-analytic review of the effectiveness of anti-bullying programmes.  It includes programmes that were implemented and evaluated I schools, with the aim of reducing bullying and/or victimisation.  This project followed 25 years of intervention research and was based on extensive searches, for example all volumes of 35 journals were hand-searched from 1983 to 2008.  Intervention components within each programme were coded and correlated with the effect sizes, so that solid conclusions could be drawn about what works in preventing bullying, for whom and under what circumstances.  I conclude that anti-bullying programmes are effective, but that future programmes are needed that are based on empirically validated theories of bullying. Part C begins with a review of previous theoretical perspectives that have been utilized in the understanding of bullying.  It then focuses on testing the applicability of two criminological theories in explaining sibling and peer bullying, namely Reintegrative Shaming Theory and Defiance Theory.  These two theories were chosen because of their importance and many points of convergence.  Part C is based on a survey that was conducted with primary school children.  The emphasis is on sibling bullying, which –unlike peer bullying- is an under-researched topic.  In line with the postulates of the two theories, I establish which family factors are related to sibling bullying and make recommendations about how best to utilize the survey findings for the prevention of bullying. Part D is based on another survey that was constructed and used with both primary and secondary school children.  The theoretical constructs of Defiance Theory were operationalized and empirically tested using the same questionnaire so that comparisons based on the two datasets – as well as final conclusions – could be drawn based on age and gender differences.  The focal point of part D is on teacher-targeted bullying perpetrated by students, which is a highly neglected area of research.  In part D, as in part C, some hypotheses are experimentally tested using vignettes so that solid inferences can be drawn about the applicability of the theory to the context of teacher-targeted bullying behaviour.

In this thesis I present a snapshot of the university lives and experiences of 17 gay male undergraduate students attending an institution in the UK.  I draw upon thematic analysis of data obtained from individual, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews.  My focus is the ways participants’ higher education biographies compare and contrast with dominant accounts of the gay student experience, which are characterised by intolerance, harassment, victimisation, heterosexism and homophobia. My theoretical framework is derived from university space being, like all non-gay-specific space, pervaded by discourses of compulsory heterosexuality (Rich 1980) and the workings of the heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1990). I am interested in how participants produced, expressed, managed and negotiated their alternative identities in these higher education settings.  I therefore interrogate the role and importance participants ascribe their gayness at university, the effect and influence of their sexuality on their university choices and on their relationships with flatmates, their coming out narratives and experiences in higher education. Findings often contrast with those typically reported in academic literature, both in participants’ marked decentralisation of their non-heterosexuality in self-identification, and in portrayals of gay students as other than victims of harassment, discrimination and persecution. Although participants are very much aware of the regulatory heteronormative mechanisms of straight discourse operating within university spaces, they are highly sensitive and skilled in expressing, monitoring, adapting, asserting, and negotiating their identities in these environments.  In fact, participants framed university as a generally positive, tolerant, accepting and happy place in which to be gay. I therefore argue that these ‘new’ stories and ways of ‘living differently’ should be acknowledged to enrich and further understanding of this population’s experiences within higher education.

Although there are an abundance of studies which have addressed the relationship between clothing and youth identity, few have attempted to place it in the context of the various structural issues that help frame it. Such an undertaking is deemed important because any difficulties young people may experience in putting together a peer-approved clothed appearance is considered likely to carry profound implications, both socially and psychologically, in terms of the bullying, and social exclusion that can often result (e.g. Edwards, 2000). In thus seeking to develop a fuller understanding of how a range of young people perceive and practically enact their various clothing agenda, this investigation aims to privilege the subjective meanings and lived experiences of a diverse group of teenagers aged 14 to 17. A set of informal, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with teenagers drawn from a diverse range of social backgrounds, which allowed a wide array of structural factors to be accommodated. The evidence collected indicates firstly, that young people’s clothing agendas are not as identity-oriented as most consumption-based theories of postmodernity and ‘post-subculture’ are inclined to suggest. Instead, they tend to be focused more squarely on a more mundane and modest goal, that of mere peer acceptance into the immediate social networks to which they belong, or aspire to join. In fact, given the severity of the consequences of failing to achieve this objective, the clothing projects of many youth are perhaps best conceptualised as exercises in ‘survival’.Crucially, teenagers’ prospects of accomplishing this goal of survival, and /or using clothing to choose from the range of identity-options that are available are mediated in critical ways by their structural locations, and their attendant access to important resources of economic, cultural and social capital.

This qualitative research aimed to explore what male adolescents with higher-functioning Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) understand by the term ‘bullying’, and how they experience incidents they perceive as such. It considers these questions within the context of their wider social understanding, and relationships. Nine male adolescents, aged between 11-18 years old, with diagnoses of higher-functioning ASCs were interviewed. Four participants attended mainstream educational provisions, four attended specialised ASC provisions and one attended a specialist provision for those with behavioural difficulties. Interviews covered areas of interest, school, people they felt were important to them, friendships, and experiences of bullying either as a victim, bystander and/or bully. Each interview was transcribed, and qualitatively analysed using thematic analysis. Four major themes emerged. These related to the participants’ conceptualisation of their relationships, their understanding and definition of bullying, the important roles of others within the bullying dynamic, and the participants’ personal repertoire of responses to bullying incidents. This research highlights the need for adolescents with higher-functioning ASCs to be explicitly taught about the more subtle forms of bullying behaviour. It also suggests they would benefit from instruction on age-appropriate strategies with which to respond to bullying attempts. The topic of bullying may also serve as a catalyst for discussing social nuances with young people with higher-functioning ASCs, and build on their understanding of reciprocity and loyalty in friendship.

Throughout fieldwork conducted in a primary school of southwest Greece, thirty one 11-12 year old pupils offered their perspectives of school bullying. Moreover, they wrote and talked about their related experiences. The children’s reports indicate that reaching a consensus of what constitutes a bullying act, when real life incidents are concerned, is unrealistic. The explanations that the children offered, linking bullying to a network of personal, socio-cultural and organisational factors, confirm the multi-causal nature of the phenomenon.  However, a dominant perspective taken, explains bullying as being provoked by a “deserving” victim, who is deemed as transgressing the existing socio-cultural norms.  Regarding the “bullies”’ motives, their behaviour is understood as conformity to the existing socio-cultural requests rather than representing feelings of malice or hostility.  The pupils’ responses to bullying seem to constitute a struggle to safeguard desirable social identities, these being dictated by the existing socio-cultural norms, rather than tackle the phenomenon itself. The study additionally highlights the power of the Greek terminology to either mask, or connote and reproduce exclusive socio-cultural meanings and practices and discusses the related implications. The importance of language as a social means used for achieving personal goals is emphasised.  This is because through the rationales, excuses and justifications which the pupils offer, meanings of bullying are constructed so that to fit the Greek socio-cultural reality, thus the phenomenon being normalised.  It is suggested that culture and context should not be overlooked when anti-bullying school programs are being designed.

This thesis reports on a research study aimed at examining the impact of informal and formal assessment on the self-esteem of pupils with borderline difficulties and language deficiencies learning in mixed ability English language classes. The thesis adopted a qualitative ethnographic methodology with triangulated methods to enquire into macro and micro views of the main concepts in this study. Thus, data were collected by participant observation within English classes, informal and formal interviews with pupils and teachers at the research site and semi-structured interviews at home with parents and pupils. Questionnaires for 6 teachers, pupils and parents [total n=31] were administered 22 pupils were observed over a period of nine months, spanning 5th September 2005 to May 2006 and 3 parents interviewed due to availability of willing pupils and their parents. This was followed by structured and semi-structured questionnaire administration and interviews with six teachers and pupils [n=22]. The experiences of pupils deemed to be struggling with learning, yet not certificated as having learning difficulties were analyzed utilizing the methodology outlined by [Lincoln and Guba 1985; Creswell 1998; Richards 2005; and Bryman 2004] among others, and the data provided rich ground for a potential development of a substantive theory of learning and self-esteem. The questions focused on the evidence of classroom, and on verbal and non-verbal teacher treatment of the focus group. It also focused on the perceptions and expectations of teachers and students regarding assessment [formal and informal] and how it impacts on pupils’ self esteem. Some themes that emerged in the study included the following: resistance to learning and to authority, ridicule and racism, treats and intimidations, student-teacher infatuation, racial and bullying, counter- school culture, and unfair teaching practices. Findings from this research study are a mixed bag. The evidence suggests that, self-esteem is dynamic and has an inherent executive capacity based particularly on individual competence, beliefs, thinking and feeling components. Furthermore, there was no evidence to suggest that pupils performing poorly suffered low self-esteem.

The term ‘sexual harassment’ has been treated as key to victim resistance against normalising constructions of unwanted sexual/gendered attention as ‘just sex’ and as a ‘trivial’ part of everyday life. The act of labelling unwanted conduct as sexual harassment has been constituted as an important political step in reframing normalised problematic conduct as gendered violence as well as legitimising recipient access to formalised routes of amelioration. However concerns have been raised that recipients, particularly women, are ‘reluctant’ to use the term ‘sexual harassment’ to describe their experiences and resist unwanted attention using laws and policies designed to deal with this issue. Drawing on resources from discursive, postmodern and feminist approaches, this thesis explores how constructions of the term ‘sexual harassment’ and strategies to deal with it shape, enable and constrain resistances against gendered/sexualised power relations inscribed in manifestations of unwanted attention. It unpacks how discourses of sexual harassment polarise labelling and non-labelling behaviour to produce the former as an act of resistance and the latter as non-resistance. This project moves away from this polarisation to consider boundary construction around the issue of sexual harassment. Through discursive analysis of narratives identified through Q methodological analysis and constructions produced in interview data, this thesis examines how both inclusion and exclusion of relevant issues in multiple understandings of sexual harassment and policy considerations impact challenges that can be made to unwanted conduct. Central to this examination is critical consideration of the operation of gendered power relations within sexual harassment discourses. I pay particular attention to how various constructions of resistance within sexual harassment discourses become embedded in and re(produce) gendered binaries of dominance-subordination. This thesis considers how gendered binaries might be transgressed and destabilised by articulating alternative spaces for the performance of resistance.

“Not Drowning but Waving: The American Junior Year Abroad” explores and describes study abroad amongst college students while also showing the historical roots of study abroad. This thesis seeks to understand the history and current issues in study abroad while also giving a literary description of the experiences, personal changes, and development of insight in the students who decide to study abroad. The Introduction serves both as the introduction to my project as well as an overview of the history and current issues within study abroad. It is divided into three main parts. The first section discusses the impetus for the project, the research methodology, relevant literature, and the genre of creative nonfiction. The second section covers the history of American travel and study abroad, as well as the work of the Fulbright Program. The third section is a short survey of contemporary trends within study abroad, and addresses issues of gender, race, location, and student behavior while abroad. The creative portion of this thesis describes the study abroad students’ stories, experiences, and insights during and after a semester in Europe. The first three chapters of this section—“Leaving”, “Destinations” and “Guardians at the Gate”—describe some of the initial experiences during a semester abroad. Chapter one looks at the process of traveling to a new country and adapting to new cultural norms. Chapter two describes the study abroad destinations where I did my primary research for this project. Chapter three explores some logistical issues in study abroad, namely academics, finances, and housing. Chapter four explores the challenges students face after the initial excitement of study abroad wears off, and looks at the issues of student responsibility, danger, harassment, and alcohol abuse. Chapter five describes student travel habits, which is one of the most popular elements of study abroad but also one of the more problematic. Chapter six looks at the challenge of re-entry to North America for study abroad students, and chapter seven provides a conclusion to the piece.

Using action research within a critical paradigm framework the author investigated young people’s ability to develop a programme of work that raises awareness of bullying in schools. The research group was made up of six young people, to whom the author and other specialists offered anti-bullying and participatory training techniques. The group eventually designed their own anti-bullying activity programme, which they delivered in creative workshop style sessions to other young people in schools. The author located this research in critical enquiry, engaging the group in a self-reflective process that aimed to be democratic, equitable, liberating and life enhancing. This report is written in the form of a narrative and evaluates the author’s practice as an educative theatre practitioner. Central themes to this research are bullying, power, creative activity and youth participation. Schools, teachers and adults are often described as sucking out the creativity of young people and thus not allowing many of them achieve their full potential. In this context young people are often powerless to deal with some of the difficult issues in their lives such as bullying. The author suggests that peer support is a key strategy to deal with bullying in schools. The author introduces a new concept of peer support called external peer support, which he has evaluated against the current literature. The definition of bullying is explored in depth, as is its relationship to power. The author suggests peer support to be a key strategy in youth participation and ultimately helping youth empowerment.