NEW research carried out by an anti-bullying centre at DCU has found that half of primary school principals in Ireland have dealt with homophobic bullying.
The study by the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) based in the Northside university revealed last week the extent of homophobic bullying in primary schools.
The research found one in two principals have dealt with homophobic bullying, but alarmingly some don’t consider homophobic name-calling to be bullying.
Responses from 238 primary school principals nationwide were analysed for the study that looked at whether principals had first-hand experience in dealing with the issue.
They were also asked if they believed it was a significant problem and how they felt homophobic bullying should be addressed.
Their answers confirm that homophobic bullying is a reality in some primary schools in Ireland, with principals indicating they had spoken to pupils about the use of homophobic language such as ‘gay’, ‘poof’, ‘faggot’ or ‘lesbian’.
Findings also show that some principals did not always consider the use of homophobic pejorative terms to constitute bullying, which raises the issue of homophobic language being dismissed too lightly or homophobic bullying being considered as irrelevant in the primary school setting.
In 11 per cent of cases, principals said that they had dealt with the issue either weekly or monthly and some also indicated that teachers or parents had contacted them to raise a concern.
One in six (16 per cent) indicated they had dealt with an incident they would describe as homophobic bullying at least once during the school year, and in a very small number of cases principals said they dealt with an incident where one pupil was physically abused because others thought they were gay or lesbian.
Director of the Anti-Bullying Centre in DCU, Dr James O’Higgins Norman, spoke about the study last week.
“We concentrated our research on the views of school principals because of the critical role they play in policy implementation,” he said.
“While principals have been given a clear mandate to address bullying, research on homophobic bullying in Irish schools has primarily been focussed on post-primary schools.”
The ABC says further education and training for school leaders on the topic is needed as the current situation was “contributing further to the many silences that surround the topic in primary schools in Ireland.”
Researchers in ABC have developed a resource in collaboration with Belongto to help tackle the issue. A programme called All Together Now! teaches pupils about types of identity-based bullying.
They are also taught about bullying behaviours such as verbal, physical, cyber or social isolation. All Together Now! was piloted in 27 schools early this year before its official launch in October.