Evaluation of the Norwegian Manifesto against Bullying, 2002-2004. A Summary of the Final Report

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Incidence; Financial Support; Bullying; Student Behavior; Program Development; Educational Legislation; Program Effectiveness; Program Evaluation; Secondary School Students; Antisocial Behavior; Behavior Change; Foreign Countries; Educational Policy; Educational Environment; Leisure Time; Recreational Activities; Peer Relationship; Intervention; Kindergarten; Elementary School Students; Age Differences; Gender Differences

This paper summarises the main results of the research-based evaluation of the Norwegian Manifesto against bullying. Besides schools, the evaluation was to include bullying also in kindergartens and publicly organised leisure activities. Furthermore, the work in Manifesto was to be covered on national, regional and local levels. The goal setting for the evaluation was two-fold. The first goal was to examine the incidence of bullying through existing surveys and to find clarity to the variety of the estimates presented for it. The second goal was to analyse how the Manifesto was implemented through the variety of measures adopted on national, regional and local levels, and how these were received among the end users, including parents. The mandate did not include evaluation of the effectiveness of the Manifesto in terms of incidence of bullying. The timing of the evaluation in regards completion of the Manifesto had not allowed that either. The evaluation has been based on a range of documents as well as new interview- and survey-data collected. Generally speaking the results showed that the Manifesto has made a difference when it comes to bullying in schools, although mostly in elementary schools. The surveys carried out towards the end of the Manifesto period showed that the long term trend of increasing bullying has halted and for some groups turned. The situation was less clear and the results less pronounced for kindergartens and organised leisure activities, however. Nevertheless, for these two contexts the success of the Manifesto has been in raising the issue about bullying also in educational environments outside the school. The main central measures used to implement the Manifesto were information delivery, financial support to a range of bullying programmes, and a new paragraph to the education law about pupils' right to good psycho-social work environment at schools. Besides bringing legitimacy, the Manifesto has increased the visibility of the bullying problem through strong media involvement. Somewhat ironically, it was a problem for the Manifesto that it got a strongly political face through the involvement of top politicians and through their media appearance. For most people the connection seem to have been missing to their local work against bullying. All in all, the two year's Manifesto period clearly was too limited to realise the parties' zero-vision about bullying at schools. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures, and 2 footnotes.) [The final report is published as: Tikkanen, T. & Junge, A. (2004). "Realising a bullying free educational environment for children and youth. Final report to the evaluation of the Manifesto against bullying 2002-2004." RFRogland Research. Research Reports 223/2004. Stavanger. (In Norwegian). The paper was written upon the request by the University of Stavanger, commissioned by The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training.]

Author

2007

ED496998