A cross-border Irish study of student teachers' knowledge, experience, and confidence in dealing with disablist bullying.

Abstract

Research exploring bully/victim problems has become an issue of immense and growing international concern in recent years. While reports of bullying are not a new phenomenon (e.g., Hughes 1857), we are at a stage whereby we have a substantive cross-national knowledge regarding the nature, incidence, correlates, and management of traditional `face-to-face? (f2f: Mc Guckin, Cummins, & Lewis 2010a) bully/victim problems among school pupils (see Smith et al. 1999 for a review). We are also fortunate to have a robust knowledge base regarding successful intervention and prevention programmes in the area (for scholarly reviews see Farrington & Ttofi 2009; Smith, Pepler, & Rigby 2004). Relatively little attention is paid however to `disablist? bullying ? where those with a disability / Special Educational Need (SEN) are directly involved in bully/victim problems.