The Institute for LifeLong Learning of the UB and FC Barcelona Foundation open a debate on school bullying and the need for a coordinated action to tackle it

The session was presented by Maite Vilalta, vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Social Action of the University of Barcelona, and Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of FC Barcelona and Barça Foundation.
The session was presented by Maite Vilalta, vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Social Action of the University of Barcelona, and Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of FC Barcelona and Barça Foundation.
Academic
(12/03/2018)

The Institute for LifeLong Learning of the University of Barcelona (IL3-UB), with the collaboration of Barça Foundation, organized, on March 7, the Prevention and Intervention Session on Bullying and Cyberbullying, the first step with which both entities join efforts to cope with a slow problem of our current society.

 

The session was presented by Maite Vilalta, vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Social Action of the University of Barcelona, and Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of FC Barcelona and Barça Foundation.
The session was presented by Maite Vilalta, vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Social Action of the University of Barcelona, and Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of FC Barcelona and Barça Foundation.
Academic
12/03/2018

The Institute for LifeLong Learning of the University of Barcelona (IL3-UB), with the collaboration of Barça Foundation, organized, on March 7, the Prevention and Intervention Session on Bullying and Cyberbullying, the first step with which both entities join efforts to cope with a slow problem of our current society.

 

The session was presented by Maite Vilalta, vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Social Action of the University of Barcelona, and Jordi Cardoner, vice-president of FC Barcelona and Barça Foundation. A roundtable followed with the participation of distinguished experts on school bullying. Ferran Barri, graduated in Psychology and expert on this and other problems regarding the school field, chaired the debate.

Both Maite Vilalta and Jordi Cardoner highlighted the commitment of their entities to fighting this problem, which is framed within one of the line actions of the Barça Foundation: preventive and educational action to fight school exclusion.

Vilalta noted that “the University, as a social actor, cannot look the other way”. In this sense, the session will continue with the course Experto en Prevención e Intervención del Bullying y Ciberbullyng (Expert on Prevention and Intervention of Bullying and Cyberbullying), organized by IL3-UB. This program, to start in April, is aimed to provide professionals from sensitive fields (teachers, psychologists, social workers…) with the tools to prevent and detect school violence and set up the most suitable action protocols. “Regarding the size of the problem, IL3-UB decided to put our knowledge at service, and provide the best we have”, said Vilalta.


Two out of ten underage kids are victims of their schoolmates

In 2000 the first study on school bullying was carried out, and this problem has not stopped growing: according to data collected in January 2018, two out of ten underage kids claim to be victims of school bullying or cyberbulling at some point of their life.

Like Carme Panchón, lecturer of Pedagogy of Social Maladjustment at the Faculty of Education of the UB, said in the roundtable, school bullying is “an old problem” which has multiplied due a series of factors. New technologies are one of these reasons. According to Pilar Tintoré, president of the Section of Childhood and Adolescence of the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB), “social networks create a feeling of impunity and have bought a comfort zone which is out of adultsʼ control”.

Mª José Bartrina, who coordinates the Equip Tècnic de Menors (team of underage people) at the Department of Justice of Generalitat de Catalunya, believes there should be two lines to work on: training in the use of online tools for parents and tutors, and promoting moral guidelines. “People should work on morals, on being good people. We usually detect that the family background of these kids, both victims and abusers, do not provide the most suitable environment or the necessary attention and training”.
Apart from the educational area, extracurricular activities can also be a situation for bullying. Ester Morillas, coordinator of the Barça Foundationʼs Bullying Program, refereed to the relation between bullying and extracurricular sports activities, although she stressed that “sports are also a tool to prevent these attitudes, since it gives kids and youngsters social skills”.


“If you donʼt offer solutions, you are part of the problem”

Detecting, acting and restoring, are the three steps of an action in which all the involved people should join responsibility and efforts. This involves the victim but also the abusers, family members, teachers, spectators, the Administration… The members of the table agreed on putting emphasis on this co-responsibility: “If you donʼt offer solutions, you are part of the problem”. Also, they stressed that all involved actors should share the same action protocols.

Regarding the detection process, Teresa Cambra, inspector of Education at the Consortium of Education of Barcelona, stated that “we have progressed a lot” and that “thanks to media diffusion, there is a bigger attention coming from parents and tutors”. However, she warned that “there is still an important lack of knowing how to compensate victims: restoration is a tool to be worked on”.

The training program in IL3-UB is regarded as a reflection area where to determine the best strategies to tackle these violent situations and face the common obligation to protect childrenʼs rights. Like Carme Panchón said, the different actors should agree on their response to school bullying: “If we separate training, action and research-reflection, we cannot go forward”.