Teachers' perceptions and their interventions toward bullying at Aceh modern Islamic boarding school (pesantren)

Abstract

The research topic of teachers perceptions and interventions toward bullying behavior at the two selected modern pesantren in Aceh is examined through phenomenographical and phenomenological study. The study focuses on obtaining substantial information of teachers perceptions and their interventions in the bullying problem in the modern pesantren environment. Pesantren is an equivalent to boarding school which facilitates students with formal schooling and dormitory facility. The additional feature of the pesantren which is different from boarding school in general is Islamic studies content. Pesantren are suspected for frequent bullying occurrence due to continuous interaction among students at school and in their residential setting, thus, teachers appropriate perceptions and interventions are two crucial issues which need to be investigated. This study provides an analysis of how teachers at the pesantren conceptually perceive bullying behavior and their concrete actions to prevent the behavior. This study attempts to uncover information of the teachers perceptions and their interventions in the bullying problem phenomenographically from 10 teachers of the two selected pesantren. This study also interviews 7 students from both pesantren to confirm the data obtained from the teachers interviews. The research data of this study is comprised of interviews of teachers, students, and observation of the participants. The key categories of the study involve various aspects of the bullying issue and teachers interventions such as: bullying is related to teasing, mocking or name calling, bullying is related to the physical attack of seniors to juniors, bullying is related to threatening, and bullying is caused by school culture, intervening by using pesantren policy, intervening by advising, intervening by mediation, intervening by parents meeting, and intervening by physical sanction. These categories are approached from theoretical as well as practical viewpoints and aim to build a holistic understanding of the teachers perceptions and interventions of bullying behavior at the pesantren. The theoretical basis to teachers perception and their interventions of the issue discusses several previous studies concerning teachers perception of bullying behavior globally and also several theoretical perspectives of the reasons behind bullying problem such as; social identity theory, social cognitive learning and modelling, and socio-ecological theory. At the core of the theoretical framework, Urie Bronfenbrenner outlines that the individual is an inseparable element of a social system consisted of four interconnected systems; microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem, and those systems are the basis for bullying occurrence. The study reveals that the teachers at the pesantren perceive bullying as a dangerous behavior which needs to be tackled. The study also discovers that the teachers at the pesantren employ several interventions in the form of reactive approach rather than proactive. However, the fascinating finding from the present research is that the teachers positive perceptions (bullying is harmful) and their concrete actions to prevent bullying within the pesantren community cannot reduce its occurrence significantly. Particularly, teasing, mocking or name-calling is becoming the habit, tradition, and culture in the pesantren environment.