Fostering Pro Social Behaviour in the Spanish School System: A Whole School Approach

Abstract

In this paper two case studies are presented which were part of an EU funded project concerned with the promotion of pro social behaviour in schools. One case study deals with a primary school and the other a secondary school. The purpose of the study was first to gather data on the nature and extent of anti-social behaviour in the case study schools, then to help the school personnel to use the data to develop interventions designed to improve the level of pro-social behaviour. This required the use of a methodology which combined research and consultation skills on the part of the university based researchers, and depended heavily on the development of co-operative and open relationship between the researchers and school personnel The paper provides insight into this research and development process as well as detailing the 10 'realms of solution' in relation to the problem of anti-social behaviour in schools that emerged from the study. IntroductionThis paper presents the analysis of two case studies concerning the promotion of pro-social behaviour in the Spanish school system. It was originally carried out within the context of a larger international project financed by the European Commission (Promotion of pro-social behaviour in kindergarten and school) during 1998. As students' antisocial behaviour is being perceived as a growing source of trouble in European school systems (Mooij, 1997), co-operative international research in this field is increasing (Roland and Munthe, 1989; Smith, 1997; Special issue on school violence of Revista de Educacion, 1997 and of Revue Francaise de Pedagogic 1998); the same goes for projects aiming at the exchange and dissemination of good practice at the international level concerning the promotion of pro-social behaviour in schools. In the case of our international project, research about anti-social phenomena and concrete actions to both prevent and deal with them have gone hand in hand (Mooij et al., 1998).

National campaign effects on secondary pupils' bullying and violence

“…Attention has been paid to the bullying and violent behaviour of pupils in many countries (e.g. Lane, 1989; Moreno & Torrego, 1998; Ortega, 1997; Stevens, de Bourdeaudhuij, & van Oost, 2000; van der Meer, 1993; Wolke et al , 2001). Theory and research have been largely concentrated on the descriptive and statistical aspects of a number of different variants of aggressive or victim behaviour, and the specification of the relations of such to various school and other contextual variables.…”