research proposal

Erica Skinner

Dr. Sherwood

ENGL 202 12:30

Fall 2009

 Cyber Bullying: The School Phantom

 Abstract

            The younger generation of today has taken an increased interest in social networking services and chat rooms, which has led to the increase in cyber bullying all over the world. Such programs have lead students to say and do unspeakable acts of hatred, leaving emotional scars on victims and creating uncertainty of the environment in which they live their day-to-day lives. An issue that can be prevented, bullying is a hateful act that is now happening outside of school. Bully's are no longer confined within school walls. The social issues created outside of the school have a huge impact on the learning environment. Cyber-bullying not only affects the victim, but also the environment in which all students live. There are certain cases in which it is illegal to bully over the Internet. With the help of school personnel and parents, prevention can easily be obtained. However, a prevention plan should be made after consideration of many factors. School districts are very diverse in race, class, wealth and location. This raises the critical question. What prevention plan will be most affective for all school districts as a whole and which prevention plans would be more suitable for individual schools. The discussion of a prevention plan is critical for any school district that decides bullying in and out of school has gone too far. Parents need to have an active role in the reinforcement of the information given at school. Students need to know the importance of Internet guidelines and working out social issues in a safe, controlled environment. Students, parents and school personnel will be pleasantly surprised by the improvement in social interactions both in and out of school. Students will feel safer in their environment and social networking online will be seen and used as it was meant. The safety of adolescents is the number one priority for any parent or school district and it is their responsibility to ensure a healthy, bully-free environment for those students.

          Bullying is a form of harassment that affects adolescents every day.  The school environment is a breeding ground for teasing, rejection and violence. Students have many ways to deal with bullying and districts have made a valiant attempt to prevent bullying from happening on school grounds. What many school personnel do not see is the phantom bully lurking around every corner. It is the sole root of many social conflicts, yet cannot be reached by a principal or teacher. You cannot pull this bully out of class or give it detention, for it is only a shadow.  It lives in cyber space, in places like a home computer or a cell phone. The phantom cyber bully is a huge problem that schools have ignored for too long. The younger generation is growing up in a world of cyber, social interaction. With the development of Social Networking Services, such as Facebook and Myspace, students can readily access another world of social precedence. It is in these walls, that many conflicts are taking place. This has had an enormous affect on the school environment, making for an uncontrolled and unsafe environment in many cases. Cyber bullying also affects the learning environment and is negatively affecting the students' learning process. Cyber bullying can be prevented with the right steps to action. A prevention plan is crucial for all schools; however, many schools vary in race, class, wealth and location. So, what prevention plan will be most affective for all school districts as a whole and which prevention plans would be more suitable for individual schools? The safety of adolescents is the number one priority for any parent or school district and it is their responsibility to ensure a healthy, bully-free environment for those students.

Fieldwork Statement

Interview:

--Ask specific questions to a school guidance counselor at the high school level. Possible: Judy DeGenova--Hickory High School Hermitage, PA

-- Email her to set up a specific time to meet, maybe over dinner.

--Specify questions so that I can readily find good quotations and useful information on social networking and bullying.

Such questions would include:

How often have you dealt with social conflicts stemming from a cyber network?

How do you usually deal with such cases?

Can you tell a story without using names or identification etc.

Knowing many different types of bullying prevention techniques, can you tell me the one you found to be most effective?

Survey:

--To be directed toward the younger generation of today, who have dealt with social networking programs.

--Pass out to classmates, friends and strangers whenever convenient. Collect results and form conclusions.

--Specify questions so that I can readily come to conclusions about effective prevention plans and the frequency of cyber activity.

Such questions would include:

How often do you use social networking services?

How long do you spend on the computer in a day?

Have you ever been bullied through some kind of online social interaction?

I tried the following after being cyber bullied: (check all that apply)

Options: told them to stop, told parents, stopped going online etc.

Source review

--Williams, Kirk R., and Nancy G. Guerra. "Original Article: Prevalence and Predictors of Internet Bullying."

This material is very relevant. It explains how often cyber bullying is happening. It provides mainly background information--- 4

This source is very reliable, as well as the other articles which came from the same journal. All information is peer reviewed and written by doctors. It gives a full bibliography--- 5 and 5

--Kowalski, Robin M. Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age.

This material has very relevant information. It gives so much background but also addresses the critical issue I am asking, which is prevention plans. It will be very helpful while writing the paper--- 5

This source also has a full bibliography---5

--David-Ferdon, Corinne, and Marci Feldman Hertz. "Guest editors' commentary. Electronic Media, Violence, and Adolescents: An Emerging Public Health Problem."

This material stresses my argument for a prevention plan. It elaborates and gives statistics on school violence and bullying associated with the Internet and how it affects schools---5

This source is very reliable, as well as the other articles which came from the same journal. All information is peer reviewed and written by doctors. It gives a full bibliography--- 5 and 5

--Willard, Nancy E. Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats : Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Aggression, Threats, and Distress.

This source is great!!! It gives me all the information on which types of prevention plans are out there and which are relevant to certain schools, and also which ones are most affective. It will help me make my own decisions about prevention plans---5

--Seiter, Ellen. The Internet Playground : Children's Access, Entertainment, and Mis-Education .

This source deals with mainly very young children. It explains the avenues of reasoning for children using services that they are not yet mature enough to use and how they access such programs. The material is relevant but not as much as others---4

--Wolak Janis, Mitchell Kimberly, Finkelhor David. "Online Victimization: 5 Years Later."

This source gives me many examples of students who have been negetaively affected by cyber bullying. This will help me support details and my argument.--- 5

Parker-Pope, Tara. "Parents Often unaware of Cyber-Bullying."

This source is not as good. I picked it to use the blogs on the page so that I can compare and contrast different opinions---2

Ybarra, Michele L., Marie Diener-West, and Philip J. Leaf. "Original article Examining the Overlap in Internet Harassment and School Bullying: Implications for School Intervention."

This source is also very good. It gives many prevention plans and statistics on those prevention plans---5

This source is very reliable, as well as the other articles which came from the same journal. All information is peer reviewed and written by doctors. It gives a full bibliography--- 5 and 5

Wolak, Janis, Kimberly J. Mitchell, and David Finkelhor. "Original article Does Online Harassment Constitute Bullying? An Exploration of Online Harassment by Known Peers and Online-Only Contacts."

This article deals with the many legal aspects of online bullying. It explains when it is illegal to bully online and gives statistics showing difference in school opinion. This will also be very useful---5

This source is very reliable, as well as the other articles which came from the same journal. All information is peer reviewed and written by doctors. It gives a full bibliography--- 5 and 5

Agatston, Patricia W., Robin Kowalski, and Susan Limber. "Brief report Students' Perspectives on Cyber Bullying."

The title is self explanatory. Very useful---5

This source is very reliable, as well as the other articles which came from the same journal. All information is peer reviewed and written by doctors. It gives a full bibliography--- 5 and 5

Working Bibliography

Williams, Kirk R., and Nancy G. Guerra. "Original Article: Prevalence and Predictors of Internet Bullying." Journal of Adolescent Health 41 (2007): 1-8. Web. 27 Oct 2009. <http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/webfiles/images/journals/jah/zaq11207000S14.pdf>.

Kowalski, Robin M. Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age. Malden, MA: Oxford : Blackwell, 2008. Print.

David-Ferdon, Corinne, and Marci Feldman Hertz. "Guest editors' commentary. Electronic Media, Violence, and Adolescents: An Emerging Public Health Problem." Journal of Adolescent Health 41 (2007): 1-5. Web. 29 Oct 2009. <http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/webfiles/images/journals/jah/zaq112070000S1.pdf>.

Willard, Nancy E. Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats : Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Aggression, Threats, and Distress. Champaign, Ill.: Research Press, 2007. Print.

Seiter, Ellen. The Internet Playground : Children's Access, Entertainment, and Mis-Education . New York: Peter Lang, 2005. Print.

Wolak Janis, Mitchell Kimberly, Finkelhor David. "Online Victimization: 5 Years Later." Alexandra, VA: National Center for Missing and Exploited children (2006).Web. 29 Oct 2009. <http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC167.pdf>.

Parker-Pope, Tara. "Parents Often unaware of Cyber-Bullying." The New York Times. October 3, 2008. The New York Times Company, Web. 29 Oct 2009. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/parents-often-unaware-of-cyber-bullying/>.

Ybarra, Michele L., Marie Diener-West, and Philip J. Leaf. "Original article Examining the Overlap in Internet Harassment and School Bullying: Implications for School Intervention." Journal of Adolescent Health 41. (2007): 1-5. Web. 29 Oct 2009. <http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/webfiles/images/journals/jah/zaq11207000S42.pdf>.

Wolak, Janis, Kimberly J. Mitchell, and David Finkelhor. "Original article Does Online Harassment Constitute Bullying? An Exploration of Online Harassment by Known Peers and Online-Only Contacts." Journal of Adolescent Health 41 (2007): n. pag. Web. 3 Nov 2009. <http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/webfiles/images/journals/jah/zaq11207000S51.pdf>.

Agatston, Patricia W., Robin Kowalski, and Susan Limber. "Brief report Students' Perspectives on Cyber Bullying." Journal of Adolescent Health 41 (2007): n. pag. Web. 3 Nov 2009. <http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/webfiles/images/journals/jah/zaq11207000S59.pdf>.