Anti-Bullying Workshop Program

Policy

The current policies approved by the Australian educational institutions are geared toward managing the emergent conflicts as well as preventing the situations from occurring in the future so that students could have “a sense of optimism about
their lives and the future” (Ministral Council on Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs 2008, p. 9). Indeed, a careful look at the strategies presently available to educators will show that the focus of the models designed to prevent bullying is twofold. In other words, both addressing the emergent issues and designing the environment, in which learners will not be inclined to engage in aggressive behavior, is promoted. Claiming that the present-day Australian policies on addressing the problem are immaculate would be quite a stretch, though.

It is also quite important that the current resources shed a lot of light on the issue of parental involvement. Indeed, the significance of family support can hardly be overrated when it comes to shaping the victim’s behavior and perception of their self, as a recent study indicated. The Australian state policies on the promotion of anti-bullying campaigns and strategies point to the necessity to engage parents in the process by enhancing the significance of the “support for the development and wellbeing of young people and their families” (Ministral Council on Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs 2008, p. 10). To be more accurate, the state authorities stress the significance of telling the children about the threat, as well as the tools for its prevention and management: “Talk to your child about cyberbullying before it happens. Work out strategies to address cyberbullying that both of you are comfortable with so your child knows what to expect if they do report their concerns to you” (New South Wales Department of Education 2016, par. 5).

However, as the excerpt provided above shows quite graphically, the current emphasis on the issue of cyberbullying shoves the phenomenon of traditional bullying into shadows, making teachers and parents underrate it significantly. Therefore, it is recommendable that the contemporary guidelines for parents and teachers about the problem in question should focus on school bullying as much as on its Internet version.