BULLYING AND THE STEINER SCHOOL ETHOS - A CASE-STUDY ANALYSIS OF A GROUP-CENTERED EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

This article discusses a case study from an ongoing research project f ocusing on the effect of school ethos upon levels of bullying behaviou r. Whereas it maybe said that all schools have an ethos, in the case o f this study the term refers to a particular educational philosophy wh ich underpins the teaching of academic subjects. This article discusse s the Steiner or Waldorf education system as an example of a system wi th a strong ethos. It looks at three classes of 30 pupils in one schoo l in the South of England, and finds a very low level of bullying desp ite the fact that many pupils came to the school because they had been victimized elsewhere. In this study, it is suggested that bullying is a situational problem rather than one due to the fact that some young people are so-called 'natural' victims.