Article titled "Phenomena of bullying at school and role of Drama to prevent it".

Asst. Prof. Alaa Muzahim Abdulrazaq

      Some people may think that "Drama"  is just for entertainment or spending time in attending or watching it. So, from this point I want to explore the significant role of drama( not all kinds) as a therapy and educational one, especially on children those who have psychological problems.  Of course, this kind of drama demands specialists in this field. One of these psychological problems is " bullying". It is obvious, that the early years are important in forming child's personality, and as we know the child spends more time of these years at school. The school is important and the quality of education is more important. I can say that school is a weapon of two sides, because as it gives education and learning for children, the child may acquire passive or bad features.

In this essay, I shed light on common phenomena in our days, and I'm sure most of the parents suffer it. On personal level, I interest the psychological problems that concerning children, and I search and read more about it, usually, through searching I find that drama is effective factor at school especially about " bullying".

I want to express what's "Bullying"; it is practicing violence on others usually with aggressive behavior which characterized by repetition all the time with intention of different kinds of hurts on others, may be  physically, mentally, or emotionally. Of course, more people reject it and marked it as negative behaviour that effects children in different aspects of their lives.

Bullying may be defined in many different ways. "In the United Kingdom, there is no legal definition of bullying, while some states in the United States have laws against it. Bullying is divided into four basic types of abuse – psychological (sometimes called emotional or relational), verbal, physical, and cyber" (1).

According to World Health Organization 2010 "Bullying is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of health-care providers, policy-makers and families. Evolving awareness about the morbidity and mortality associated with bullying has helped give this psychosocial hazard a modest level of worldwide public health attention. However, it is not enough." (2)

     School bullying is widely spread in different communities that it developed to be an international problem, not exclusive to certain community or people. Most schools cannot control this phenomena because the children are not equal in their bodies or balance power or sometimes students depend on the policy of groups those who try to hurts someone's body or damages or stealing their possessions that makes the process of learning becomes weak. To reduce this phenomena, some schools in USA and Europe function different activities which most effective one is "drama". Through activating drama at schools, they discover this phenomena decreased because the children will be busy with useful things especially when they take a role within certain play.

    "Drama enables the child to become active in the learning process by placing him/her in the center. Children are able to think creatively, critically, multi-dimensionally, and freely, show cognitive, social, affective, and psychomotor development, have fun, create empathy, implement their knowledge, and develop cooperative skills through drama, where active learning is realized. Becoming members of a group enables children to think that they are also members of the society, thus become aware of the values of the society". (3)

        As drama is a mirror of society, it reflects common and current problems in society that makes children feel they are active members in society and have a chance to express and discover themselves or examines their experiences. So they will build their self-confident and develop their and concentration and creativity with improvement of verbal and non-verbal communication skills. All these make the process of education more interesting and useful which also helps teachers to advice children and take lessons through drama instead of direct advice.  Therefore, it can be acceptable that dramatic education can prevent and reduce many negative phenomena at schools such as bullying.

References

1-Juvonen, J.; Graham, S. (2014). "Bullying in Schools: The Power of Bullies and the Plight of Victims". Annual Review of Psychology. 65: 159–85. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying).

2-Srabstein J, Piazza T. Public health, safety and educational risks associated with bullying behaviors in American adolescents. Int J Adolesc Med Health. 2008;20:223–33. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]((www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2878162)

3-Aysem Tombak: Importance Of Drama In Pre-School Education, CY-ICER 2014 (www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814044255/pdf?md5=118a554a1b5da6)