Moral Education and Its Impact

Moral Education and Its Impact on Peer Bullying Proposal

Established in 2005, KIPP Valley Charter School (hereinafter alternatively "KIPP" and "the school") is a tuition-free, open-enrollment college-preparatory charter middle school serving grades five through seven that is located in Albany, New York. The school seeks to provide its students with the education they will need to achieve outstanding academic outcomes during their attendance at KIPP and to prepare them for the transition to achieving comparable results in college and beyond. In its short 4-year history, the school has accomplished its fundamental mission of delivering high-quality educational services to its 200 students who have consistently scored above national averages on high-stakes tests such as Terra Nova.

These academic outcomes are all the more significant in view of the lower socioeconomic and minority demographic stratum being served by KIPP since these students have historically performed at lower levels than their more affluent white counterparts attending suburban middle schools (Adelabu, 2007). In spite of these laudable accomplishments, the school is not free of many of the same problems that plague other middle schools throughout the country and staff members and faculty have identified a problem with peer bullying on campus in recent months. Because it is the responsibility of KIPP to provide its students with a learning environment that is free of violence and intimidation, this issue has assumed new relevance and importance today and this issue is also the focus of the study proposed herein which is discussed further below.

Statement of the Problem

Peer bullying has a number of adverse consequences for both the victims as well as the perpetrators. For example, Leff, Power, Costigan and Manz (2003) report that, "Bullies and victims experience a wide range of academic, social, behavioral, and emotional difficulties as they get older" (p. 418). In addition, the growing instances of high-profile episodes of school violence and shootings have been closely related to problems of peer bullying (Brendto, Mitchell & Mccall, 2007).

Objectives of the Study

The primary objective of the proposed study is to identify best practices for reducing the incidence of peer bullying being experienced at KIPP in sustainable ways.

Literature Review

By any measure, peer-bullying and other types of aggression in the nation's schools are of increasing concern for students, educators and parents alike, with almost 30% of young people being estimated to experience frequent involvement in bullying behaviors (Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, Ruan, Simons-Morton & Scheidt, 2001). According to Bradshaw, Sawyer and O'Brennan, "Bullying is broadly defined as a class of intentional and repeated acts that occur through physical, verbal, and relational forms in situations where a power difference is present" (p. 361). From a strictly pragmatic perspective, the potential for peer bullying based on racial differences is particularly acute at KIPP. In this regard, current statistics and enrollment figures for KIPP Valley Charter School are provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Current statistics for KIPP Valley Charter School

Metric

Current Levels

Student enrollment

Total Number of Students 196

Total Number of 5th Grade Students 81

Total Number of 6th Grade Students 71

Total Number of 7th Grade Students 44

Student demographics

78% of students are eligible for free or reduced meals

Race/Ethnicity

87% African-American

6% Caucasian

7% Hispanic

Gender

48% female

52% male

Financial information

2006 -- 07 Per-Pupil Funding $10,176

Source: Local and state revenue

Facility Type

Commercial

Lease Type Lease

Size (sq ft) 30,000

Source: KIPP Valley Charter School, 2009

The classroom environment at KIPP is comparable to other middle schools in the region and country, though, with many of the same features that characterize more affluent suburban schools in place. For the purposes of the study proposed herein, school classrooms represent a valuable context for developing insights into how and why peer bullying occur because most of these activities take place among classmates (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, Osterman, & Kaukiainen, 1996). Two aspects classroom environments are especially relevant to developing insights into peer bullying:

1. The quality of social relationships in the classroom including relationships among students, between students and teachers, and between families and the classroom; and,

2. The support for human agency in the classroom including support for students' self-control, self-efficacy, and self-determination (Espelage & Swearer, 2004).

An examination of the manner in which characteristics of the classroom relate to peer bullying will also provide the context in which to develop initiatives targeted at reducing such behaviors that can be integrated into classroom routines and practices (Espelage & Swearer, 2004). Students who bully or students who are victims are presumed to have the potential to interact effectively with peers, given the proper social context. Creating classroom contexts that discourage all aggression can reduce the frequency and the severity of bullying interactions that occur there (Espelage & Swearer, 2004).

While it is clear that much of the peer bullying that takes place in middle school occurs in the classroom because that is where students spend the majority of their time during the school day, there are perhaps more opportunities for students to engage in these behaviors when they are in less restrictive environments such as playgrounds and school cafeterias where they may be unobserved by adult staff and faculty members. For example, Leff and his associates note that, "In many schools across the nation, teachers do not supervise children during the lunch-recess period. Instead, paraprofessionals, who are typically community members and/or parents of children in the school, are hired as playground/lunchroom assistants to supervise children" (p. 418). Despite the numerous studies that have supported the use of a recess period as being conducive to the learning and socialization process, Leff and his associates (2003) emphasize that there are several reasons to eliminate a recess period altogether as well. For instance, Leff et al. note that, "Arguments against recess include that it takes valuable time away from academics and interrupts children's focus on academic work" (p. 419).

Although these arguments lack strong empirical support, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests recess periods are primetime for peer bullying and many students report feeling unsafe and afraid during this part of the school day because of their experiences with peer bullying (Leff et al., 2003). In this regard, Leff and his associates point out, "In addition, the majority of aggressive actions, bullying, and/or school injuries occur on the playground during the recess or lunch-recess period" (p. 419). As a result, while the school playground is an important element in helping young people develop social competence and engage in physical activities that they may not otherwise receive by virtue of an increasingly sedentary lifestyle at home, playgrounds also represent a time in which students may experience peer bullying and victimization (Leff et al., 2003).

Wherever it takes place, the studies to date have shown that bullies are frequently confrontational, aggressive, oppositional, and routinely hostile towards their peers; these students also tend to experience inordinately high levels of academic difficulties and represent challenges for their teachers (Leff, 2007). According to Leff (2007), "Research examining victimization profiles suggest that youth who are frequently victimized by their peers are often more sad, anxious, and withdrawn, and have lower self-esteem than their peers, and they experience increasing school maladjustment and avoidance over time" (p. 406). Students who engage in peer bullying activities may themselves be suffering from a wide range of psychological or emotional problems that are the result of underachievement at school or from stressors in their home. For instance, Peterson (2003) reports that it is common for students to react negatively in school as a result of the following stressors:

1. Their parents may separate, divorce, remarry, and produce blended families with altered roles, adjusted family hierarchies, and new "birth order."

2. People close to them die, are terminally ill, move away, or turn away.

3. Their families relocate.

4. Their parents may abuse substances, be workaholics, be depressed, or abandon them in still other ways.

5. They may have violent parents and difficult sibling relationships as well as a negative peer group and a difficult environment.

6. They may experience trauma, including sexual and other kinds of abuse, debilitating accidents and illnesses, and other troubling events.

7. Their race, culture, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation may contribute to intrapersonal and interpersonal difficulties.

8. Personality factors may interfere with ease in school. They also may have a biochemical predisposition to a psychological disorder. Predisposed or not, they may be depressed (Peterson, 2003, p. 63).

Taken together, the foregoing suggests that students who engage in peer bullying activities may themselves be victims of such abusive behaviors either at home or in school as well as suffer from a wide range of negative stressors that interact in predictable ways as they lash out at others around them. Based on their analysis of reviews of peer bullying, Hyman and Snook (2001) note that an increasing number of students in schools across the country have reported being the victims of ongoing ridicule and rejection by their peers and even adult educators; not surprisingly, victims of bullying frequently become alienated and antagonistic towards their school. In this regard, Koehler and Seger (2005) emphasize that because resources are by definition scarce, peer bullying represents a threat to the entire learning process across the board because teachers and administrators must spend inordinate amounts of time in an attempt to control problematic behavior rather than invest it in delivering high quality educational services. In fact, some of the most common responses to peer bullying in recent years have been to punish the offenders or to treat them with powerful psychotropic medications in an effort to mediate their behaviors (Koehler & Seger, 2005). When these approaches do not achieve their desire results, though (which is frequently the case), an escalation in negativity occurs in which schools use even ore punitive disciplinary and medication interventions in an effort to address the problem. This escalation also has a concomitant effect of creating a "we-them" mentality between the students and faculty that has been shown time and again to be counterproductive to the learning process. In this regard, Koehler and Seger emphasize, "Unfortunately, adversarial climates develop when adults rely on power and coercion to maintain control" (p. 122). Even very young children have a fine-tuned sense of justice and it is clear that students who are routinely exposed to negative school climate will tend to react negatively in other ways. This point is also made by Hyman and Snook who note that, "These traumatic experiences are more common in schools with a negative climate. Negative climates can create a 'student alienation syndrome.' Powerful solutions to school violence require creating positive school climates while punitive responses only intensify school alienation" (p. 133).

When students attend a school with a positive climate, they naturally feel an increased sense of belonging and that they are being treated fairly and are respected by their teachers and peers; while students in all types of schools at all levels understand the need for rules and regulations, students attending schools that are characterized by positive climates tend to regard the enforcement of these rules as being both fair and beneficial to them and other students (Hyman & Snook, 2001). There are a number of beneficial outcomes associated with positive school climates which are characterized by a paucity of ridicule, sarcasm, put-downs, and other verbal abusive behaviors on the part of school staff members and peers. According to Hyman and Snook, "While cliques are inevitable among adolescents, in schools with positive climates, staff make active attempts to minimize their effects and offer solace to outcasts. Bullying and scapegoating from both staff and peers are discouraged. Students in these schools often eagerly anticipate daily attendance despite the rigors of academic expectations" (2001, p. 134).

The interventions that have been attempted by many schools across the country using so-called "zero tolerance approaches" to peer bullying have failed to solve the problem and can even tend to make it worse by creating the negative school climate described above. According to Brendto and his associates, "As schools recognize that punitive zero tolerance practices are counterproductive, a positive school climate becomes the ultimate shield against school violence" (p. 200). Promoting a positive school climate can be achieved, at least in part, through the integration of a moral education component into the curriculum (Hazler & Carney, 2002; Smith, 1994; Sewall, 1999). While the authorities remain divided on what elements constitute the best approach to providing a moral education, there is some agreement concerning what the goal of moral education should be for young people today. In this regard, Garrod (1999) reports that a common perception of moral education is "the transmission of a set of moral norms and practices to young people. According to this approach, our objective in moral education is to develop in the young a clearly defined set of moral behaviors that reflect agreed-upon values of the society (the good, a bag of virtues, the do's and don'ts, the Ten Commandments, the good boy and good girl morality, what one ought to do)" (p. 12).

Many educators might argue, though, that simply instructing young learners about morality using a series of platitudes will not achieve the desired outcome, but may in fact be a waste of valuable classroom time that could be better used for other purposes. Nevertheless, when properly conducted, this approach to moral education can achieve the desired outcomes by ensuring that students recognize what is expected of them and by implementing metrics that can measure the initiative's effectiveness in reducing the incidence of peer-bullying in the school. In this regard, Garrod adds that, "This approach is extremely clear about what it wants to teach, what it proposes to achieve, and how success can be measured; indeed, it is probably the most clearly understood and popularly accepted notion of moral education in everyday life" (p. 12).

The following recommendations concerning developing a positive school climate using moral education elements in order to counter peer bullying are based on a comprehensive study of violent incidents in schools by Brendtro et al.:

1. Mutual respect. In a climate of safety, adults and students respect each other.

2. Connection to an adult. Each student has a connection to at least one adult.

3. Problem-solving focus. Problems can be resolved without fear, shame, or reprisal.

4. Code of openness. Students bring serious concerns to the attention of adults.

5. Peer helping. Students try to help friends and peers who are in distress (Brendtro et al., 2007).

The "connection to an adult" component of the foregoing listing appears to be a particularly important element when formulating interventions targeting peer bullying (Taffel, 2005; Robbins & Alvy, 2004). In this regard, Laursen (2007) emphasizes that, "Humans are born with an attachment brain, and when adults are not available, children will naturally try to satisfy their attachment need with peers. However, these attachments are different than attachments with adults; they are less secure and more superficial" (p. 4). When adult connections are not readily available, young learners may resort to forming their own cultures that are frequently in opposition to adult guided cultures. Therefore, in order to reestablish vitally important connections with these students, it is essential to develop school cultures where attachments with caring adults can occur as part of an overall moral educational component (Laursen, 2007).

One approach that can help overcome the adversarial climate that emerges when schools attempt to solve peer bullying problems with harsh penalties and medication is to incorporate a moral education component into the curriculum. In this regard, Leicester, Modgil and Modgil (2000) report that, "By rejecting the dualism of adult-child which reduces childhood to time spent and consumed in a sort of waiting-room for life [provides] a way through the impasse the traditional school throws up against moral education" (p. 63). Based on her experiences with promoting a moral educational component in the classroom, Peterson (2003) recommends incorporating a discussion group format whenever possible for a number of reasons. For instance, student discussion groups can provide a number of peer-bullying prevention-oriented benefits, including the following:

1. Helping students to discover commonalities with others, thereby lessening feelings of isolation and loneliness;

2. Helping students feel affirmed for their ability, even when they are not successful or productive in school, and while they may be experiencing episodic underachievement;

3. Helping students develop skills in articulating social and emotional concerns, which can benefit their personal relationships during adolescence and adulthood;

4. Helping students sort out stressors, potentially avoiding development of serious mental health concerns later; and,

5. Providing students with information about substance use and abuse, depression and suicidal ideation, eating disorders, various forms of abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder to fill in critical gaps in information about self-care or to correct misinformation (Peterson, 2003, p. 63).

The foregoing elements represent a good starting point for the inclusion of a moral education component into the KIPP curriculum, but there will be other elements added as well, including the need for mutual respect, appreciation of differences that may be in place, personal accountability for behaviors in the classroom, playground and cafeteria and so forth. The identification of these elements directly relates to the research problem to be considered by the study envisioned herein which is discussed further below.

Research Problem

Does a moral centered educational curriculum have a positive affect on peer bullying, among elementary school students in the 4-6 grades at KIPP Valley Charter School in Albany, New York?

The Sub-problems

The first sub-problem is to determine the impact of a moral centered curriculum among 4th through 6th graders with a history of peer bullying.

The second sub-problem is to identify what virtues of morality will be introduced to the curriculum such as kindness, sharing, responsibility for actions, and so forth.

Hypotheses to be Tested

The hypotheses to be tested by the study proposed herein are as follows:

H1:

Incorporating a moral education component into the KIPP curricular offerings will significantly reduce the incidence of peer bullying.

H2:

The moral education component can be fine-tuned in an iterative fashion over time to increase its effectiveness based on empirical observations by KIPP staff members and faculty, as well as feedback from students and parents.

Methodology

The methodology to be used by the proposed study will consist of a qualitative analysis of quantitative data to determine the efficacy of the moral education intervention envisioned herein. Based on an analysis of the statistical data (discussed further below), a determination will be made concerning whether the addition of a moral education component into the KIPP curriculum has achieved the desired outcomes (e.g., a reduction in the incidence of peer bullying) and what refinements should be made in the program as it progresses. The statistical data to be collected will take place entirely on the school's campus and will be based on staff member and teacher reports of peer bullying episodes, their type and severity, time and location of their occurrence, the grade level of the students involved and what steps were taken at the time of the occurrence in response. The data collection form shown in Table 2 below will be used for this purpose. No personal identifiers will be collected using this form to protect the anonymity of the minor children involved, but staff member or teacher names will be used to track where the incident reports originate and for follow-up questioning where appropriate.