School bullying is a universal phenomenon, but most of the research in the last thirty years has been in western countries. For example, the Handbook of Bullying in Schools: An International Perspective (Jimerson, Swearer, & Espelage, Reference Jimerson, Swearer and Espelage2010) has 41 chapters, only 2 of which represent perspectives outside Europe, North America and Australia (1 being comparative and 1 on Japan). A publication providing a systematic comparison of eastern and western approaches to the topic has been lacking; a gap which this book seeks to fill.
Over the last two decades, issues around school bullying and violence have come to take a major role in academic research, public debate and national policy. As part of a general movement internationally towards individual rights, the rights of pupils (and teachers and others in school) not to be attacked, abused or socially isolated has come to be recognised as a vital part of a democratic society and for pupil well-being, academic achievement and future functioning. Research on the topic has been reinvigorated and challenged in the last decade by the phenomenon of cyberbullying (via mobile phones and the Internet).
The study of school bullying has more than one origin (see Smith, Reference Smith2014). It is conventionally seen as starting in Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway) with the writings of Heinemann and especially Olweus (see Chapter 1). The research topic spread through Western Europe, in the 1980s and 1990s. The European work also had an impact in some Commonwealth countries (especially Australia, New Zealand and Canada) since the 1980s and from the 1990s on, researchers in the United States have been explicitly researching school bullying (as opposed to earlier general research on aggression and school violence).
Quite separately, however, researchers and educators in Japan were concerned with the problems of ijime, a term very similar to bullying. Publications on ijime go back at least to the early 1980s and until the mid 1990s most Japanese researchers seemed unaware of the European research. There was, however, some contact with South Korean researchers, where there was also some older tradition of research (Koo, Reference Koo2007). These separate traditions began to come together in the early 1990s. International cooperation organised by Morita in Japan led to a four-country cross-national survey (Japan, England, Norway, Netherlands) and the publication of two books, a Japanese version (Morita et al., Reference Morita, Smith, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano and Slee1999) and an English-language version (Smith et al., Reference Smith, Morita, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano and Slee1999).
Since then research on bullying in schools has become a more truly international endeavour. This has been marked by more academic interchange and by the involvement of international organisations. This book stems from collaboration amongst the three editors. Smith and Kwak jointly held a grant under the PMI2/British Council initiative (2008–2009), which allowed their research teams to meet and share knowledge of bullying work in the United Kingdom and the corresponding wang-ta in South Korea. Smith and Kwak also co-supervised the doctoral thesis of Hyojin Koo at Goldsmiths, on the topic of South Korean bullying. Smith and Toda participated in a workshop in Kobe, Japan in 2003 which Smith helped organise, and Smith and Morita jointly supervised the doctoral thesis of Tomoyuki Kanetsuna at Goldsmiths, which systematically compared bullying and ijime. All three editors had a role in the doctoral thesis of Alana James on peer support systems in England, South Korea and Japan. These prior endeavours feature in this book.
The greater international dimension of school bullying raises opportunities and challenges. The eastern and western traditions have different origins; so are we talking about the same phenomena? How similar or different are ijime, wang-ta and bullying? Is there a danger of western ethnocentrism in assuming a general similarity and not respecting differences? Also, what about China? Early research in China used western models (e.g. the Olweus questionnaire), but how appropriate are western research tools for measuring a quite different cultural reality? Even the pioneering cross-national study organised by Morita (Reference Morita, Smith, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano and Slee1999) is open to this same concern.
This rush for commonality and disregard of differences was probably expectable and even perhaps necessary at the beginnings of international cooperation, but a decade or so later we need to (and are able to) step back and look more objectively at how different cultural and religious/philosophical traditions, recent history and the nature of school systems in different countries, can profoundly influence the nature of what may loosely be called ‘bullying’ phenomena. A recognition of diversity and difference may in fact help us to learn more effectively from each other, especially about practical measures to reduce ‘bullying’. We can learn from each other’s experiences, but not in simplistic ways; we need to more fully recognise cultural diversity than was done in the past. The rationale of this book is thus to explicitly confront and discuss such diversity.
The book is organised in four parts. Part I consists of chapters outlining the traditions of research on school bullying in major countries or blocks of countries: Europe, North America, Australasia, Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong. In Part II we have examples of three studies where direct east/west comparisons are possible, using the same instruments or methodology. In Part III, four chapters discuss various issues involved in making cross-country comparisons – measurement issues, the nature of educational systems, societal values and characteristics and linguistic terms used. Part IV has contributions on the practical measures taken to combat school bullying in western countries, Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong. A concluding editorial chapter reflects on what we have learnt on similarities and differences between bullying in eastern and western cultures, how we can explain these and their relevance for future research and practical action.
