Krista Underhill
May 2, 2013
Discourse Analysis Paper
Dr. Chandler
Looking Back on Bullying as Adults
How does bullying affect adults
today
Bullying.
Why is this topic so important? We hear this term a lot in schools,
communities, colleges and society. This term has become very important since
the Rutgers incident about two years ago. People were making fun of a student
for being gay and he committed suicide because of this incident. More and more
people need to become more aware of what the term bullying is and how it
affects people of all ages. Now in the state of New Jersey teachers have to be
trained in bullying, (harassment, intimidation, and bullying HIB) and cyber
bullying. Bullying can be defined as, “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing
person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.”
(Dictionary.com)Teachers and adults need to know the signs of when a child is
being bullied or picked on. This has become very prominent in the schools and
the teachers who witness this have to take action to stop it.
Bullying
can shape a child’s life for the good and the bad. Either a child learns to
overcome it or deal with it or a child will let the bullying bother them
through adulthood. We as a society have seen/ read about bullying affecting
children. There have been many studies and articles done about childhood
bullying. But have we ever read / discovered how adults who were bullied as
children are doing today/ dealing with it or overcame bullying? That is why
this study needs to be done! We as a society need to explore this situation to
better familiar ourselves with adults who have been bullied and how they are
doing today.
In
a study done by Timo Terasahjo and Christine Salmivalli, they explore children
being bullied today and seeing how they are coping with being bullied today.
These people interviewed children between the grades of three through sixth.
The interviewers were seeing how bullying occurs in a school setting. I will challenge the way of how we should view
adults who have been bullied and focus more of their story instead of just
reading another article of how children are dealing with this.
I
recently sat down with a young adult who shared her thoughts and views about
how she was bullied as a child. I have gotten her feedback about how she dealt
with this as a child and how she learned to overcome this part in her life now
as an adult. The three codes that will be explored are language (how the person
spoke during the interview and the wording choices), emotional connection (this
is where the interviewee expressed a deep feeling from her childhood and it was
an emotional connection for her) and how the person is dealing with being
bullied today (this is where we will see the interviewee overcoming bullying
how she is today).
What the experts have to say
This
literature review is called “She is not actually bullied. The discourse of
harassment in student groups.” By Timo Terasahjo and Christine Salmivalli.
These two people interviewed and observed students in elementary school. They
got the students input about how they feel about being bullied. The researcher has found “Bullying an
intentional harm doing, Bullying as harmless, Bullying as justified and Girl’s
talk” (Terasahjo, Salmivalli). These are all the forms of bullying that the
researchers have found by conducting the study.This study is a good idea to
read if you only focus on children. I am more focused about how adults are
dealing with bullying. Terasahjo and Salmivaii say, “anti-bullying attitudes
were stronger than pro-bullying attitudes.” This might be true, but then how
come we as a society always hear of a bullying case every day. We only hear the
bad and never the good. I want to know more the positive outcomes of how adults
dealt and overcame bullying. In the study the children identified bullying as,
“…described indirect (e.g. spreading nasty rumors and social isolation) as well
as direct (hitting, name calling) aggressive behavior.” This is all typical behavior of elementary
students. These students are treating others with not a lot of care. The
children only care about themselves and that needs to stop. Children need to
realize this behavior so that adults who have been bullied will have better
outcomes. Now the big question will be
how those students are going to handle these situations. They need to be able
to learn from these situations in order to grow and become strong adults. If
the students let the other students bother them then the outcomes might be
severe if they never learn to overcome being bullied.
“Bullying as justified, including
the interpretative repertoires of “odd student” and “deserving” which construct
the victim as a negatively deviant student who also deserves to be treated with
hostility, are described.”
These are all things that need to be
addressed as a young child. Children need to learn how to identify this
behavior as negative and report this to an adult or a teacher. This type of
behavior needs to stop in order for the children to grow up in a positive way.
How the interview was conducted
I interviewed KA in a home setting.
I know that she felt more comfortable in a home setting rather than a public
place. I don’t know if she would have wanted to conduct the interview with a
lot of people and quite frankly it would have been very noisy. She is now
twenty years old and is a junior at a college in south New Jersey.
I know that
this person was bullied as a child and I wanted to get her feedback on her
experience. I started out with easy questions and worked my way up. I wanted
her to feel comfortable when starting the interview. I don’t think it would
have been a very good idea to just jump right into the questions. I stated off
with the easy questions first, where did you live, where did you go to school,
how old are you now. I just wanted her to start talking. Then after the basic
questions were out of the way it was time to get to the more intense questions.
I started asking her questions about what it felt like to be bullied and what
her thoughts were, if there was a support system for her and a support system
for her now. I wanted to hear the stories that made up her experiences. This is
very important because this is where a person who find out the most about
another person. I lastly concluded with questions about how she is today and
her feeling about bullying now and how it affects students today.
What was said by K
Since there is so much data
collected, I have decided to break it up into three different sections. The
titles of the sections are language, emotional connection and how she is
dealing with being bullied today. All of these aspects will give the full overview
of a young adult’s version of being bullied and how it affects her today.
Language
I will be looking at the pause that
is taken when speaking. In the interview you can see the pauses that KA has
taken when giving her interview. This is all reflected about her experiences
with bullying.
K: well um do you remember if J was
ever .like if there to help you with anything
KA: yeah um I don’t know if she knew
a lot of it was going on I can’t remember if she was… cause it
all happened in my science teachers class so I don’t remember if she was in
there or that class with me or not
K: yeah
KA: and I don’t know if anyone else at the time
said anything I just …..
K: yeah
KA: it really mean and I did not know how…. to
stick up for myself at that age so…. I just ended up…. kind of
miserable
The three
dots represent a long pause between words. KA was very hesitant when giving her
answers. She stopped to take a lot of breaks when answering the different
questions. You can tell that she is nervous when speaking by the ums and the
pauses. It almost sounds like KA does not want to give out the wrong
information to the interviewer. She wanted to sound correct in everything that
was being said. These are her feelings and feelings are never wrong especially
when it comes to this subject matter.
KA also
stumbles over the words that she has spoken. I am still not really sure what
she thinks about bullying from the discussion that we had.
I don’t know…either that or they were just plain
bullies …. And they just… maybe they did it to everybody else they just said
some pretty harsh words and haha I forget what they were but haha I do remember
crying during class and I remember it was 2 of the guys haha and…
The haha pauses are just a way of trying to lighten up
the mood. This laughing pause is a feel of uncertainty. She is trying to
lighten up the mood on a very tough subject to handle. It is hard for anyone to
talk about what happened to them when they were younger especially when it is
something that hurts you directly.
Emotional
Connection
Everyone has
deep emotional ties to something that has happened to them when they were
younger especially when it hurts you. KA has a deep emotional connection that
she is still unsure about. The information that she says is still not right
with her heart. She says it but you can tell that she is still in the past with
her language.
K: did
anyone give you like any special advice either teachers or friends or any
special advice like how to handle all these situations
KA: …
back in the day probably not haha I just remembered after a while I started
just crying and not taking to anybody cause I realized that if I said anything
people would yeah that’s another reason why I was really quite in middle school
was because I was afraid to say anything I was afraid of being bullied after
that I was afraid that if I said something… and it came out the wrong way
people would take it differently and start making fun of me so I don’t know if
I got any real advise…. to me it was kind of like yeah I should not really say
anything
Her use of
language sounds like she is back in time to when she was nine years old. She
has entered that aspect in her life and by the wording it sounds like she does
not want to go back there. It still holds a place in her heart and exactly not
sure if she wants to break away from it. This time in her life still holds
meaning to her that she does not want to let go. In this language she wants to
say the right thing and that she does not want to sound wrong. But here she
just lets it all out and spoke what was truly in her heart. I am not exactly
sure if she got over it in her head.
How she is dealing with being bullied today
When I asked KA these questions she
was very confident. She is confident in her head and in her heart. In here she
does not stumble on her words and is very confidents when she is speaking with
me.
K: it’s so huge now the reports and everything its
crazy but if you saw a child bullied today would what advice would you give
them
KA: what advice would I give them I would
defiantly tell them to reach out and to talk to other people to get help like
if its child being bullied like they should defiantly go to either a teacher of
a friend or anybody and like somebody could intercept or do something about it
like defiantly stick up for yourself don’t …. Don’t just take it … if somebody
is being mean to you do something about it
KA: I have a better perspective of what bullies like
to do like how they go about bullying other people so I have I feel like I’ll
be able to see that type of situation happening and if that happens I be able
to like go and stop it from happening I will like be able to like talk to both
parties and what’s like happening and make sure that they don’t do it either
and talk to their parents
In this
part you can see that KA has a very positive outcome in life and that she has
overcome bullying. She sounds more confident here than she did when she was
describing her childhood. She talks without any pauses and has great advice for
children who are being bullied today. It sounds like to me that she is okay
with being bullied in the head and in the heart.
How the interview relates to others
Bullying affects everyone differently. For KA
is only lasted a year and in the fourth grade. For me it happened when I was
growing up from fifth grade through high school. KA was very tied to her emotions
when she was going back and describing what happened when she was in in fourth
grade. Her language and emotional connection had a big influence of the way
that she presented herself. She was afraid to talk to other people because she
did not want to get bullied. For me it was different. I was bullied because I
have a learning disability and a speech problem with being overweight as a child.
I was the perfect target for bullies. I took all of those things that the
bullies said to me and really did think I was dumb and that no one liked me
because I was overweight.
For KA she
out grew being bullied and was able to overcome being bullied. She has a great
support system and has great advice for other people. She wants to be a teacher
and help children so that they do not go through the same experience that she
did. For me, I was finally able to outgrow having been bullied affect me about
two years ago when I transitioned to a four year university after getting my
associates degree from a local community college. My speech problem is gone and
so is the weight. I lost all the weight and now at a healthy weight. As for
being dumb, I am on two honor societies in my university. I do to want to
become a teacher so that what I have experienced does not happen to any
children.
Final thoughts
Being bullied affects everyone
differently. It all depends on how you handle the situation. For KA she has a great
outcome from being bullied and so do I. For any adults who are reading this and
have been bullied, I hope that this helps you to overcome being bullied or have
another perspective on this situation. This subject is very important to her
and to me as well. Now we always see how children right now are dealing with
being bullied but very rarely do we see how adults are dealing with being
bullied today. The language patterns that KA uses are very important when
describing being bullied. How you are bullied is one thing, how you overcome
and deal with it is another.
Works Cited
1.
"Language." Dictionary.com.
N.p.. Web. 23 Apr 2013. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/language?s=t>.
2.
Terasahjo,
Timo. ""She Is Not Actually Bullied." The Discourse of Harassment
in Student Groups."Aggressive Behavior. 29. (2003): 134-154. Print.8
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