This article is based on the author’s BS Development Communication thesis.
Suggested citation:
Roa, Charlene B. (2012). Information exposure and consciousness of school violence prevention among teachers and pupils in Pilar, Cebu. Unpublished BS Development Communication thesis, Visayas State University, Baybay, Leyte, Philippines.
__________________________________________________________
by
Charlene B. Roa
BS Development Communication 2012
Visayas State University
Visca, Baybay, Leyte, Philippines
The media play a significant role in influencing and forming people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behavior (Goddard and Saunders, 2002). Nowadays, it has become an important source of information for many people. The media has been the main source for obtaining current affairs and other issues in the society. Since its primary function is to inform, educate and persuade people, many organizations use media in communicating to their audiences.
Most of the organizations such as UNICEF, Child Protection Unit, PLAN International, etc. engage various media to disseminate information about their campaigns related to child protection. These organizations made children the center of their campaign because violence against children in schools has become an important societal issue. As stated by Plan International, children are not entrusted exclusively to their parents or guardians; the school also has responsibility in molding children’s knowledge and moral values. However, there are reports that there are children who were sexually harassed, punished violently, and were bullied. Eventually, that would result in a devastating effect on the lives of millions of children every year. The right of every child is to have a violence-free school.
Many researchers have concluded that the most effective way to prevent violence in school is by maintaining close communication and trust with pupils and others in the community, so that threats will be reported and can be investigated by responsible authorities. Identifying violent pupils through their profiles of characteristics are not effective and will probably result to false identification of innocent students as harmful and violent. Instead, school authorities should concentrate their efforts on improving communication channels and training a team of staff members to use principles of threat evaluation to measure the school’s safety (National Consortium of School Violence Prevention Researchers and Practitioners, 2006).
Therefore, there is a need to assess the knowledge and attitude of teachers and pupils about school violence prevention. This study tried to find out what and how much do the teachers and pupils know about school violence prevention and if they are already taking actions on this issue. Data would be useful to governments and organizations that are focusing on children’s rights advocacy.
Objectives
This study generally aimed to determine the information exposure and consciousness of school violence prevention among teachers and pupils in Pilar, Cebu. Specifically, this study aimed to:
- Determine teachers’ and pupils’ consciousness, knowledge of and attitude towards School Violence Prevention.
- Assess teachers’ and pupils’ information exposure to School Violence Prevention.
- Describe teachers’ and pupils’ socio-demographic characteristics.
- Determine the relationships between teachers’ and pupils’ socio-demographic characteristics, information exposure, and their consciousness, knowledge of and attitude towards School Violence Prevention.
Theoretical Framework
This study was supported by the Social Cognitive Theory. This theory was applicable in the study because people often acquire and adopt behavior through modeling and observation. The Social Cognitive Theory of Albert Bandura (1977) which stemmed from the Social Learning Theory, places an important focus on how adults’ and children’s behavior and development are influenced by their social experiences. Bandura (1977) incorporates the modeling as a form of social learning that by observing and following the actions from a model, an individual can be able to learn new behaviors which will then be applied in their later actions. In this study, what pupils have seen on their teachers’ actions may influence their existing behaviors in school. Likewise, what teachers and pupils have read in a printed material, heard on the radio and seen on television could also possibly affect their awareness of and attitude towards school violence prevention.
Social Cognitive Theory also emphasizes that human expectations, beliefs and cognitive competencies are developed and tailored by social influences that pass information and stimulate emotional reactions through modeling, instruction and social persuasion (Bandura, 1986).
It is not only through modeling that a person can acquire beliefs and behaviors; social persuasions such as family and peers can also affect since an individual is closer to these groups of people. An individual prefers to copy them, especially from peers because they have the similar values and interests (Bandura, 1986).
The Social Cognitive Theory upholds that most external (e.g. environmental and social) influences affect behavior through cognitive processes (Bandura, 1986). However, Bandura suggests that it is the symbols that make us think. Humans are able to give meaning, form, and thought to their experiences through the formation of symbols, such as images or words. Moreover, through forming symbols, humans are able to store and retain information in their memory that can be used as a lead for prospected behaviors. It is through this process that humans are able to model observed behavior from televisions or printed material. Thus, there are influences brought by the media on the values, attitudes and behavior styles of the observer.
People have different ideas, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes (Bandura, 1977). It could be possible that the teachers’ thoughts on school violence prevention may differ from that of the children’s thoughts on the same matter. Perhaps, that is because of the mass media influence and other information sources and their level of exposure to school violence prevention.
Conceptual Framework
The issues about school violence and how it can be prevented is mostly learned through the media. It is the media’s role to educate people and give awareness on violence in schools so as to prevent it by showing modeled behaviors concerning school violence prevention.
This study focused on the relationship between teachers’ and pupils’ information exposure and their consciousness, knowledge of and attitude towards school violence prevention. Information exposure of the respondents was seen as a determinant of consciousness, knowledge and attitude regarding school violence prevention among teachers and pupils. The socio-demographic characteristics were the intervening variables.
Methodology
Study sites
The study was conducted in six out of eight elementary schools in the municipality of Pilar, Cebu. The schools were Pilar Central School, Dapdap Elementary School, Cawit Elementary School, Esperanza Elementary School, Montserrat Elementary School and San Juan Elementary School.
Research design and sampling procedure
The study followed the one-shot survey design. Six schools were chosen purposively. In choosing the respondents, a list of pupils from Grade 4 to Grade 6 and teachers was obtained from the respective schools. Systematic sampling was used where every 6th name in the pupils and teachers lists of names was chosen. There were a total of 100 respondents, in which 50 of them were pupils and the other 50 were the teachers.
Data Gathering
Prior to data collection, permission to administer a survey from the Principal’s Office was secured to ensure full support and cooperation from those involved in the study. Data were gathered through personal interviews with the respondents. An interview schedule was used for this purpose. The interview schedule consisted six parts, namely: socio-demographic characteristics, respondent’s information exposure, consciousness about school violence, knowledge test, attitude test, and questions related to application of school violence prevention. There were the same interview schedules for the teachers and pupils.
Focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to gather qualitative data using an FGD guide. The FGD guide contained four topics, namely: consciousness, knowledge of and attitude towards school violence prevention.
Results
FGD with teachers
Consciousness
Almost all of the teachers were aware that there is violence in their school. Some teachers stated that there is no violence in their school because their school is child-friendly. Those who noticed violence in their school said that bullying is the usual type of violence that happened in their school. There is one teacher who expressed that some of her co-teachers physically harm their pupils like pinching especially those who are restless pupils. But this does happen all the time, only when pupils get naughty.
All of the teachers were aware that there are school violence prevention campaigns in their school. All of them answered that PLAN’s “Learn Without Fear” Campaign is one. Some of them answered “Because I am a Girl” which is also a campaign from PLAN that recognizes gender equality and empowering girls. Teachers learned about these campaigns through seminars conducted by the PLAN Personnel. According to them, only selected teachers were able to attend the seminars. The seminar was all about personal safety, child abuse and preventing school violence such as corporal punishment and bullying. One teacher claimed that because of the said seminar, violence in their school was minimized.
Knowledge
When the teachers were asked what school violence they know, all of them answered bullying, child abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and physical abuse. Moreover, all of them gave a positive answer when they were asked if they know any school violence prevention policies. Teachers stated that the school violence prevention policies they knew were: 1) Avoid corporal punishment; 2) Avoid harassment to pupils; 3) Avoid naming pupils inappropriately; 4) Avoid bullying; 5) Learn how to deal with pupils and; 6) Understand pupils. One of the teachers expressed that it is easy to deal with this issue but very difficult for the teachers because it is hard to understand multiple intelligence of every child.
More importantly, teachers said that the significance of preventing school violence is that violence will be minimized; pupils will not be bullied and/or abused; pupils have freedom to learn and pupils can express what they feel. In contrast, one teacher said that it is a disadvantage for them because pupils take it for granted.
All teachers gave a positive answer when asked if knowing school violence prevention policies would help them and their pupils in acquiring safe education.
Attitude
All of the teachers had positive attitude towards school violence prevention. All of them said that it is necessary to know how to prevent school violence. Two teachers agreed that it is necessary so that they can do what is right and they will know what is appropriate teaching. Other teachers said that it is necessary to be aware not to abuse so that no violence will happen. Furthermore, all of the teachers believed that the future of the pupils depend on one’s knowledge on school violence prevention policies.
FGD with pupils
Consciousness
All of the pupils were aware that there is violence in their school. Two pupils shared that they noticed their classmates fighting, bullying, and uttering inappropriate words about malicious parts of the body. They also shared that there are teachers in their school who throw chalk when he/she gets angry at them. One pupil said that there are teachers who pinch pupils’ ears when they don’t listen to the discussion.
All of the pupils answered that they noticed PLAN’s “Learn Without Fear” Campaign and Because I am a Girl. The pupils learned about these campaigns through their teachers and through the notebooks, papers, pencils and ballpens that were given by the PLAN Personnel. They were also able to watch a video about education. One of the pupils said that the video was a story of one child who was very hungry and he was told to sell instead of getting into school. She said that there were also stories and a poem about school violence prevention. In fact, she was interviewed together with their principal by the PLAN Personnel about what she learned in the “Learn Without Fear Campaign”.
Knowledge
All of the pupils knew the types of school violence and they answered bullying, child abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and physical abuse. They were all knowledgeable on this issue. However, not all pupils gave a positive answer when they were asked if they knew any school violence prevention policies. Some of them said that they already forgot and some said they did not know any school violence prevention policies.
All of the pupils agreed that preventing school violence is important because it gives benefits to them. Furthermore, the pupils who tended to fight expressed that they would not do so anymore, no more bullying. One pupil voiced out that they should be leaders, be models of uprightness.
All pupils gave also a positive answer when asked if knowing school violence prevention policies would help them in acquire safe education.
Attitude
All of the pupils had positive attitude towards school violence prevention. They said that it is necessary to know how to prevent school violence so that they can tell their classmates not to bully anymore and if anything happens, they will not be scared to report to authorities or to teachers. Additionally, all of them believed that their future depend on one’s knowledge on school violence prevention policies.
Survey results
Most of the respondents were not exposed to school violence prevention information on radio (83.8%), television (54.6%), other people (43%), printed materials (38%), and campaign (32.1%). Majority of the respondents gave correct answers on the consciousness, knowledge and attitude tests.
Statistical analysis showed that teachers’ school and teaching experience were significantly related to knowledge, although teaching experience was also significantly related to attitude. Pupils’ school was significantly related to knowledge while age was related to attitude, and information exposure was related to their consciousness of school violence prevention.
Although respondents have high consciousness, knowledge and attitude levels, still some of them had some confusion and misunderstanding that need to be addressed. Hence, school violence prevention campaigns must be strengthened and teachers must incorporate violence prevention ideas in their lessons.
