Bullying - inclusion and exclusion in school

In surveys, many Danish school-children respond that they have been victims of bullying. The occurrence of bullying is more frequent in Denmark than in other Nordic countries. The victims of bullying experience a detrimental effect on their quality of life as well as their learning and development opportunities in the institutions, and therefore this is an issue that children, parents, teachers and pedagogues attempt to address. Exbus is a research project aimed to identify how bullying and acceptance of bullying emerge, change and, in some cases, vanish. The project is focused on the various meanings that bullying behaviour is ascribed by the victims, perpetrators and bystanders. Bystanders are children who may not be directly involved, but for whom bullying form part of their lived experience and social setting. The research is also aimed to determine the impact on bullying of the parents - and teachers - interpretation of this issue and their response to it. Bullying exists in virtual and physical interaction. The project therefore includes analyses of the importance of digital media (chatrooms, mobile phones et al.), of the moral values and narrative structures that are communicated through computer games and television. Furthermore, the long-term effects of bullying are examined by including adult (former) victims of bullying. In light of the many aspects of bullying, this project will touch on, the terminology and definitions of concepts will be of key importance. Are terms such as "evil", "responsibility", "guilt", "forgiveness" et al. useful for our understanding of this issue? This question is addressed by the philosophical sub-project. Finally, eXbus also includes a quantitative descriptive analysis of frequency and relations among the many empirical sub-projects. eXbus is scheduled to run from 2007 to 2011 and is funded by the Danish Tryg Foundation