Another good bullying behaviour interventions book

Bullying Interventions in Schools: Six Basic Approaches is obviously targeted at educators but I found there is lots that could be applied to other settings such as the workplace. There is lots of great books that will define the subject, discuss the effects, give you the statistics, outline the reasons and overview the likely indicators and types of factors that are involved. It is refreshing to see that Rigby has identified a gap in the literature and avoids in-depth coverage of this and just concentrates on how to deal with it once it is reported to you.

The first 20 pages are of course an introduction and quickly reviews some of the 'knowledge' about bullying behaviour listed above. Where it stands out is the 6 chapters which discuss the following approaches: traditional disciplinary, strengthening the target, mediation, restorative justice, support group method and method of shared concern. The final few chapters look at choosing the method. (It does not cover the collaborative problem solving & resolution (CPR) approach discussed in my previous post.)

The book provides a good description of all these approaches as well as discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each. It allows you to compare and make decisions on what are the most appropriate situations for each. To be able to do this you will need to read all the sections as each chapter is not self contained. For example the disciplinary approach chapter does not contain some discussion comparing it to the restorative justice approach, as this is found in the restorative justice chapter.

I feel the book could have benefited from having a summary table listing all the strengths and weaknesses against each other. The choosing the method chapter does go a long way to summarising each method, its assumptions and when they could be reasonably used but this is still 8 pages of text. I like overviews and comparison tables and this of course is just a reflection on how I best learn - seeing the big picture before the detail.

I found the book very easy to read with the language simple and straight forward. It fills a much needed gap by comparing how the different approaches can best be utilised. Bullying behaviour is a complex issue and one size fits all approaches just do not allow for or suit this level of complexity. A range of options is needed and this book is important because it gives practitioners options to choose from. Recommended.


Bullying Interventions in Schools: Six Basic Approaches
Ken Rigby
ISBN 978 0 86431 957 9

Tags: book reviews, book, recommended, bullying behaviour, school age, teaching, workplace