Researchers
Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
“We’re moving away from simplistic, singular categorical kinds of understandings of bullying and harassment to look at the interweaving of many categories...”
Background Information
Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at Deakin University, Melbourne. Maria’s professional life has spanned secondary teaching, writing, researching, lecturing and consulting in issues such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and social justice in education and health.
Maria, in your most recent work with Wayne Martino you've had some great opportunities to hear the voices of young people and learn from their experiences. What are they saying about bullying and harassment?
Wayne and I found that for many boys to be a bully or to be tough is a symbol of being normal, of being okay - that boys who get bullied are associated with issues of being “gay and girly”.
And for girls we found that a lot of bullying is often in relation to boys. We came up with this term, “the absent presence of boys”, where girls will harass and bully each other in relation to boyfriends, in relation to who is popular amongst boys, and who isn’t, even if the girls are in a single sex school.
How did they feel about what is being done to address the issue?
Young people are expected to say no to bullying but those in power in our school systems are still not adequately and effectively addressing their own adult educational cultures, systems and structures of inequities and discrimination in regard to gender, sexuality and cultural diversity. Young people tell us that it’s almost as if they are blamed for this culture – “We’re the ones who have to be ‘fixed up’ but the adults and the systems around us just continue unchanged.”
Why do you think this is happening?
I think a lot of policy making and a lot of implementation in schools seems to be based on a set of myths and assumptions - excuses, really - that remain un-researched and uninvestigated. There seems to be a reluctance to research the impact of misogyny and homophobia on students and bullying, and I wonder whether it’s because they’ll find out that it’s not actually as they think it is - or as they want to think it is - so they actually have to get on with systematically and effectively addressing their own sexism, racism and homophobia.
What do you think our school systems need to do?
I think they need to:
- Look at their own systems, structures and policies and do some audits and research into how they may be framing, perpetuating and justifying bullying and harassment amongst students in relation to gender and sexuality– which means also then addressing the hierarchies and power relations amongst staff.
- Shift the focus and the attention to the students who are doing the bullying and I don’t mean in a pandering way - to make them and their parents responsible and accountable. I mean, let’s have a look at what’s really going on.
- Constantly revisit their policies and implementation strategies as our school populations keep shifting - building a whole school approach – an ongoing everyday understanding of the issues.
Where can they find more information?
Martino, W. & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2005). Being Normal is the Only Way to Be: Adolescent perspectives on gender and school. UNSW PRESS, Sydney.
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