BULLYING AND STRATEGIES FOR CONTRASTING THE PHENOMENON IN ITALIAN SCHOOL

Abstract

After about twenty years, Italy can be considered one of the European Nations that has more invested in terms of support for inclusion and prevention for confronting the problem of bullying in the school. This article aims to set the problem of bullying in the framework of Italian school restructuring process. Starting from a literature review about bullying since 1970s to date, on the bases of the outcomes of some studies previously conducted, the author aims to explain because the phenomenon of bullying it is accompanied by raising the mandatory school. Through the research of eminent scholars, she argues that the crisis of values and the loss of the perspective for the future of teenagers increases the possibility of violent relationships among peers in school, where they spend much of their time. An interpretative model on bullying is therefore highlighted using the “dramaturgic metaphor” of Goffman and focusing the role of viewer/witness (often the same classmates) for breaking of the violent triangle where perpetrator and victim are similarly victims of the same cruel play. Finally it describes the strategies devised by the Ministry of Education which are currently applied in the schools of the Italian peninsula in a perspective of preventive and rehabilitative education both on potential protagonists ‒ victim and bully ‒ both on the viewers ‒ all those adolescents just look at the “violent drama” for fun or for weakness, without interrupting it and prevent the recurrence. In the light of empirical evidences, it is suggested that such programs accompained from informal practices should be encouraged.