Publication Date

2010

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Bullying-Massachusetts-South Hadley-Prevention, Anti-Bullying Task Force for Civil and Ethical Behavior (South Hadley, Mass.), Task-force, Participant observer, Community organizing, Bullying

Abstract

A terrible tragedy occurred in the town of South Hadley involving a student's suicide. Part of the response by the school administration and the community was to form an Anti-Bullying Task Force for Civil and Ethical Behaviors. This study was a qualitative participant observer case study involving this task force. This researcher participated in one of the seven sub-groups of the Anti-Bullying Task Force for Civil and Ethical Behavior in the role of group note taker. The sub-group that was focused on was the Community Programs group. The two questions used to guide this research were: (1) What is the process of organizing and developing a community and school collaborative task-force, whose goal was to address the social problem of bullying? (2) How does the task force function and what are some of the characteristics that affected the members of the task force and the group's process? Studying the Anti-Bullying Task Force for Civil and Ethical Behaviors illustrates a community's effort to address the issue of bullying through many avenues. The Community Programs group's work and process was shaped by their goals. The goals of the Community Programs group emphasize the importance of positive behaviors and attitudes of adults in the community and the effect this can have on bullying behaviors.

Language

English

Comments

iii, 62 p. Thesis (M.S.W.)-Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2010. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62)

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