Background/Purpose Bullying is a phenomenon impacting approximately 30% of students between 6th through 10th grade. Nearly 8% of students aged 12-18 have reported being a victim of bullying almost every day during the school year (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). The purpose of this investigation was to utilize Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1979) to explore the perceptions of bullies, victims, bully-victims, and bystanders about bullying in middle school physical education, and examine the role of physical education teachers in the bullying dynamic.
Method After gaining IRB approval, 4 physical education teachers and 24 sixth grade students within one middle school were invited to participate in the study. The researcher conducted direct observations of 20 sixth grade physical education classes, documenting teacher and student behaviors, physical spaces, class activities, and other phenomena. Participants were formally and informally interviewed about their perceptions about bullying and role of the teacher and students' families in relation to bullying.
Analysis/Results Interview transcriptions and field notes were inductively and deductively analyzed using open and axial coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). The results indicate that environmental factors, overly large classes, type of activity, and physical spaces impact bullying in physical education. Students perceive that adults do not comprehend the full magnitude of bullying and believe that reporting incidents of bullying is worse than tolerating bullying behaviors.
Conclusions The magnitude of bullying as perceived by students is far worse than perceived by teachers. While physical educators perceive they are creating a safe educational environment, bullying continues unchecked.