How the School Built Environment Exacerbates Bullying and Peer Harassment

Abstract

This qualitative analysis examined the built environment of an elementary school and its problem with bullying and peer harassment. We concluded that if the tendency for bullying and peer harassment is present, then specific elements within defined spaces in the school built environment can exacerbate such tendencies. Data collection included staff and teacher surveys, examination of policy documents, and photographs of the external and internal built environment. A constant comparison of incidents in the data included competing comments made on surveys and meaning derived from photographs of the built environment. This paper offers evidence that shows that researchers examining ways of solving the bullying problem need to look at the built environment as a contributing factor