Deconstructing Hierarchical Bullying in Senior High Boarding Schools in Ghana

Abstract

Bullying is a social behaviour that instigates psychological and/or physical harm to others. In Ghana, bullying is a growing issue of concern because it is ingrained in the senior high school (SHS) culture. The study was a retrospective observational one which required participants to fill out a survey. Male students in SHS 1 and SHS 2 that were in mixed-sex schools were bullied more predominantly than their counterparts in single-sex schools. They also bullied others in greater proportion in SHS 3. Female students in SHS 2 who were in single-sex schools were more considerably bullied than those in mixed-sex schools. Furthermore, bullying was independent of age group. Although not statistically significant, there is a trend of males who are popular being bullied very often in SHS 1 and SHS 2 while males who are “not popular” bully others “very often” when they are in SHS 2 and SHS 3. The high incidence of bullying in males in mixed-sex schools is suggestive of the tendency to exhibit aggression which is recorded in the literature to have a seductive influence on females and the opposite is true for females. The display of bullying, where popular people are bullied “very often” and unpopular people bully others “very often” suggests that there is a hierarchical underpinning to bullying. Bullying undermines the telos of senior high education, which is rooted in discipline and knowledge acquisition. Mapping out the structure of bullying will help eradicate this ingrained practice from our schools.