Most studies focusing on school bullying address the issue as a psycho-sociological phenomenon. Prevalence, forms and types of bullying, individual and collective consequences as well as conditions of emergence have extensively been studied internationally. Prevention and intervention programmes (e.g. Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme, KiVa, etc.) have also been implemented and followed by academic assessment.

Some scholarly work has framed these repetitive and asymmetrical aggressions, which occur at and around school, as rights violations, thereby highlighting the numerous legal implications such behaviour can have (Blaya, 2011; Cornell & Limber, 2015; Jaffé, et al., 2013). It is nonetheless worth noting that this is not mainstream in the field. Moreover, the policy work which has linked bullying to children’s rights has mainly done so by stressing the need for increased protection of victims and authors, given the established highly negative long-term outcomes for both groups of students (Reijntjeset al., 2010; Farrington et al. 2011)

It appears some actors of the field may be reluctant to address bullying as a rights violation issue due to the fact it might induce higher juridification of a phenomenon which is intrinsically related to all the dimensions of school climate (Cohen et al., 2009; Salmivalli & Voeten, 2004) and can hardly be solved without admitting that it emerges within the school system. Conversely, neglecting to study the impact bullying has on children’s rights within school could be related to the fact children’s rights are not systematically considered when approaching educational phenomena.

In this contribution, we will focus on the students and teachers discourses on bullying, highlighting their perspectives on the phenomenon as a rights violation. Our interest lies in how the relevant stakeholders frame their understanding of bullying and whether they perceive the need or the opportunity to anchor it in a rights perspective. If and when they do so, we aim to explore if they actually sense the opportunity to use a rights framework as a means to empower all the actors to stand up for improved rights respect in schools.

A study on school bullying involving over 5000 respondents was conducted in Valais, Switzerland in 2019. For this presentation, the qualitative data produced via focus groups and individual interviews in the French-speaking part of Valais is used. The focus-groups and individual interviews were carried out with 33 teenagers (12-16 years old), and 26 primary school students (5-10 years old) and 5 teachers. Participants all came from three different schools, chosen as case-studies. The focus groups comprised voluntary students, willing to share any kind of experience about school bullying. Participants to individual interviews were more directly concerned by the phenomenon (as victims, bullies or professionals) and accepted to give a more detailed testimony of their own experience in respect to bullying. The discussions were led by a researcher within the school for most respondents, or in a place chosen by the students, when they preferred to avoid the school surroundings. In accordance with ethical guidelines in the matter, another adult was systematically present. Conversations were recorded and transcribed, then coded with the support of MaxQDA. For this study, a discourse analysis approach is used. Occurrences of words relating to rights (rights, dignity, etc.), the concept of justice (fair, respect, etc.) or to the legal framework (insults, rules, etc.) in the discourse of participants are listed. Then the context of the occurrences are analysed.

Preliminary results show that students seldom use a rights-based language to describe their experiences of bullying, nor do they refer to the legal framework. They however massively use the concept of justice and other semantically related concepts to express feelings, understandings and hopes in relation to bullying. Results for school professionals differ slightly. While they do not either frequently use rights-based language when talking about their experiences of bullying, they often refer to the legal framework. These references remain broad and non-specific; more precisely their seldom relate directly to their practices.

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