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Generationing School Bullying: Age-Based Power Relations, the Hidden Curriculum, and Bullying in Northern Vietnamese Schools

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Generationing Development

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies on Children and Development ((PSCD))

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in two schools in northern Vietnam, this chapter suggests understanding and addressing school bullying as a generational problem rather than one of individual children. It demonstrates that school bullying is intricately connected to manifestations of power in the deeply generational organisation of schools, and to the ways in which both children and adults exercise their agency in this social environment by drawing on age-related hierarchies, bodily size, and physical strength. Employing the concept of the hidden curriculum, the chapter suggests that some students learn to utilise bullying as a means through which they can influence the behaviour of others and thus more easily navigate their way through school, both socially and scholastically.

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Acknowledgements

This research was generously funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and kindly supported by the Vietnam National Institute for Education Sciences (VNIES). I would like to thank everyone who assisted me with the research, particularly the teachers and students who shared their experiences of bullying.

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  1. Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, SE-58183, Linköping, Sweden

    Paul Horton

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  1. International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Roy Huijsmans

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Horton, P. (2016). Generationing School Bullying: Age-Based Power Relations, the Hidden Curriculum, and Bullying in Northern Vietnamese Schools. In: Huijsmans, R. (eds) Generationing Development. Palgrave Studies on Children and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55623-3_6

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