School Bullying to be examined at 4th World Conference on Violence at School and Public Policy in Lisbon.

This week the fourth conference on violence at school and public policies will be convened in Lisbon and will run from the 23-25 June.

The conference is sponsored by UNESCO, the Science and Technological Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and  will bring together 500 researchers from 50 countries to share ideas and present more than 200 studies.

Ron Avi Astor of University of Southern California and Rami Benbenishti of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel will be proposing a world wide agenda in the fight against violence in schools.

This is not a new problem but is a relatively new field of study that is producing new research around the world. The conference will allow researchers to bring together the fruits of this world wide reasearch and allow discussion on dealing with this challenging problem.

One paper from Spain will present information on antisocial behaviour problems in kindergarten and a paper from Australia will use podcastings to present insights into bullying.

Ron Avi Astor is quoted as saying that “just over a decade ago there was perhaps one proven program that reduced school violence, today there are dozens of evidence based programs that may work depending on setting and implementation.”

This highlights the importance of such conferences that bring together scientists from around the world to share and discuss the latest scientific research on this important social phenomenon.

The social and economic consequences of bullying need a global approach to understanding the causes and bringing to those at local level  evidence based solutions to reduce school violence.

I hope to post further information that comes out of the conference.

For those who are interested to keep up with the news on the conference here is the link: http://www.fmh.utl.pt/icvs2008/ingles/index_ingles.htm

~ by abstraktbiblos on Monday, 23 June, 2008.