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Project number: 2019-1-PL01-KA201-065722

2. The role of empowerment in anti-bullying work with children. Why is it
important to treat the children who experienced bullying as an expert? (Leader:
EUROED)

In light of the following Learning Material for Teachers, it is important to draw
attention to the role of empowerment that the Art Against Bullying activities with
children had.

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Throughout developing The Short Story of Bullying – Experience of Bullying in the
Child Perspective, the teachers working with the children had their minds set on
providing students with an opportunity to express themselves freely, without fear of

ridicule, judgment or repercussions. This ensured a positive working environment,
which, in turn, helped students feel safe and empowered to illustrate their bullying
experiences.

The teachers were also careful as to not approach the students with a fixed set of
expectations and beliefs about the children’s bullying experiences and reactions.

Rather, the teachers invested time and effort to understand and, moreover, to facilitate
artistic expression, instead of demanding a certain product based on preconceived
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assessments.

Below, there are a few arguments in favour of approaching students with the overt or
covert intent to empower them.

Empowering students boosts their self-confidence. For the young, being empowered
by an adult translated into a feeling of being equal from a certain perspective, it means
that the point of view, feelings and experiences matter just as much as an adult’s.

For the bullying victims, this means approval, a degree of appreciation for the self
which was lost or affected during the bullying experience. To an extent, being
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empowered after being bullied counts as healing from the negative experience.

For the bullies, empowerment should ideally result in a diminished desire to bully

others. The need to bully other children stems from a lack of balance in a student’s
own past – it is not rare that a bully was, in turn, bullied at some point, meaning a need
to restore the lost balance by dominating other students. Ideally, after feeling

empowered and satisfied with their intrinsic and perceived value, bullies will no
longer feel the need to be aggressive with other students.

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