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Using interviews for privacy and observation with six participants, the study finds bullying is widespread, including cases where school prefects use their position to bully others. Victims reportedly shield bullies, while bystanders feel powerless to intervene. Causes include intrinsic hatred, home background status, teacher favouritism, jealousy, unreported prior cases, teacher complacency, and weak anti-bullying structures.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/bullying-at-a-zimbabwean-boarding-school-views-of-bullies-victims-and-bystanders/591815/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/bullying-at-a-zimbabwean-boarding-school-views-of-bullies-victims-and-bystanders/591815.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Dipper","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-07","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What is the study’s main purpose?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The study aims to understand bullying behaviours at a Zimbabwean co-ed rural boarding school from the perspectives of students who identify as bullies, victims, and bystanders.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How was data collected in the research?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Data were collected mainly through closed-door interviews for privacy and through observation.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What did the study find about who bullies and how bullying occurs?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The case study found bullying was widespread, including school prefects using their position to bully other students.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},591815,1792144912,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":145,"read_time":146,"preview_page_count":4},1374404997633,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Bullying at a Zimbabwean Boarding School: Views of Bullies, Victims, and Bystanders  \nClifford Gomba  \nDr., corresponding author, Adjunct Faculty at The Catholic University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, [cliffslous@gmail.com](cliffslous@gmail.com)  \nProsper Zindonda  \nHoly Cross High School, Zimbabwe, [zindondaprosper5@gmail.com](zindondaprosper5@gmail.com)  \nBullying at schools has been reported to be problematic with regards to students’ safety and academic achievement. Inasmuch as various scholars have delved into the problem of bullying, few have focused the issue from the perspective of the bully, the victim, and the bystander. The aim of this study is to discover and understand bullying behaviours at a Zimbabwean co-ed rural boarding school focusing specifically on the perceptions of students who identified themselves as bullies, victims, and bystanders. Participants (N = 6) were students at the school and identified themselves as bullies, victims, or bystanders. Data was collected mainly through interviews done behind closed doors for privacy purposes and also through observation technique. The results of this case study research showed that bullying was rife at the boarding school with school prefects using their position to bully other students. In addition, victims protected bullies and bystanders felt powerless to intervene least they become the next victim. The study also found that causes of bullying were intrinsic, inherent hatred, home background status, teacher favouritism, jealousy, unreported previous cases, complacency of teachers and lack of concrete structures that keep bullying under constant check. The study recommended that schools have concrete, rigorously enforced anti-bullying structures, rules, and regulations, with students being conscientized on the ills of bullying behaviour. Students across schools should be empowered to report bullying so that they do not suffer in silence.  \nKeywords: bullying, bullies, victims, bystanders, boarding school  \nINTRODUCTION  \nFew studies have been done focusing on bullying behavior at a boarding school particularly in Zimbabwe (Mugove, 2017; Zindi, 1994) . Bullying behavior is prevalent in most schools the world over. The definition of bullying varies and this research paper will adopt Olweus (1994) and Kaplan’s (2007) definition of bullying as student’s exposure, repeatedly, and overtime to negative actions that may involve verbal, violent and aggressive behavior. Sampson (2002) adds that bullying is targeted at students who cannot properly defend themselves due to their small body sizes, strength, or being outnumbered. Boarding school have typically 80 to 90 per cent of their overall school population living on campus in dormitory-style residential halls for the duration of the schooling year (Mander, et al., 2014) . School staff members, who are usually dorm parents, teachers or coaches (Kennedy, 2017), supervise the dormitories.  \nGudyanga, et al. (2014) found that bullying is rife in Zimbabwean schools and most of it was targeted on younger or weaker students who were not able to defend themselves. The most perplexing issue is that victims of bullying do not report bullying behaviours although bullying tends to be long lasting (Keashly & Neuman, 2010) . The reasons for not reporting vary. For example, some victims feel adults do not take the issue seriously Rigby, 2004) . Describing the association between bullies and their  \nCitation: Gomba, C., & Zindonda, P. (2021) . Bullying at a Zimbabwean Boarding School: Views of Bullies, Victims, and Bystanders. Anatolian Journal of Education, 6(2), 37-50. [https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2021.624a](https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2021.624a)  \nvictims, Omoke and Afen-Akpaida,(2008) and Thornberg (2010) as cited by Asiyai (2015) noted that a single student who bullies can have far reaching effects on the school by creating a climate of fear and intimidation for his/her victims and bystanders.  \nBully Profiles  \nResearch has shown ","cbCaib36ITNmGt1F","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaib36ITNmGt1F","pdf",303371,14,"English","# Introduction\n## Bully Profiles\n## Victim and Bystander Profile","[{\"question\":\"What is the study’s main purpose?\",\"answer\":\"The study aims to understand bullying behaviours at a Zimbabwean co-ed rural boarding school from the perspectives of students who identify as bullies, victims, and bystanders.\"},{\"question\":\"How was data collected in the research?\",\"answer\":\"Data were collected mainly through closed-door interviews for privacy and through observation.\"},{\"question\":\"What did the study find about who bullies and how bullying occurs?\",\"answer\":\"The case study found bullying was widespread, including school prefects using their position to bully other students.\"}]","Bullying at a Zimbabwean Boarding School - Views of Bullies, Victims, and Bystanders | PDF",1792073267,35]