“I don’t know how I have the strength to come to school:” manifestations and implications of bullying between school adolescents

Abstract

This article aims to understand, by using Photovoice, the representations of bulling among high school adolescents. This is a qualitative study, conducted with 54 adolescents from the public school system of the state of Paraná, organized into six focus groups. The data were collected using the Photovoice participatory technique and submitted to content analysis proposed by Bardin. Three categories emerged from the data analysis: “Esthetic, homophobic, and gender bullying: subversive strategies,” “The harmful effects of bullying,” and “Interdisciplinary dialogue as a strategy to prevent and combat bullying.” With the results, it was possible to evidence that the practice of bullying happens from dissonances between aggressors and victims, with insults to the condition of body conformation, sexual orientation, gender identity, among others. For this reason, it is necessary to enable articulated actions between education and health for dialogue and listening about bullying in the school community, with a view to coping with it, prevent it, and protect against it, seeking above all the respect and appreciation of differences.