Teachers' Perceptions and Interventions of Bullying at Aceh Pesantren

The study focuses on obtaining substantial information of teachers’ perceptions and their interventions in the bullying problem in the modern pesantren environment. Pesantren is an equivalent to boarding school which facilitates students with formal schooling and dormitory facility. Pesantren are suspected for the frequent bullying occurrence due to continuous interaction among students at school and in their residential setting thus teachers’ appropriate perceptions and interventions are two crucial issues which need to be investigated. This study provides an analysis of how teachers at the pesantren conceptually perceive bullying behavior and their concrete actions to prevent the behavior. Thus the study reveals that the teachers at the pesantren perceive bullying as a dangerous behavior which needs to be tackled. The study also discovers that the teachers at the pesantren employ several interventions in the form of reactive approach rather than proactive. However their positive perceptions (bullying is harmful) and their concrete actions to prevent bullying within the pesantren community cannot reduce its occurrence significantly.