Truths and Myths of Cyber-bullying

The Editors: Shaheen Shariff is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at McGill University, and an international expert on cyber-bullying. Her research and teaching are grounded in the study of law as it impacts educational policy, pedagogy, and practice. Specifically, her work addresses the emerging policy vacuum on parent and school responsibilities to supervise and intervene when children and teenagers engage in bullying at school and in cyber-space. Her publications are listed at http://people.mcgill.ca/shaheen.shariff and include Cyber-bullying: Issues and Solutions for the School, the Classroom, and the Home and Confronting Cyber-bullying: What Schools Need to Know to Control Misconduct and Avoid Legal Consequences. Shariff has authored and co-authored numerous articles, has appeared on both radio and television, has spoken at schools and research conferences throughout the world, and is Principal Investigator on three collaborative national and international projects studying the phenomenon of cyber-bullying, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.Andrew H. Churchill is a writing instructor in the McGill Centre for Teaching and Writing and a research assistant for the International Project on Cyber-bullying. In collaboration with Shaheen Shariff, he has presented his research in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. He has also spoken at schools and worked as a research consultant for the Quebec English School Board Task Force on Internet and Technology. His doctoral work is a critical analysis of the media coverage of charter schools. As part of this work, he edited Rocking Your World: The Emotional Journey into Critical Discourses (2008).

• Contents: Colin Lankshear/Michele Knobel: Foreword (or, Beyond ‘Reify, Measure and Treat’) – Shaheen Shariff/Andrew H. Churchill: Appreciating Complexity: Detangling the Web of Stakeholder Influence and Responsibility – Michel Walrave/Wannes Heirman: Towards Understanding the Potential Triggering Features of Technology – Dianne L. Hoff/Sidney N. Mitchell: Gender and Cyber-bullying: How Do We Know What We Know? – Ellen M. Kraft: Juicycampus.com: How Was This Business Model Culpable of Encouraging Harassment on College Campuses? – Dawn Zinga: Boundaries in Cyber-space: Media and Stakeholders as Policy Shapers – Jacqueline A. Stefkovich/Emily R. Crawford/Mark P. Murphy: Legal Issues Related to Cyber-bullying – Patrick D. Pauken: Morse v. Frederick and Cyber-bullying in Schools: The Impact on Freedom of Expression, Disciplinary Authority, and School Leadership – Marc Raboy/Jeremy Shtern: Mediated Speech and Communication Rights: Situating Cyber-bullying within the Emerging Global Internet Governance Regime – Jennifer Masters/Nicola Yelland: Changing Learning Ecologies: Social Media for Cyber-citizens – Gillian Palmer/Juliana Raskauskas: Kia Kaha: Police and Schools Working Together to Eliminate Bullying, a New Zealand Intervention – Will Gardner: Cyber-bullying: A Whole-school Community Approach.