Co designing Peer Counter Actions with School Communities

This essay focuses on the Third Phase of the national research project on female bullying, titled: “Female bullying at school. A mixed-method intersectional investigation” (De Vita & Burgio, 2023; Batini et al., 2023). The main objective of this contribution is to showcase the results obtained through the research training and co-design process carried out in Verona between 2022 and 2023 together with two different school communities. More specifically, this task involved female students selected from two high schools located in Verona. This target group had previously participated in the First Phase of the research project developed during the academic year 2020 and 2021 when they were in the first biennial (14-16 years old). Together with these students, we decided to engagesomeoftheirschoolteachers to makescheduledactionsmoreeffective and also increase their level of awareness of the phenomenon in question. Indeed, the key purpose of this final research step was to establish a participatory pedagogical model for co-designing grassroots counter-actions with a distinguishing peer-to-peer approach. This prevention and counteraction model (or template) was developed and implemented with the active contribution of experienced trainers in innovative and participatory methodologies focused on emotional selfawareness and the ability to take action in real-life situations– such as the Theatre of the Oppressed (Gigli et al., 2008; Mamone, 2019) and the 16 Attitudes (Murdoch & Oldershaw, 2012) oriented to enhance and encourage a Student’s Voice approach (Cook-Sather, 2006). The participatory training-action process with school communities enabled theconstruction of theoretical-practical approaches, guidelines, and toolkits applicable in school contexts where bullying incidents and dynamics are experienced and more likely occur.