Juli Coffin

This chapter describes the development of the Friendly Schools programme as a response to concerns about the impact of bullying and cyberbullying in Australian schools. It begins by outlining key theoretical approaches that contributed to the research, including social ecological theory, family systems theory, and the importance of engaging youth voice. The chapter discusses the need for whole-school interventions targeting all levels and members of the school community and describes a progression of studies conducted by a team of Western Australian researchers in 1999–2018. This research culminated in Friendly Schools, a universal bullying prevention and social skills intervention which has been tested in seven randomized control trials and nine quasi-experimental studies, involving more than 300 primary and secondary Australian schools. The research has also addressed emerging forms of bullying, and Cyber Friendly Schools, a cyberbullying-prevention programme developed and evaluated with the active involvement of school staff, parents and students, is described. The process of commercializing Friendly Schools is discussed, with an analysis of the impact and legacy of the research. The chapter concludes with a discussion of key lessons learned from the process of conducting applied bullying prevention research in the context of the unique challenges posed by school environments.

THIS CHAPTER'S CENTRAL focus is to demonstrate how Aboriginal constructs, such as the Coffin Cultural Security (CCS) Model and the Cultural Security Continuum (Coffin 2007), offer culturally secure ways forward for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people engaged in and affected by community development processes. We do this by focusing on two community development projects undertaken in the health and local government sectors in rural and regional Western Australia. The motivation for community development practitioners to utilise tools such as the CCS Model and the Cultural Security Continuum is connected to the influence of colonial history and recognition of Aboriginal knowledge. In relation to colonial history, Australian community development processes are deeply entrenched within privileged Western paradigms that do not allow for processes to be developed and implemented from an Aboriginal perspective (Ife 2003). With regard to the relationship between Aboriginal knowledge and community development processes, views and experiences of Aboriginal communities have been historically excluded or not wholly embraced (Ife 2003; Sherwood 1999).

Participatory action research (PAR) is a qualitative research methodology with a dynamic and powerful potential in both rural and urban contexts. PAR can account for social forces and macro systems of injustice which affect the lives of people within a community and thus achieve what Prilleltensky (2003) termed ‘psychopolitical validity’. This chapter explores its efficacy in research with Australian Aboriginal groups. It is contended that PAR is an invaluable approach in conducting research with such communities. PAR has the potential to empower Indigenous communities in ways that quantitative designs simply cannot.