Student think-tank to beat school bullying

Students from a mix of colleges at Massey’s Wellington campus will collaborate to devise ways to address bullying in schools at a workshop on Monday September 10 led by Swedish marketing consultant Stefan Engeseth.

With a background outside academia, Mr Engeseth usually applies his expertise to the business world, He will oversee an afternoon of brainstorming by creative arts, communication and expressive arts students to gain insights into school bullying and develop possible strategies to help address the issue.

Co-organiser Euan Robertson from the Institute of Communication Design at the College of Creative Arts says Mr Engeseth, who has made his name consulting to companies ranging from BMW to J Walter Thompson, uses improvisation and jazz techniques to enliven and offer insight into topics as sobering as school bullying.

Mr Robertson describes school bullying as “an insidious problem” that has moved from being almost a rite of school life to an explicit social problem. Students from the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing will join his students.

“School bullying while not new, is especially problematic for contemporary schools, families and wider communities,” Mr Robertson says.

Combinations of advertising design, communication and expressive arts students will be arranged for the workshop to develop scenarios involving typical groups affected by school bullying from parents and pupils, teachers and principals to politicians and community leaders.

“The idea is not to solve the problem but allow the students freedom to explore pathways via collaboration outside of course work and curriculum constraints”

A blog has been set up to outline the details and background of the workshop, to profile the teams and to document their insights and conclusions.

Go to http://stopbullyingworkshop.wordpress.com/

The workshop is happening between 1pm and 5pm on Monday September 10 at Presentation E in the College of Creative Arts building, Te Ara Hihiko, Block 12, Massey University, Wellington.