Chernyakova A. Organizational and Pedagogical Bases of Violence Prevention and Intervention in Secondary Schools of the USA

Dissertation is devoted to the organizational and pedagogical bases of violence prevention and intervention in secondary schools of the USA. In the first part of dissertation the theoretical and pedagogical bases of violence prevention and intervention in U.S. secondary schools are analyzed. School violence is considered to be such a kind when students are exposed to the destructive power of other students or school staff (teachers, administration). On the basis of the analysis of American psychological and pedagogical literature the most common types of violence in U.S. secondary schools: bulling, cyber bulling, theft, armed robbery, discrimination, segregation, suicide etc. and conceptual approaches to the determination of violence among students in foreign psychological and educational science have been characterized. The system of external on the macro-, meso- and micro-levels and internal determinants of violence (individual psychological characteristics of the child, gender factors, mental and physical development problems) have been formulated. In the second part of the dissertation the organizational and legislative bases of violence prevention and intervention in U.S. secondary schools are proved. On the basis of the historical and chronological analyses of the investigated phenomenon the author distinguishes three periods of the American national policy development concerning the problem of violence prevention among the students: first period (second half of the 60th - early 70th of the XX century) - Mobilizational-anti-segregational; second period (mid 70th - 80th of the XX century) - Institutional-integrative; third period (90th of the XX century - early of the XXI century) - Priority-preventive. In the third part of the dissertation the methodological bases of violence prevention and intervention in American schools, including projective, reactive and comprehensive strategies are distinguished. Projective strategies of violence prevention and intervention include systemic prolonged in time preventive work of all subjects of the pedagogical process, in particular the teaching and learning systems based on the long-term, continuous planning, research and development of the student. Reactive strategies provide urgent intervention in the problem situation by the police officers, which include: 1) A Zero-tolerance Policy; 2) The Threat Assessment Team. Comprehensive strategies allow to combine the advantages and minimize the disadvantages of projective and reactive strategies, although their implementation suggests more intense period of formation of socio-pedagogical competence of teachers concerning the upbringing of social responsibility of the students, and involving in the education process local community by creating socially significant, caring school community. The analysis of the American schools experience has enabled to outline the possibilities of the progressive ideas implementation in the practice of Ukrainian secondary schools.