Iceland Evaluates Implementation of KiVa Antibullying Programme

​The President of Iceland Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson and his delegation visited the University of Turku on 17 May 2018. During the visit, the representatives of the University, Finland University, and Iceland signed a MoU that brings Finland’s anti-bullying programme KiVa one step closer to Icelandic schools. The signatories to the agreement will now be able to launch a formal process for evaluating the implementation of the KiVa programme in Iceland’s 180 primary and secondary schools.

Finland University is a transnational education company of the Universities of Eastern Finland, Tampere and Turku As well as Åbo Akademi University. The company is responsible for selling and marketing the member universities’ international education initiatives and Master’s degree programmes.

Developed in Finland by the University of Turku, KiVa is one of the world’s only evidence-based programmes for tackling school bullying. KiVa has been widely recognized both in Finland and abroad, receiving the European Crime Prevention Award in 2009, national awards in Finland on multiple occasions, and most recently the National Violence Prevention Award from the Estonian Ministry of Justice. Today, the programme is used by schools in 19 countries around the world.

KiVa – which means “nice” in Finnish – is effective because it tackles bullying as a group phenomenon; as a behaviour that bullies use to gain, demonstrate and maintain power among their peers. This insight is central to the programme’s structure and teaching methods.

Presidential Support from Iceland

During his visit to the University, the President of Iceland Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson talked about the importance of tackling bullying in schools.

 – We have to fight bullying in all walks of life. We cannot just stand aside and watch, whether we are parents, children or presidents, said Jóhannesson.

Iceland’s participation in KiVa is being driven by Halldóra Vanda Sigurgeirsdóttir, a professor at the University of Iceland’s School of Education. She has been working with bullying and other childhood social problems for more than 30 years.

– The main reason I want Iceland to look more closely at KiVa is because we don't have any evidence-based programmes in use in our schools. I like how KiVa is a tried-and-tested framework, and how it takes the social aspect of bullying strongly into account, says Halldóra Vanda Sigurgeirsdóttir.

KiVa around the World

Iceland would be the fourth Nordic country to implement KiVa. In addition to its use in Finnish schools, 18 schools in Sweden as well as one international school in Norway also run the programme.

As KiVa recognises and tackles universal behaviours and peer dynamics, the programme can be adapted and implemented in any international context. For example, there is currently a large KiVa evaluation study taking place in Chile’s capital Santiago, where the programme has been implemented in some 33 schools for underprivileged children.

The University of Turku’s Professor Christina Salmivalli, one of the main researchers behind KiVa, says her team is continuously developing the programme with new understanding and support materials.

– Something we are currently very interested in is learning more about KiVa’s sustainability; about why some schools stick with the programme for 10 years or more, and others don’t. Our researchers are now visiting schools in Finland to find answers to this question. At the same time, we’re also bringing several new things into the programme, including updates to our materials for teachers, says Salmivalli.

MR
Photos: Hanna Oksanen