“If Somebody is Different”: A critical analysis of parent, teacher and student perspectives on bullying and cyberbullying

•Bullying targets students based on perceived difference, such as gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity.•Bullying is often normalized, minimized and considered inevitable.•Participants focused on individual responsibility rather than social or systemic responsibility.•Bullying can be understood more fully by applying critical, intersectional and ecological frameworks.•Critical theory and intersectionality perspectivest extends beyond the individual to the macro environment. Despite the significant body of literature on bullying and cyberbullying, few studies have applied a critical theoretical analysis to the perspectives of parents, teachers and students. This qualitative study examined the perspectives of bullying of students, n = 57 (grades 4, 7, 10), along with their parents, n = 51, and teachers, n = 30, from a large urban school district in Ontario, Canada. Students were diverse in terms of level of school need (14 low, 20 medium, and 23 high), ethnoracial background (17 White, 8 East, 9 South and 1 Southeast Asian, 3 Black, 2 Latin American, 3 Middle Eastern, 8 Mixed, 6 additional or unknown), and bullying involvement (9 victimized, 31 witnessed, and 2 perpetrated), and gender (35 female, 22 male, 0 non-binary). Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Parents, teachers and students perceive that bullying differentially targets certain students (based on gender, sexuality, class and ethnicity), and a pervasive view that bullying is often normalized, minimized, and considered inevitable. Closely connected is an emphasis on individual rather than social or systemic responsibility. Bullying is complex; thus, research and intervention must critically attend to all levels from the individual to the macrosystemic factors that perpetuate inequity. Bullying can be understood more fully by concurrently applying an ecological and critical theoretical framework. Critical theory provides a perspective that not only extends beyond the individual into the social environment but also includes an analysis of historical, political and ideological relations of power and privilege.