FINAL REPORT

The science communication project "Verbal Aggression in Schools: Causes, Forms, Violence Prevention", which I implemented at schools in Vienna from 14 March 2018 to 13 September 2019, involved the following activities:

- Meeting with pupils (2 hours): age-appropriate introduction to the topic, presentation of data collection, data systematisation and data analysis methods, choice of topics and formation of working groups. Conducting research in the working groups and preparation of short presentations (3-4 weeks before the workshop);

- Interactive workshops "Verbal aggression in schools" with the pupils (10-17 years old, age-appropriate design for two groups: 10-13 year olds and 14-17 year olds). Duration: 2 hours. Based on the research carried out by the pupils, causes, forms and functions, the perception of and reactions to verbal-aggressive speech acts were talked about and the possibilities of non-violent communication in everyday life discussed. 12 schools – 4 gymnasiums, 4 so called NMS/WMS (New Middle Schools), 1 BSV (student council), 1 BHAS/BHAK (Commercial High School), 2 VS (primary schools) – with several classes (a total of 27 classes) and the Wien Josefstadt Prison participated in the WKP. All project goals could be achieved, especially the raising of interest for science and research in general and for the topic "language and violence"/"verbal aggression" in particular. This is due to the active participation of the pupils in the research process. In lively discussions, children and young people were made aware of the fact that violence takes many forms and that linguistic actions can be just as violent as physical ones and can also be acts of violence. After the pupils themselves had been able to appear in the role of researchers and had researched the causes, forms and functions of verbal aggression in everyday school life, we jointly designed non-violent models of communication/expression of emotions from a certain distance and discussed productive strategies for dealing with verbal aggression and (negative) emotions. The project gave me impulses for future theoretical, methodological-didactic work and ideas for further projects in the field of science communication as well as for the research of verbal aggression and verbal violence in the youth languages. The experiences I have had in the project and which have been confirmed by teachers and school principals show the need for a complex approach to the phenomena of "verbal aggression and verbal violence in school", which asks for an involvement of different school partners. Based on this, I have prepared the WKP follow-up project "Science Communication as a Bridge to Violence Prevention in the Social Field of Schools", which is characterized by this holistic approach and includes science communication activities with teachers, school psychologists, peers and parents/guardians, thus contributing, among other things, to the cooperation between school and family.