ABSTRACT

These categories provide a useful framework for researchers interested in using role-play to identify who and what their research should focus on. Thus a researcher who wishes to explore whether teenagers empathize with bullied peers, may use role-play to determine the extent to which young people:

1 discuss the issue among themselves, and if/how they would approach the subject with a peer in school who they know is being bullied;

2 engage with training sessions and resources they have received in school on the issue of bullying, and if/how they put these into practice;

3 demonstrate an awareness of their role in the creation of a culture that does not accept or tolerate bullying in their school environment and wider social community.