Teachers’ Ethnopedagogical Understanding and Intervention Practices in Bullying: A Qualitative Systematic Review

This qualitative systematic review synthesizes evidence on how teachers understand and respond to identity-based bullying (race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, immigration status) and how culturally rooted pedagogy shapes intervention. We define ethnopedagogical understanding as teachers’ capacity to recognize, interpret, and act on bullying’s cultural dimensions using pedagogical knowledge and local cultural wisdom. Following Cochrane and PRISMA 2020 guidelines, twenty-six qualitative or mixed-methods studies (2015–2025) were thematically synthesized through a three-layer framework of understanding, perception, and intervention. Most teachers struggled to recognize the cultural dimension, adopting a “colorblind” stance that reduced differential identity harms to generic peer conflict. Restorative, dialogue-based practices from Indigenous traditions were most consistently effective when cultural origins were acknowledged. The review foregrounds non-Western frameworks and proposes a teacher-education agenda.