Bullying in teaching

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article concerns teacher related bullying at school. For bullying involving lecturers in higher education see Bullying in academia.

School teachers are commonly the subject of bullying but they are also sometimes the originators of bullying within a school environment.

Contents 1 Incidence 2 Complex dynamics 3 Staffroom bullying 4 Manifestations 5 Impacts 6 Notable incidents 7 In popular culture

Incidence

Comprehensive research carried out in the UK found that teaching was one of the occupations at highest risk from bullying:^[1]

• 15.5% of teachers stating they were currently being bullied
• 35.4% saying they had been bullied over the last five years.

In another survey, the Economic and Social Research Institute found bullying to be more prevalent in schools (13.8pc) than other workplaces (7.9pc).^[2]

Complex dynamics

Parsons identifies teacher bullying as often being part of a wider bullying culture within a school, with a complex web of dynamics such as:^[3]

• teachers may be bullied by: other teachers, students,^[4] office staff, principals,^[5] school governors and/or parents
• teachers may bully: other teachers, students^[6] and/or parents
• bullying teachers may themselves get bullied by others in turn

Staffroom bullying

A common manifestation of teacher bullying is staffroom bullying where teachers are bullied by other teachers or school managers.^{[2][7][8][9][10][11]}

Manifestations

Bullying of teachers can take many forms in order to harass and intimidate including:^[12]

• face-to-face confrontation
• memos
• cyber-bullying (including the use of text messaging or social networking sites).

Bullies often exploit positions of seniority over the colleagues they are intimidating (see rankism) by:^[12]

• criticising their work
• making unreasonable demands on workload (see setting up to fail)
• sarcasm and jokes aimed at the victim
• undermining them by over-ruling their decisions and views.

In some cases, teachers are ignored and isolated by colleagues in the staffroom or turned down for promotion or training courses (see silent treatment).^[12]

Impacts

The possible impacts of bullying on teachers include:

• victimisation and victim blaming^[3]
• false accusations and fabricated formal disciplinary action^[13]
• stress symptoms such as anxiety, headaches, nausea, palpitations, and hypertension^[2]
• symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as a compromised immune system, sleep problems, excessive guilt, irritability, hypervigilance (which feels like paranoia, but isn't), constant anxiety, reactive depression and suicidal thoughts^[7]
• loss of self-esteem^[7]
• loss of job^[3]

Notable incidents

In April 2012, the parent of an autistic student released a video on Youtube^[14] providing evidence that the student was allegedly the subject of emotional abuse at the hands of his teacher and aide at Horace Mann Elementary School, in the Cherry Hill Public Schools district.^[15] The evidence was secured when the child's father, Stuart Chaifetz, wired his son before sending him to school. When Chaifetz listened to the audio recording, according to one news report, "Chaifetz says he caught his son's teachers gossiping, talking about alcohol and violently yelling at students. He took the audio to the Cherry Hill School District, where officials fired one of the teachers involved after hearing the tape. Chaifetz's son was relocated to a new school, where Chaifetz says he is doing well."^[16][17] Chaifetz created a petition asking for legislation to allow the immediate firing of teachers who have bullied students. As of April 29, it had garnered over 149,000 signatures.^[18]

In popular culture

Teachers being portrayed as bullies have made into popular culture, along with works with teachers being bullied by other teachers, students, and even the principal. British girls' comics often featured bullying teachers and principals in serials and regular strips.

• Films
  • Kids in America, a group of students with help from some teachers tries to stop their bully of a principal from becoming Superintendent, realizing the harm she can cause
  • Matilda, based on the novel of the same name, a student with psychokinesis helps her follow students and a teacher to stop a cruel principal's reign of terror in the school.
  • The Breakfast Club, Principal Vernon is often seen as a bully to the students serving detention.
  • Mr. Woodcock, the film focuses on a man who is outraged that his former gym teacher, who bullied him and his classmates, is about to become his stepfather.
  • A Little Princess, the main character is the target of a corrupt principal at a boarding school.
• TV
  • iCarly, there have been episodes, like "IHave My Principals", where Ms. Francine Briggs and Mr. Howard clearly bully students, including the main characters, one of whom, Sam, is a bully herself. Mr. Devlin and Lauren Ackerman also bullied the students.
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Mr. Sweeney, a science teacher, appears to be evil until the third season, where he appears to reform himself to the point of saving his students from Vice Principal Harvey Crubbs, who also bullies the students, mainly the main characters.
  • Glee, Coach Bieste is bullied by staff, including Sue Sylvester and students.
  • Home and Away, Casey Braxton is bullied by Mr Dave Townsend in Summer Bay High.
• Music
  • "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" by Pink Floyd - the song tells the story about a student dreams about getting revenge against the abusive teachers.