Bullying in teaching - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Teacher abuse) Type of bullying in an educational setting This article is about teacher-related bullying at school. For bullying involving lecturers in higher education, see Workplace bullying in academia.

School teachers are commonly the instigators of bullying within a school environment, and are often the subject of bullying themselves.

Incidence

While teacher bullying is recognized as serious and harmful, there are no statistics on either teachers bullying others or teachers being bullied. However, according to an article, a high percentage of teachers admit that they bully their students.

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

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 (13.8%) than other workplaces (7.9%).

Students with learning disabilities may be especially at risk for teacher bullying.

Complex dynamics

There are complex issues with reporting bullying by teachers, not only for children, but also parents. By means of their position of power over the child, power that enables them to impact the child's present and future, children and parents are reluctant to report. There are specific signs that parents should watch for as their child is unlikely to disclose that the teacher is in fact the bully.

Furthermore, a teacher who bullies may present as a Jekyll and Hyde figure: they are often celebrated and popular so their abuse can go on for long periods of time undetected. Research on teachers in classrooms is lacking and it is unclear how much these activities go undetected or rewarded by teachers in the classroom. For coaches teaching a sport, it can be seen that adults are often rewarded for bullying conduct that would never be tolerated or condoned if done by a child.

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

Teachers may be bullied by: other teachers, students, office staff, principals, school governors or parents
Teachers may bully: other teachers, students or parents
Teachers that bully others, may be subject to bullying, in return, from those they target

Staffroom bullying

A common manifestation of teacher bullying is staffroom bullying where teachers are bullied by other teachers or school managers.

Manifestations

In investigating teacher bullying, it is important to differentiate a teacher or coach who is demanding versus one who is demeaning. So "yelling" for instance can be highly productive and motivating, but if it involves belittling and is laced with putdowns, personal attacks, and insults, it becomes abusive. Bullying by teachers can take many forms in order to harass and intimidate including:

Swearing, or yelling, especially in close proximity to the child
Using homophobic, sexist, racial slurs, or direct personal attacks, comments targeting a child's disability or difference
Humiliating
Berating
Ignoring or shunning
Throwing objects
Raging
Expressing disgust at the child through gestures or facial expressions
Muttering obscenities so only the targeted child or children hear
Hypocrisy (ex: telling a student not to say "well" despite using the same word while communicating)
Physical assault

Bullying of teachers can take many forms in order to harass and intimidate including:

Face-to-face confrontation
Memos
Cyberbullying (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:

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). Other times, teachers are ostracized as whistleblowers when they report to administrators on students' reports of bullying being done by their colleagues.

Impacts

The power imbalance of teacher to student is greater than peer to peer and may well intensify the impact. The possible impacts on a child of bullying by teachers include:

Victimisation and victim blaming
False accusations and fabricated formal disciplinary action
Stress symptoms such as anxiety, headaches, nausea, palpitations, and hypertension
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as a compromised immune system, sleep problems, excessive guilt, irritability, hypervigilance (which feels like paranoia, but is not), constant anxiety, reactive depression and suicidal thoughts
Loss of self-esteem
Loss of job

"If bullying is performed by a person who is supposed to be a caregiver and a role model, it can be assumed that the consequences may be even more devastating for the exposed child"

Notable incidents

In April 2012, Stuart Chaifetz, a father of an autistic boy, released a video on YouTube providing evidence that his son 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. The evidence was secured when Chaifetz wired his son with a microphone before sending him to school. When he 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." However, it appears that students with learning disabilities may be especially at risk for teacher bullying.

In June 2014, Britain proposed the "Cinderella Law" which would put emotional abuse in the Criminal Code.

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.

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.
The Nutty Professor, The School Bully bullies the Professor.
Matilda, based on the novel of the same name, a student with psychokinesis helps her fellow 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.
The 400 Blows, Antoine Doinel is tormented by his insensitive teacher Guy Decomble.
Whiplash, Andrew Neiman is bullied by his abusive teacher Terence Fletcher.

Books

The Harry Potter series features bullying teachers, mainly Severus Snape and Dolores Umbridge.
British girls' comics often featured bully teachers and principals in serials and regular strips. Examples can be found in Wee Sue, The Girls of Liberty Lodge and The Four Friends at Spartan School, (Tammy), and Hard Times for Helen (Judy). Patsy on the Warpath (June) reversed the trend to show a teacher being bullied by toughs in her class.

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.
The Simpsons episode, Black Eyed, Please, Lisa is bullied by a jealous substitute teacher, Miss Cantwell.
- Later in episode Blazed and Confused, Bart is bullied by his cruel and sadistic new teacher, Mr. Jack Lassen, who shaves off the boy's hair in class.
Grange Hill (season four, episode four) Christopher Stewart is bullied by P.E. teacher Mr. Hicks, to the point of physical injury.

Music

"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" by Pink Floyd – song about abusive teachers who are themselves abused by their wives at home.

References

"Bullying Teachers". www.bullyingstatistics.org. 2015-07-07. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
"Teachers Bullying Students". No Bullying: Anti Bullying Help Center. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
Hoel, H. & Cooper, C.L. Destructive Conflict and Bullying at Work, Sponsored by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation, Manchester School of Management, UMIST (2000)
^ BULLYING in the staffroom is having a deeply traumatic effect on some teachers and their families, new research reveals. Irish Independent April 14, 2009
^ "Students with Learning Disabilities at Risk for Teacher Bullying". Kids in the House. 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
"Teaching Bullies". Ginger Kadlec: BeAKidsHero™. Archived from the original on 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
"Why don't kids speak up about bullying?". The Edvocate. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
"10 Signs That Your Child's Teacher or Coach May Be a Bully". Healing Walls. 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
PhD, Jennifer Fraser (2015-08-07). "Recognizing the Abusive Coach as Jekyll and Hyde". Teaching Bullies. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
"Rewarding Adults Who Bully". Kids in the House. 2015-07-14. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
^ Parsons L Bullied Teacher, Bullied Student: How to Recognize the Bullying Culture in Your School and What to Do About It (2005)
Terry, AA (1998). "Teachers as targets of bullying by their pupils : a study to investigate incidence". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 68 (2): 255–268. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1998.tb01288.x.
de Wet C The Reasons for and the Impact of Principal-on-Teacher Bullying on the Victims' Private and Professional Lives - Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, Vol 26 No 7 Pages 1450-1459 Oct 2010
McEvoy A Teachers Who Bully Students: Patterns and Policy Implications - Hamilton Fish Institute’s Persistently Safe Schools Conference, Philadelphia, September 11-14, 2005 Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
^ Field T Staffroom bullying The Times Educational Supplement (TES) Magazine 21 June 2002
Strickland S Bullies in the staff room The Independent 23 November 1995
Dean C Call to beat the staffroom bullies Archived 2012-10-03 at the Wayback Machine The Times Educational Supplement (TES) 16 April 2004
Being bullied in the staffroom BBC News 20 November 2006
McCall B Staffroom suffering Education Guardian, 20 November 2006
"Abuse or motivation? I know it when I see it. Do you? By Matt Davidson, Ph.D., President, Institute for Excellence & Ethics (IEE)". Excellence and Ethics (Blog). Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
"Preventing Child Maltreatment: a guide to taking action and generating evidence" (PDF). World Health Organization / International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
"The use of homophobic slurs in sports: It's for the athletes' own good, right?". The Edvocate. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
^ Lepkowska D The shocking stories of teacher-on-teacher bullying Archived 2017-06-19 at the Wayback Machine Secondary Education News (SecEd) 11 Nov 2010
Cribb, Robert (2015-04-02). "Jennifer Fraser says she left because of a "hostile, humiliating, poisoned or intolerable work environment," created after she complained her son was being abused by teacher coaches. The school says allegations have no basis". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
Munday K The Bullying of Teachers Through the Use of Formal Disciplinary Procedures 2003 Archived June 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
Gusfre, Kari Stamland; Støen, Janne; Fandrem, Hildegunn (2023-12-01). "Bullying by Teachers Towards Students—a Scoping Review". International Journal of Bullying Prevention. 5 (4): 331–347. doi:10.1007/s42380-022-00131-z. ISSN 2523-3661.
"Teacher/Bully: How My Son Was Humiliated and Tormented by his Teacher and Aide", Stuart Chaifetz, video at YouTube, posted April 20, 2012
Horace Mann Elementary School website
NJ Father Records Teachers Bullying His Autistic Child, MyFoxPhilly.com
"Verbal abuse of autistic student sparks calls for reform", Jim Walsh and Phil Dunn, Cherry Hill Courier-Post, reprinted at USA Today website, 29 April 2012
"Should Emotional Abuse Be Criminalized?". www.hautlife.com. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
PhD, Jennifer Fraser (2015-08-26). "Whiplash: Drum Solo versus Suicide". Teaching Bullies. Retrieved 2015-11-29.

External links

"Teachers 'bullied at school'". BBC News. April 12, 2003. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
Teacher suicide rate doubles

Bullying

Types

Elements

Organizations

Experts

Academics	Anna Costanza Baldry Wendy Craig Dorothy Espelage David P. Farrington Shelley Hymel Heinz Leymann Gary Namie James O'Higgins Norman Dan Olweus Debra Pepler Christina Salmivalli Kenneth Westhues
Activists	Andrea Adams Louise Burfitt-Dons Tim Field SuEllen Fried Liam Hackett Lizzie Velásquez

Actions

Notable suicides
(List)

Murder–suicides
(incidents)

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
- Columbine, 1999
Jeff Weise
- Red Lake, 2005
Seung-Hui Cho
- Virginia Tech, 2007
Pekka-Eric Auvinen
- Jokela High School, 2007
Matti Juhani Saari
- Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, 2008
Jose Horacio Reyes
- Sparks Middle School, 2013
Elliot Rodger
- Isla Vista, 2014

v t e Abuse
Types	Adverse childhood experiences Anti-social behaviour Bullying Child abuse neglect sexual military marriage Cruelty to animals Disability abuse military draft Domestic abuse Elder abuse Financial Marriage Gaslighting Harassment Humiliation Incivility Institutional abuse Intimidation Neglect Persecution Professional abuse Psychological abuse Physical abuse Police brutality Religious abuse Social abuse Sexual abuse Stalking Structural abuse Substance abuse Alcohol abuse Surveillance abuse Referee and umpire abuse Verbal abuse more...
Related topics	Abusive supervision Abuse of power Controlling behavior Child grooming Complex post-traumatic stress disorder Dehumanization Denial Destabilisation Discrimination Exaggeration Isolation Just-world hypothesis Lying Manipulation Minimisation Narcissism Playing the victim Psychological projection Psychological trauma Psychopathy Rationalization Traumatic bonding Victim blaming Victimisation Victimology

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