Incivility Within and Beyond Classrooms: Exploring the Perceptions of Targets, Instigators, and Observers

Abstract

This study aimed at understanding the perceptions of female students who had experienced or witnessed incivility by faculty, and instigated incivility in or out of the classroom and how it affected them. Through the application of a phenomenological and qualitative approach, data were collected from eight (8) female business administration students from public sector universities of Quetta, Pakistan. The findings of the study revealed that female students experienced and witnessed faculty incivility within and beyond the classrooms, which included harassment, character assassination, and humiliation characterized as intense behaviors of faculty. These encounters of faculty incivility resulted in psychological distress like depression, interrupted sleeping patterns, and fear. Furthermore, the findings concerning instigated incivility exhibited that those female students who misbehaved with their instructors were distressed and wanted to quit their studies. The results of this study would be helpful for the university administration to develop policies to combat incivility in educational institutions.