Student Bullying of Teachers in California Public Schools

Jia Jian Tin

doi:10.7176/jep/11-24-17

Abstract

Student Bullying of Teacher (SBT) has gotten increased attention in research but has yet to be recognized by the public or politicians. The American Psychological Association (APA) put together a task force to study and bring awareness to SBT more than a decade ago found nearly 80% of teachers experience bullying. The current study aims to document the prevalence of SBT in the state of California a decade after the APA study. The present study used an SBT survey, a self-constructed survey based on previous studies. The SBT survey asked participants about their experience of SBT and how they reacted to being bullied. A total of 268 public school teachers in California participated in the study. The study found 85.1% (n = 228) of the teachers experienced in-person bullying and 38.4% (n = 103) experienced eletrocic forms of the bullying. Teachers reported reduced expectations and student engagement due to SBT. Majority of the teachers believed schools, school districts, and parents were not supportive of teachers when addressing the topic of SBT. Keywords: bullying, California, teachers, school intervention DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-24-17 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

Highlights

There is a wealth of research on work-place bullying and its impact on victims (e.g, Arseneault, 2017; Espelage, Low, Van Ryzin, & Polanin, 2015; McVie, 2014)
One of the main goals of this study was to investigate and document the prevalence rate of student bullying of teachers (SBT) at a more localized level than the national survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (McMahonm, Martinez, et al, 2014)
The current study found a reasonably similar prevalence rate of Student Bullying of Teacher (SBT) in California when compared to the national study done by McMahon and colleagues (2014)

Summary

Introduction

There is a wealth of research on work-place bullying and its impact on victims (e.g, Arseneault, 2017; Espelage, Low, Van Ryzin, & Polanin, 2015; McVie, 2014). The negative effects of this kind of harassment include work absences, often in the form of sickness related absence (Hodgins, MacCurtain, & Mannix-McNamara, 2014), reduced work engagement (Einarsen, Skogstaf, Rorvik, Lande & Nielsen, 2018), and even suicidal ideation in more extreme situations (Leach, Poyser, & Butterworth, 2016). Another type of workplace bullying is not heavily researched – the bullying of individuals traditionally perceived as having positions of power by those in lower positions. Quantitative data can help researchers better estimate the occurrence of SBT on a larger scale and improve our understanding of the phenomenon

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Discussion

Conclusion