Teachers’ responsibilities in preventing school violence: A case study in Turkey

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that teachers play an important role in preventing or reducing violence in schools. The objectives of this study were: (a) to identify teachers' responsibilities in terms of preventing violence among school children and (b) to solicit teachers’ views as what they have been doing in preventing violence. Sample for the study comprised 43 teachers from the different regions of Turkey. These teachers had followed an in-service training called Crime and Prevention of Violence in Educational Institutions. The survey method was used to collect data. To analyze the data, frequency distribution was used and the data was turned into a table as a percentage. These teachers proposed many suggestions to school administrators as what could be done to prevent violence in schools. The results obtained show that these teachers were aware of their responsibilities in terms of preventing violence in schools. They seemed to have knowledge as to what could be done to prevent or reduce violence in schools; however, these ideas were not translated into action.