National survey aims to remedy bullying of teachers

July 17, 2007

A national online survey of schoolteachers is investigating the bullying of teachers by parents and senior staff members. This follows the publication of research findings that reveal an alarming incidence of such workplace bullying in schools.

The University of New England is hosting the survey Web site (http://www.schoolbullies.org.au), which became available on the 22nd of June and will remain open until the 1st of October.

UNE's Dr Dan Riley, who leads the survey project, is working in collaboration with Professor Deirdre Duncan of the Australian Catholic University. The two researchers have already conducted a pilot survey of 200 teachers in metropolitan Catholic schools. That survey, completed in 2005, revealed that 97.5 per cent of the participants had experienced some form of bullying in their career. "The bullies were the school executive, followed by parents, and then principals," Dr Riley said. "The respondents' experience of bullying was infrequent, but half of them had experienced a third of the 50 potential 'bullying situations' on the survey list. While most of the situations experienced were at the lower levels of seriousness – including attempts to undermine or belittle a teacher's work, or criticism in front of colleagues – they were serious enough to affect the mental or physical health of some of the respondents. It's a bit frightening; we didn't actually expect to find what we did."

"Richard and Freeman, in their 2002 book titled Bullying in the Workplace: An Occupational Hazard, had said that 'bullying is perhaps more common between staff in schools than it is between students'," Dr Riley explained. "This damning assessment required further investigation."

"Our current survey of staff bullying is for all those employed in Australian schools," he said. "It is the first national electronic survey to seek the experiences of support staff, teachers, executives and principals in relation to staff bullying in both government and non-government schools. This research aims to inform those involved in the Australian education profession of the prevalence, forms and effects of staff bullying in schools, and – most importantly – to identify leadership practices that could limit or even prevent it."

"There's an enormous amount of pressure on schools to do more and more with less and less," said Dr Riley in outlining aspects of the social background to the staff bullying phenomenon. "And parents, with their rising expectations, are often quite prepared to challenge how things are done in schools."

The survey Web site, together with its system of data retrieval, was designed and set up by Malcolm Abel, a Web programmer from UNE's Teaching and Learning Centre. Funding for the project has come from an internal UNE grant. "Participants in the survey are assured of confidentiality and anonymity, with their responses protected by a survey 'logon' name of the participant's own choosing," Dr Riley said. "They will not be contacted by the researchers, and may withdraw from the survey at any time.

"We've already had responses from all States of Australia."

Posted by Jim Scanlan at July 17, 2007 04:49 PM