Educator-Targeted Bullying: Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Past research normally focused on students bullying their peers. Systematic research has not been conducted targeting students’ various bullying behaviors against teachers. The current study focused on understanding the issue which teachers are bullied by students. Both quantitative survey and qualitative focus group/interviews were conducted. American and Chinese teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools, were recruited for a self-created survey study. A pilot study was conducted regarding the survey, to ensure the clarity and understandability of the survey, by collecting reviewers’ feedback on the survey. Revisions were made on the survey after the pilot study. The survey included teachers’ experiences with students bullying teachers, teachers’ perception on the reasons for students bullying teachers, bullying policy, school safety. Further, focus group meeting was conducted with Chinese teachers, and individual interviews were conducted for American teachers to study further about their experiences with students bullying teachers, and to understand the cultural reasoning for students bullying teachers. Survey results showed that American teachers experienced mainly relational, verbal, physical, discriminatory bullying; Chinese teachers mainly experienced relational, verbal bullying. The majority of American teachers reported the bullying behavior to school administrators. But that was not the case for Chinese teachers. Both American and Chinese teachers showed concern regarding students imitating their parents’ negative behaviors against teachers. Qualitative results showed that both American and Chinese teachers reported they experienced or witnessed bullying behaviors from students, parents, administrators, or teachers. Both American and Chinese participants reported teachers are not highly respected in current teaching environment.