Understanding and preventing violence directed against teachers: Recommendations for a national research, practice, and policy agenda.

Abstract

Violence directed against K-12 teachers is a serious problem that demands the immediate attention of researchers, providers of teacher pre-service and in-service training, school administrators, community leaders, and policymakers. Surprisingly, little research has been conducted on this growing problem despite the broad impact teacher victimization can have on schooling, recruitment, and retention of highly effective teachers and on student academic and behavioral outcomes. Psychologists should play a leadership role in mitigating school violence, including violence directed toward teachers. There is a need for psychologists to conduct research accurately assessing the types and scope of violence that teachers experience; to comprehensively evaluate the individual, classroom, school, community, institutional, and cultural contextual factors that might predict and/or explain types of teacher violence; and to examine the effectiveness and sustainability of classroom, school, and district-wide prevention and intervention strategies that target teacher violence in school systems. Collectively, the work of psychologists in this area could have a substantial impact on schooling, teacher experience and retention, and overall student performance.

Violence Against Teachers: Case Studies from the APA Task Force

“…Violence against teachers is prolific, varied, and has lasting effects on many individuals. Thus, a national call for research, policy, and practice is urgently needed (Espelage et al, 2013). To date, only 21 studies have been published on teacher violence.…”

“…The APA Task Force report included recommendations for such research and data acquisition (Espelage et al, 2013):…”

“…violence against teachers, which has become a significant, multisystemic, national problem (Espelage et al, 2013). Stress has been defined as "environmental events or chronic conditions that objectively threaten the physical and/or psychological health or well-being of individuals of a particular age in a particular society" (Grant et al, 2003, p. 449).…”

Victimization of teachers by students in Israel and in Chile and its relations with teachers’ victimization of students

“…significant prevalence around the world (Espelage et al, 2013;Gershoff, 2017). Currently, the patterns surrounding the mutual victimization of students and teachers on school grounds and the associations with students' well-being and academic performance remain underexplored Lee, 2015).…”

El diálogo como apuesta ética en las escuelas pluralistas

“…Estas acciones violentas ocurren constantemente entre los mismos estudiantes (Small et al, 2013;Méndez y Cerezo, 2015); en contra de los profesores (Terry, 1998;Espelage et al, 2013;McMahon, 2014), o desde los mismos profesores hacia sus estudiantes, lo que incluye los medios digitales (Kowalsky et al, 2012;Kyriacou y Zuin, 2016). Sin duda, este fenómeno deja de manifiesto un síntoma de una relación constreñida por el escaso diálogo.…”