Staff Bullying in Australian Schools
While there is considerable research about student bullying in schools there is very little research on staff bullying. The term ‘staff bullying’ is used to differentiate between the ‘playground bully’ who is identified as a student and the ‘staff bully’ who is identified as an adult; the term ‘staff bullying’ also includes the bullying of staff by students. Staff bullying relates to situations where an adult is either the perpetrator or target of bullying and has been defined as ‘repeated and persistent negative acts towards one or more individual(s) which involve a persistent power imbalance and create a hostile work environment'.
In 2007 Riley, Duncan and Edwards completed the first national online survey into staff bullying in Australian schools. The population of interest was employees in Australian schools in all States and Territories, including primary and secondary schools in both the Government and non-Government sectors. The survey found that 99.6% of respondents had experienced one or more of the forty-four instances of bullying listed in the survey - a highly disturbing finding in an area where zero tolerance to any form of bullying is the expected norm in Australian schools.
The research focused on answering the following questions: Does bullying of staff occur? Who are the bullies and who are the targets? Who are the persistent bullies? Who are the primary targets? What forms of bullying of staff occur? What is the effect of bullying on the individual? Are there gender differences in the incidence, form and effects of bullying? What strategies diminish the practice of bullying?
Riley, Duncan and Edwards draw the following conclusion, "The research findings highlight the indisputable fact that bullying of staff does occur in Australian schools and when it affects the mental and physical health of those being bullied, as our results show, then it is time for some action to be taken to eliminate staff bullying. A major implication of the results is the role that leadership should be taking in eliminating the phenomenon of staff bullying."
The Executive Summary of this research (Investigation of Staff Bullying in Australian Schools, Riley D., Duncan D.J, and Edwards J. 2009) is available from this website (www.schoolbullies.org.au) and the report will be available in May 2009 from The Co-op Bookshop and can be purchased online.
About the authors:
Dr Dan Riley is a senior lecturer at the University of New England with extensive experience with Government, Catholic and Independent schools. Dan is a strong advocate for the identification and prevention of the phenomenon of adult bullying in the workplace.
Dr Deirdre Duncan is an Adjunct Professor of ACU National. She has extensive experience in senior leadership positions in education and has published widely in the areas of leadership, school law, organisational change and school culture. Her most recent research has been on staff bullying in schools.
John Edwards is a statistical analyst with over twenty years experience teaching in secondary schools and has lectured in research methodology at university. In 2005 and 2007 he was part of a research team with Duncan and Riley investigating adult bullying in Australian schools.
|
|