I’ve recently read/researched a lot about teachers experiences of bullying. I’ve been trying to gather information about the phenomenon in schools to get a better understanding of what’s going on, why it’s occurring and what can be done. Spoiler alert – unless you change the whole culture and redo the whole system from scratch – it’s unlikely to change.
It’s extremely common in all sorts of schools to find bullying among the adults. It’s not just state schools, religious schools or private schools… it seems to be rife within any format of mainstream education.
What am I talking about specifically… well it depends on the individual and the school in most cases, but the majority of teachers report being bullied by principals and by other teachers. Many of course experience bullying from students as well – but it seems that this occurs more in secondary schools than primary schools (but it still occurs in primary). Don’t think that because a child is not a teenager yet that they don’t know how to bully. I saw bullying at its worst at kinder and pre-kinder levels performed by both teachers and students. It’s everywhere. But the majority is adult to adult bullying within the teaching staff.
What are the types of bullying occurring:
· Top down; where teachers are pressured to do work on their off time.
· Principals asking too much of teachers: financially, emotionally and physically
· Principals, administrators and other teachers bullying: to force certain teachers to quit, do more, do certain things in certain ways, to pass children who haven’t met the requirements, to communicate in certain ways, to set up the class in a certain way, to teach in a certain way, to hate certain children or a whole family, to vote a certain way in union matters, to agree with others opinions, to use certain behavioural methods (which are bullying methods to begin with).
There’s always the students and parents as well that cover an array of pressure and what feels like (and is sometimes) bullying:
· Students and parents also asking too much; financially, emotionally and physically
· Students using offensive language
· Students using violent behaviour (which is them using behaviour as communication – to communicate unmet needs, trauma and stress etc)
· Students using mass (whole class influence) to put pressure on the teacher to do what they want, or to avoid work
· Parent groups putting pressure on the teacher to do more or do certain things
· Etc etc etc
Let me make this clear – these aren’t things that are part of the job description…. Or part of being a teacher. What I’m talking about here, is clear bullying where the teacher is meeting clear and direct KPI’s and requirements of the job – BUT other teachers and administrators have their own PERSONAL agenda about the school, the culture and the children. Where teachers are being pressured and treated like shit for having a different opinion, or seeing an unmet need in their profession, but the admin or other teachers talking over them or invalidating them (purposefully).
Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t new. Schools have been the breeding ground for bullying since the beginning of time. If you want to study bullying at it’s finest and at it’s most cruel and base – go to school.
And don’t think I’m talking about all schools, I’ve been in a couple tiny schools where they’ve finally gotten the bullying under control. Some manage to last a few years before they get a bad bunch of children, or the administration changes, or the teaching staff move around and it returns to a cesspit of bullying again (what goes around, comes around). I don’t think any school has ever been totally bully free forever – but I could be wrong – it’s just my personal experience.
Take that with a grain of salt too. As an autistic person and a teacher – it’s almost impossible for my lived experience to be bully free. Autistics experience bullying more than most. Add being overweight, BIPOC, BAME, disabled, LGBTQ+ or any other minority and you’ll know what it’s like to be bullied. Being in a female dominated field as a male, or vice versa – and you’ll know what bullying is. Whoever the minority is – is the one who is likely bullied. But for some reason, in schools it becomes a free for all where everyone is bullying everyone and no one gets a break or leniency.
This is the reason why schools are the worst places ever for bullying. They are designed for it… specifically designed and grown to be the epicentre of bullying.
Mainstream schooling is even named “mainstream” to literally bully anyone who is not ‘mainstream’ (ie: typical is the majority – whatever that majority/typicality is in each school). “Mainstream” is a term and concept conceived by and for- the mainstream in society – any outliers are a minority and therefore don’t ‘belong’ and are then bullied for that difference or minority.
Bullying is often subconscious, not realised, or bred into the culture. The teaching culture at its very beginning is taught in university that ‘mainstream’ schooling is for the ‘typical’ in society. They are taught that severe disabilities or minorities are not and were not included in traditional schooling. The likes of black or white only schools, specific religious schools, and ‘special schools’ are a testament to mainstream schools being only for a ‘certain type’ of child.
Over the years – all minorities have been included in those ‘mainstream’ schools, but the education of the teachers and the culture, curriculum and environment has not changed significantly enough to NOT be ‘mainstream’. It’s literally still educating the masses with a ‘one fits all’ education. Humans are all different, but in the teaching profession, teachers are still taught that one method of teaching, one curriculum and one behavioural method is ‘the ONLY gold standard’ of teaching. We know this isn’t true. We know that all humans require different things and different methods to learn different things. We know that all children develop differently and end up in very different carers and roles in life due to those differences. And yet we are still teaching the typical to the ‘typical’ and missing the majority around the edges and calling it ‘inclusive’.
That’s not inclusive – that’s bullying. That’s bullying teachers and children to only perform to the ‘typical’ expectation, using typical methods and abilities. Typical is a fallacy. There is no typical person – only a typical expectation and pressure to ‘act’ or ‘perform’ or ‘seem’ as typical as possible. As soon as you leave the school environment, you have to undo all that typical training, in order to figure out who you are, what you are good at and where you fit within a non-typical society that only prizes typicality.
“Typical” within each school is dictated by the culture of that school and its teachers/staff, with influence from society about expectations of ‘typical success’ and typicalness of fitting in…. not in the individuals needs or abilties. Eg: in a Jewish school – being Jewish is the typical, if you are not Jewish but attending the school – you are not typical and might be bullied for not being typical. In a Montessori school – learning from traditional tools is what is ‘typical’, using modern tools like iPads etc might be bullied – as it’s not typical in that environment.
In a ‘special school’ being disabled should be what is ‘typical’ and it should be respected as a cultural and needs based thing – but instead it’s often still seen as a deficit and something to ‘fix’ so that they appear more ‘typical’ or can succeed in life in ‘typical ways. Disabled people are still seen as the people least allowed to be who they are. They are still influenced by societies expectations of ableness, it’s less severe in special schools – but the overarching expectation of society is that of the typicality of being ‘able’ is superior and therefore should be the goal of the school the teachers and of the students. You don’t go to a an all Catholic school with the expectation of becoming Atheists – because the society surrounding that school is majority atheist. And yet disabled people attending a school for disabled are still expected to become majority ‘abled’ to suit the outside society… it’s the weirdest type of bullying I’ve seen or experienced.
If it’s a simple state school that takes all students no matter what the religion, creed, sex, race, ability etc – they bully anyone who is not white cis heterosexuals from middle class backgrounds because that’s what the culture of Western countries are built on – white cis supremacy. This is what I’m talking about. Mainstream schools are only set up to take that very small demographic (white cis heterosexual middle class) – but they do take others…. But haven’t adjusted the curriculum, the environment, class sizes, education of the teachers or administrators, or change anything else to meet the needs of those very differing humankind….. and then they bitch that there’s bullying and ‘behaviours of concern’.
When the job is set up for bullying before you are even hired – what exactly do you expect?
The department of ed and government are set up to bully too. They set an agenda and curriculum, your KPI’s, job requirements, and what you’re paid etc – but have no idea what’s going on in actual classes or in society for that matter. It’s actually insane.
Teachers begin life as all of us do, as babies. We then move to toddlerhood where we might enter day care centres or other care options. We eventually (if not homeschooled) lead to kindergarten and eventually school. Then – the majority of our future teachers – go straight from secondary school to a university degree and then straight into the schools to teach. Some go out into the ‘real’ world for a while and might work in different fields (retail, banking, trades, engineering, IT, medical, etc) or absolutely anything other field other than schools – and then they might go back to do a masters (or the old Dip Ed) to become teachers later in life. But the majority never know any other world other than schools.
This is the biggest influence and cause of the deep seeded bullying within schools. When all you’ve known is being bullied at school, bullying others at school and being in a never-ending environment of school bullying – with no consequences or accountability, of course the bullying is going to be rife and never ending.
The other biggest influence is being in a majority female dominated environment. I’m sorry to say that females are often the biggest bullies. I think it’s due to us being downtrodden and being seen as ‘less than’ by society – that once females are in charge, are the majority for a change and ruling the roost, we, for some unforsaken reason, think we should act like bratty asshole year 9 girls who treat each other like shit. WHY????!!!!! For f*** sake please stop!
Never knowing what life is like outside of schools is the one thing that I believe needs to change in order to change the bullying culture of schools. Experiencing a different culture to your own and a different work culture that accepts diversity is paramount to teachers understanding that schools are nothing like the ‘real world’. That understanding, experiencing and truly accepting that mainstream schooling in itself is the bullying of all children/teachers – before you even add people to the mix.
When you work in any other field, all over the world – those other fields have HR departments, accountable managers and lawyers to ensure culpability. If you are bullied out in the real world- the bully is fired or sued or even goes to jail in some cases.
I’ve worked in some companies that also allow bullying, but it’s a problem within that specific business, and they don’t usually last long as they can’t afford the huge turnover in staff and lawsuits involved. Some do last, but they’re usually huge, big businesses that I now know to stay away from, but at least they are held accountable by the law in small ways. Schools don’t have the same sort of oversight or accountability, and the staff within know it all too well. They know they’ll get away with it, so continue to do so. They know that ‘mainstreaming’ education is to bully all children to conform to neurotypicality, racetypicality, sextypicality and any other typicality that exists in racist, sexist, ableist society.
What I don’t understand is that teachers will complain about the bullying culture and admit it’s a major problem, and they’ll even tell each other to leave the profession, or switch schools, or to take stress leave…. But when applying that same logic and “look after your mental health” mentality – they can’t apply it to the children within their care.
They’ll instead blame the child for not going to school, or blame them for not being ‘resilient enough’ to put up with the bullying, or enforce that attendance is mandatory; so anyone not attending should be fined.
They have this weird double standard for the children and themselves. For themselves, they are allowed to say bullying is a problem, but not for the students. For themselves they are allowed to leave, quit, move schools/transfer or go on ‘leave’ – but not the students. For themselves, they are allowed to look after their mental health and not return to the school until significant changes are made or be paid out etc…… but not the students.
Students are not allowed to have mental health issues, or take stress leave, or ask for changes to the system or culture before they return, or transfer schools or allowed to quit …..or leaving is frowned upon – they are told that it’ll just be the same problem in a new school, so there’s no point in transferring. That’s why teachers (after all) are mostly leaving the profession instead of transferring schools – because the problem is in most schools.
How can you see the problem as an adult – who’s literally in the same toxic environment as those students but only see it as a problem affecting adults and not children??!!!!!!
As soon as children show the same symptoms of mental health issues as adults do – the cause is deemed to be different.
For the adult teachers – the cause is a toxic work environment and culture… but for the students, it’s the students behaviour and lack of discipline, or their parents lack of discipline or control, or perhaps the child’s disability not being suitable for mainstream schooling (and the adults deciding that ‘special school’ is a more suitable environment). But it’s none of these…… if it’s a toxic environment and culture for the adults – it’s even MORE TOXIC & the ENVIRONMENT for the students.
Disabled students/children are like canaries in a mine. They are the first to sense the toxicity in the air and react (sometimes even violently) to that toxicity. If a disabled student is reacting to their environment with a display of; not coping, of struggling or displaying ‘behaviours of concern’ – that’s your first clue that the school is toxic and is possibly causing mental health issues for ALL concerned! Not just that one child.
I’ve been in schools with great cultures, where the children are thriving. I can tell you that I didn’t sense or see bullying in these places. But the schools I’ve attended that are rife with ‘behaviours of concern’ and struggling academics etc – there is an extreme bullying culture within students AND staff.
Children feed off the energy of adults. If you have a bullying culture amongst the adults – trust me – it filters down to the children and becomes a cycle of bullying and bad behaviour from all directions.
But let’s remember that schools are set up for conformity. Conformity is the base of all bullying. To stop the bullying – you need to stop trying to make people conform to typicality expectations and norms.
Once you educate to all differences and change to environment and methods to suit all – not just the typical – the toxic environment of bullying will cease. But until you see that ableism, racism, sexism, ageism etc is the core of the structure of the education system (because of that typical expectation) – schools will remain as toxic environments for staff and students. Switching schools won’t help, quitting won’t help, changing bits and pieces and accommodating here and there won’t help. A complete overhaul is the ONLY thing that will help.