Bullying in education

The 2015 AGM of Scottish teachers’ union EIS instructed the union’s Council to investigate and report on the guidelines, procedures and strategies local authorities and colleges currently have in place to deal with workplace bullying; and to review and revise, as appropriate, the EIS guidelines and advice regarding workplace bullying, particularly in relation to the role of EIS school and college representatives.

The resolution arose because teachers were experiencing workplace bullying leading to stress. EIS national health and safety officer Dave McGinty provided some examples of comments made to teachers:

• "You can't possibly expect to do your job as a professional teacher in a 35-hour week";

• "The parents don't like their children being taught by two teachers. So your job share application is denied";

• "Being kicked, scratched and spat on is part of the job"; and

• "Don't report the attack to the police. You'll criminalise the child".

The NUT teachers’ union 2015 annual conference also passed a motion on bullying, this time relating to the bullying of NUT reps by head teachers. It followed the suspension of the NUT secretary by Haringey Council and noted a “growing hostility by some head teachers” to elected union officials, including the adoption of behaviour protocols with sanctions which, in some cases, allow head teachers to prevent union officers from robustly defending their members; refusing to pay into facility time arrangements; and preventing elected officials from coming on to school premises to represent members or meet with the union group.

In addition, the NASUWT teachers’ union has reported that homophobic bullying continues to be a problem for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teachers. At the union’s annual LGBT consultation conference in February 2015, organised to discuss the challenges facing LGBT teachers, 60% of delegates reported that they had experienced bullying and harassment related to their sexuality during their careers. Sixty per cent also reported that their school had no policy explicitly opposing homophobia, biphobia and transphobia; and two-thirds said it was not safe for LGBT teachers to be “out” at work. Addressing the conference, the union’s general secretary, Chris Keates, said that an “unrelenting” government assault on equality had encouraged a culture of contempt in which discrimination can flourish.

Meanwhile, according to guidance produced by college and lecturers’ union UCU’s health and safety adviser, Stopping Bullying and Harassment at Work, the changing management culture within both further and higher education in response to “incorporation, the emphasis on ‘performance management‘, the pressure from competition with other institutions for resources and students, the pressure from external inspections and audits, and the adoption of an inappropriate governance and management culture, has combined to make bullying a major concern for staff and for UCU”.