South African teachers’ exposure to workplace bullying
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Date
2013
Authors
De Wet, C.
Jacobs, L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS
Abstract
Research on workplace bullying (WPB) in occupations, identified teaching as a high risk
job. Yet there is a dearth of research on WPB among teachers. The aim of this study is
to contribute to the limited body of knowledge on the prevalence of WPB within an
international and South African schooling context. This article reports on results from an
exploratory study on South African teachers’ exposure to WPB. Self-reporting
questionnaires were completed by a convenient, voluntary sample of teachers (n=999).
The respondents had to indicate their exposure to 43 pre-defined acts of WPB clustered
into four categories. This study exposes the commonness of WPB among participating
teachers: 90.8% of them were victims of WPB during the 12 months that preceded the
study, and 89.1% of the victims had been exposed to at least two different categories of
WPB. The perpetrators tried especially to undermine the victims’ professional status and
isolate them. The study identified the constant evaluation of victims’ performance as the
most common of the 43 negative acts. The results are discussed with reference to other
studies. It is concluded that WPB is a serious problem in South African schools and
needs to be addressed on policy and institutional levels.
Description
Keywords
Educators, Mobbing, South Africa, Survey, Workplace bullying, Criminology, Education studies, Industrial psychology
Citation
De Wet, C. & Jacobs, L. (2013). South African teachers’ exposure to workplace bullying. The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa. 9(3):446-464.