Browsing by Author "Kurittu, Helka"

Previous research has shown that teachers’ bullying experiences have affected their well-being at work. These experiences have also been connected to physical and emotional violence. I am studying teachers’ experiences of students’ negative behaviour and the relation between teacher’s authority and experiences of being bullied. Based on previous literature, my assumption was that these experiences would have a negative effect on teachers’ well-being at work. I also assumed that if the teacher’s authority weakens, it will reflect on one’s experiences of being bullied. Material was collected by an e-form, which had one open question. Through this open question, teachers had the opportunity to describe their experiences and bring forth aspects that had caused negative emotions at their workplace. Four complete answers were gathered and utilized within a material-based content analysis. Aspects that were related to the research questions or the chosen concepts were picked out and used in the analysis. The results indicate that almost all teachers experienced the bullying directed towards them as negative. Almost every teacher described emotional violence that had appeared in a verbal form. Physical violence was not mentioned. Teacher’s authority was also left unmentioned so conclusions of its implications to bullying cannot be made. Teachers did not experience the events having a negative influence on their wellbeing at work, but instead mentioned considering a break from work. These results could be used in future research or to educate teachers about the challenges of teacher’s job.