Of Note: Bully Pulpit

Statistically Speaking by Alan McEvoy and Molly Smith
Teaching Tolerance, Issue 58, Spring 2018, January 26, 2018

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Schools commonly institute structures for addressing student-on-student bullying, but there is little attention paid to teachers who bully students. Existing research on the problem is limited; it is not clear how frequently teachers bully students, what bullying behavior encompasses, how colleagues or administrators respond to bullying, or how teacher bullying impacts school climate. To examine these questions, Alan McEvoy and Molly Smith of Northwestern University worked with Teaching Tolerance to conduct a survey of educators. They found that bullying behavior included unnecessary and extreme embarrassment of students, emotional outbursts, or public claims of student incompetence. Though teachers who bully are common in most schools, they typically comprise a small percentage of most staffs. Their behavior not only undermines the safe environment needed for student growth, but also negatively impacts school mission, school climate, and the morale of colleagues. Targets of teacher bullying typically include: low-achieving students, students with behavioral disorders or attendance problems, students of color, and members of nondominant groups (neurodiverse students, LGBT students, or English language learners). To prevent teacher bullying and to empower educators to address bullying in colleagues, the authors recommend that schools implement policies around teacher conduct and targeted professional development to bolster professional codes of ethics.