Bullying in schools: Are pre-service teachers confident to address this?

Abstract

Research suggests that, due to a lack of confidence, pre-service teachers feel inadequately prepared to deal with bullying situations. Confidence has been demonstrated to be a function of knowledge related to the concept being considered. To improve pre-service teachers' confidence to deal with bullying incidents, factors influencing their confidence levels must be identified, including those related to their teacher preparation programs. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether pre-service teachers' self-reported confidence in their ability to respond appropriately to bullying situations depended on which teacher preparation program (consecutive vs. concurrent) they completed. Additionally, other factors that may be related to confidence, such as gender, division of instruction, and variables such as type of bullying, were examined. Participants included 183 pre-service teachers with a mean age of 23 years, the majority of whom were female, who had completed or were completing either the concurrent or consecutive teacher preparation program at a Northern Ontario university. Self-reported confidence in ability to respond appropriately to suspected bullying incidents was assessed using an online Likert style questionnaire. Results demonstrated that, with respect to confidence to respond appropriately to suspected bullying, consecutive program participants reported higher confidence than concurrent program participants, with non-significant variations in perceptions across genders of the teachers and/or the divisions for which they were prepared in their teacher accreditation programs, and surprisingly high levels of confidence in this area across both program models were demonstrated. This finding has implications for teacher training, as evidence suggests that teachers may benefit from training to handle bullying that is designed for their experience level and previous research shows that new teachers may identify high levels of confidence even when they may lack the knowledge that should support their self-perceptions.