Violence exercised and suffered by teachers in their teaching work

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to determine what opinion students held about how often do certain behaviors arise in educational centers that can be interpreted by them as aggression or violence that teachers exercise and suffer in their interaction with them. A stratified probability sampling was carried out to 4467 Compulsory Secondary Education students aged 12 to 15 years (M: 13.15; DT: 1.24), to whom the CUVE-R school violence questionnaire was administered. The data suggest that students do perceive that violence is exercised by teachers against students and vice versa, with teachers exercising slightly higher degrees of violence towards students than the contrary. In addition, the violence exerted by the teachers has focused on their perceived dislike of students or their lowering of a student’s grades, while students seek to hinder their teaching by continually speaking in class or behaving incorrectly. ANOVA analysis showed that older adolescents (in 3rd and 4th year of ESO) with worse academic records obtained higher scores in suffering teacher violence, while the violence exercised by students towards teachers was accentuated in older girls enrolled in public centers located in urban settings. In conclusion, it is inferred that the violence exercised and suffered by teachers continues to be present in educational centers, making it a major obstacle to overcome for peaceful coexistence in educational centers.