Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(Taenarus, 2011)
(Watterson, n.d.)
In the classroom, teachers play perhaps the strongest role in shaping students
experience, through their direct interactions with the student and indirectly by
influencing the nature of peer relationshipsWhile caring behavior on the part
of teachers is recognized as a critical support for student learning, teacher
bullying, like peer bullying, is likely to be associated with a full range of
negative emotional, social, and academic effects that emerge immediately but
persist well into adulthood.
(Zerillo & Osterman, 2011)
A students lament to a listening adult about a certain teacher being so mean or never
wanting to help me typically leads said adult to the inner conclusion that the student is either
overwrought or somehow evading academic responsibility, i.e., the teachers position of
neutrality and professionalism is usually supported over the students complaint. It is when
multiple students independently (without collaboration) make near-identical observations about a
teachers humiliation or shut-down tactics that adults in auxiliary positions to the classroom are
inclined take such claims more seriously. Typically, it is only then that concerns deepen about
whether a more serious issue exists and, if so, whether the heart of the problem, the common
denominator, is the teacher. Peer-to-peer bullying continues to justifiably receive increased study
to determine both level of impact and potential solutions; however, the same efforts for teacherto-student bullying are comparatively rare. As third-party pressures upon teachers mount (e.g.,
to achieve acceptable standardized testing scores), the inclination to and opportunities for teacher