Teachers reveal terror of classroom bullies

A NELSON Mandela Metropolitan University student’s master’s treatise has pointed to bullying as a phenomenon not only affecting pupils, but teachers as well.

Roelof Campher, 47, based his master’s treatise on his and his colleagues’ traumatic experiences at a Port Elizabeth private school, where they endured bullying by pupils.

He said the aim was to thrust educator-targeted bullying, which his research had found to be on the rise globally, onto the Basic Education Department’s radar for an anti-bullying programme to protect teachers too.

The study, titled “A Qualitative Study: Educator-targeted bullying by learners in a high school in Port Elizabeth”, explored the behaviour “as an educational problem in terms of the incidence, frequency and severity and, more importantly, the impact it has on effective teaching and learning”.

“Many of the pupils attending this school do not necessarily fit into mainstream academic schools in terms of discipline, since they generally do not want to adhere to the school’s code of conduct, rules and policies,” Campher said.

“During the time that I was teaching at the school, my colleagues and I experienced bullying by learners on a daily basis.

“The ensuing emotional trauma that we experienced led to a disruption of effective teaching and learning in classrooms.”

The study, which took Campher 18 months to complete, found teachers were often subject to verbal, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of pupils.

Bullying had “a devastating effect on our [teachers] . . . resulting in poor quality products entering the workforce”, he said.