The Impact of Workplace Bullying on Primary School Teachers and Principals

Abstract

While previous research has consistently cited education as a high risk profession for negative workplace relationships, there has been little consideration of the impact of workplace bullying for those involved. This paper seeks to address this lacuna through the analysis of 24, in-depth interviews with self-identified victims of workplace bullying who work, or have worked, in primary schools. The study reveals the profound physical, psychological, social, and economic effects of these toxic behaviors upon the interviewees, along with the resistance strategies they employed to help them cope with their experiences. Through a lens of Foucauldian conceptualisation of power, this study explores the broader implications for school organizational culture, as well as for individual teachers and the pupils they teach.