Workplace Bullying in Higher Education: Narratives of Graduate Teaching Assistants

• In Event: Interrogating Workplaces of the Academy

Abstract

The current study explores workplace bullying experienced by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), using a psychological phenomenological design. GTAs are both students and employees of the institution, but are underrepresented in the literature on workplace experiences of higher education employees. Twenty-seven GTAs were recruited for individual interviews. All participants self-identified that they (a) were working or had previously worked as GTAs and (b) had experienced bullying related to their GTA positions at a single university. GTAs shared various workplace bullying experiences, including relational (e.g., undermining authority), verbal (e.g., yelling/shouting), and physical bullying, as well as bullying related to personal characteristics (e.g., gender). The most common perpetrators of bullying were students, followed by faculty members, administrators, and fellow GTAs.

Authors

• Bixi Qiao, Northern State University
  Presenting Author

• Meagan M. Patterson, University of Kansas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Li Chen-Bouck, Baker University
  Non-Presenting Author