Teachers’ Harmful Behaviors Toward Students: The Role of Judgments, Observations, and Discipline Approach

• In Event: Teachers’ School Community, Climate, and Culture Experiences: Correlates and Related Constructs

Abstract

Too often, students are bullied, harassed or otherwise harmed by teachers, with significant negative consequences for their academic and health outcomes. To understand the factors that contribute to teachers’ engagement in harmful behaviors towards students, this study asked a national sample of U.S. K-12 teachers (n=422) to judge the appropriateness of a variety of teacher behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis of teachers’ judgments identified three harmful behavior types, a policy-based type, and a supportive type. Path analysis modeling revealed a relationship between teachers’ judgments and engagement in each behavior type. This relationship was mediated by teachers’ observations of the same behaviors and, for policy-based behaviors, by punitive discipline approaches. Implications for social cognitive and school climate research are discussed.

Authors

• Jean Sack, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Yueyao Wang, University of Minnesota

• Connor Callahan, University of Minnesota

• Sarah Schriber

• Stacey S. Horn, University of Minnesota