War at Work - The Inner Dynamics of Strategic threats and Violence in Swedish Schools

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. School Context: Composition, Disruptions and Discipline

Abstract

A comparison analysis of 437 cases of overt threat and violence by a third party, usually a student, and 357 cases of covert threats and violence by colleagues uncovered a subtle war at work. Cases reported to the Swedish National Work Environment Authority (2012-2014) showed that not only are primary school employees physically threaten or victims of physical violence, they are also subject to attack directed towards their professional identity. There is a thin line between these two different case types where on the one hand, school employees are frighten and ask for better protection, and on the other hand, employees are scoffed at by colleagues as troublesome, not liked for one or another reason, or accused of not carrying their weight. There are two different populations of victims in the overt and covert jungle of threats and violence. Differences are unraveled in the analysis and processes of de-professionalization are examined. The paper shows how threats and violence at school change in targeting the victim. As younger and more peripheral school employees take the brunt of overt threats and violence, their older colleagues, more central to schools aim of teaching, are more often victims of covert threats and violence aimed at their professionalism and causing psychological distress. The paper reveals a third group of both employee victims and witnesses who take the role of “whistle-blowers” reporting incidents of threat and violence that do not result in sick leave but instead wave the incidents as flags signaling trouble.

Authors

• Antoinette Hetzler, Lund University

• Axel Fredholm, Lund University