Tartu researchers: schools need support systems for teachers facing bullying

Researchers at the Institute of Education at the University of Tartu have conducted a study revealing widespread experience of bullying among school staff in Estonia. The findings show that almost three-quarters of surveyed educators have faced bullying at some point, either in school or in their workplace.

The team wanted to understand how such experiences shape the way teachers evaluate the psychosocial environment at their current job. Assessment relied on a short version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, which examines four dimensions: predictability, role clarity, quality of leadership, and social support.

A relational phenomenon

Junior lecturer Minni Aia-Utsal explained that bullying is a social phenomenon rooted in relationships and never occurs in isolation. The study therefore focused on how people perceive relationships within their collective after experiencing negative treatment.

Results showed that the highest satisfaction with the work environment came from teachers and social pedagogues who had never experienced bullying. The lowest ratings came from those bullied both at school and at work, pointing to a long-term negative effect on trust in workplace relationships and management quality.

Notably, those whose bullying experience was limited to their school years rated their current environment more positively. This suggests that a supportive collective can help people overcome earlier negative experiences.

Call for support structures

Aia-Utsal stressed that employers and school leadership play a key role in creating a bullying-free environment — protection should extend not only to students but to teachers as well. School principals need to support both teachers and support specialists, and schools should establish structured systems to help staff who have faced bullying.

Perpetrators can come from several groups, including parents, colleagues, or students. The most important factor, she said, is that a teacher or support specialist should never be left alone with the problem, and should receive organizational support instead.

The survey was conducted in winter 2023 among 441 teachers and 171 social pedagogues. The study was published in September in the journal Open Journal of Social Sciences, authored by Minni Aia-Utsal and Kristi Kõiv.