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Violence and stress at work
Education:
Sector-specific information on violence and stress
The education environment
Teachers, the largest job category in the education sector,
bear the brunt of violence and stress affecting employees. Along with school directors,
teachers are also those with the most interaction with internal (students) and
external (mostly parents) users of the service. The intensive interactions between
school heads, teachers and students over learning methods and outcomes, and pupil
indiscipline that is often due to external factors, create tensions that are sources
of violence, particularly at secondary levels. The isolation of teachers, alone
in most classrooms, plays a role. Teachers may also be perpetrators of violence
against students. Moreover, harassment and bullying among students themselves
at virtually all levels of education, and external factors such as drugs, poverty
and ethnic, racial or religious conflict, create a climate of violence which may
have repercussions on staff. Occasional violence arises from firearms used against
students and staff either by disaffected students or persons external to an education
site, who gain entrance to what is often an unprotected workplace.
Stress affecting education staff arises from many of the same
work environment sources: the intensive interpersonal relations which condition
educational work; deep-seated changes in the content and modes of delivery of
educational services; lack of autonomy, and demands for accountability about academic
performance from educational users - students, parents and political leaders.
Scope and impact of violence and stress
Trends in violence within education are not uniform. Some countries
(for instance the United States) appear to show a decline in recent years, despite
some dramatic instances of firearms-related violence. In other countries and regions,
acts of violence appear to be on the upswing. Some OECD countries report 15 to
20 per cent of students in different age categories as the objects of some form
of violence in schools, and the figure may be higher in some cases of violence
in other countries (sexual violence against girls in South Africa for example).
Bullying among students ranges from 4 to 15 per cent in most OECD countries that
provide such statistics. The number of teachers targeted by violence is generally
lower, in the range of 2 to 6 per cent in several countries (Japan, France, the
United States). These figures also vary according to urban, suburban or rural
settings, and according to the type of violence - higher in the case of threats
than actual acts of violence.
The effects of violence are felt essentially in the teaching
and learning environment, which may become poisoned, with educational outcomes
reduced. Fear and apprehension affect students and teachers alike. However, staff
targeted by violent acts tend to have higher rates of absenteeism, may be obliged
to stop work, and make claims on educational employers for medical treatment and
social assistance, all of which directly impact on operating costs. They may also
request reclassification or early retirement, thereby provoking loss of skilled
professional labour, with negative implications for student learning.
Workplace stress in education also principally affects teachers
and school heads. Somewhat differently from violence, stress levels are related
more to individual fears and anxieties (feelings of inadequacy or lack of training
for tasks), internal work organization factors and the physical environment (excessive
working requirements and hours, improper organization of tasks, pupil indiscipline
and inadequate administrative support or communication), lack of autonomy and
high levels of accountability for results, combined with constant changes or reforms.
Although the subject is widely discussed, reliable statistics are difficult to
come by. Mid-1990s estimates researched for the ILO nevertheless suggest that
between 25 and 33 per cent of teachers in most OECD countries experience high
levels of work-related stress. New entrants to teaching appear to be more at risk
than others. The consequences take the form of more anxiety and depression among
teachers, increased physical ailments provoked by high levels of negative stress,
and increased drug and alcohol consumption. Highly stressed teachers may feel
overwhelmed by their tasks, and withdrawn from students and their work. Absenteeism
rates increase, particularly as stress turns into burnout; in extreme cases, stress
may lead to suicide. The negative impact on teaching and learning outcomes can
be quite severe, and in any case counterproductive for dynamic working and learning
environments, as schools face increasing challenges in knowledge-based societies.
Risk assessment, prevention, reduction, management and coping
measures
Preventing, reducing, managing and coping with violence and/or
stress in education depend on the nature of the problem, but generally imply involvement
of a range of actors and response levels. School and higher-level management,
teachers’ union representatives, medical and insurance staff, but also affected
individuals all have roles in addressing violence, stress or both. At the individual
level, solutions to violence and stress emphasize training to recognize potential
problems and symptoms, counselling and support for victims and sufferers, and
transfers to other less stressful or violent environments. Initiatives to promote
school or organizational healthiness - the soundness of organizational coherence
and its integration of objectives, tasks, problem-solving skills and development
efforts - can moderate teacher stress levels, and reduce the negative impact on
their health and work behaviour. Organizational interventions to help manage stress
in education include redesigning work, ergonomics, teacher training and counselling
to assist teachers in coping, and organization of school teams to help restore
organizational healthiness.
In addition, special measures to prevent violence include
developing safe schools policies and programmes, redesigning school access (screening
for weapons, installing gates and cameras, and adopting extra security measures),
a safer physical environment (improved lighting, changing the layout to reduce
isolation), redesigned work (team teaching, open parent/teacher meetings), establishing
crisis management teams, and interpersonal violence prevention training for students
and staff.
Additional information related to workplace violence and stress in the Education
sector
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