The research examined the lived experiences of elementary school educators facing workplace bullying within public schools.
The researcher recruited six elementary school educator-participants from WBI volunteers. All participants were female and over forty-years-old. All of the participants experienced bullying after taking medical leave due to preexisting health issues, which caused more stress and anxiety. As a coping mechanism, all of the participants found the teachers union ineffective in solving their disputes. The educators were interviewed at length to gain extensive descriptions of their experiences.
Three major themes emerged from the data. The themes included: (a) experiences with workplace bullying, (b) coping, and (c) environmental factors contributing to workplace bullying.
With the first major theme of experiences with workplace bullying, the following salient themes emerged from the study: demographics, new leadership, new job location or role, observing bullying before becoming a target, unfair evaluation practices, medical leave due to pre-existing health issues, not knowing why the bullying was taking place, stress and anxiety, and the teachers union not being helpful.
The second major theme of coping yielded the following salient themes: Utilizing the teacher’s union, leaving the job, talking to others, prayer, and seeking outside support (e.g. professional organization, and medical assistance including counseling).
The third major theme of environmental factors contributing to workplace bullying yielded the salient theme of nepotism and favoritism in the organization. (more...)
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