Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 April 2007 11:22:18
This BBC article about the rise of cyber bullying of teachers makes interesting and disturbing reading. The article is based upon the findings of this ATL survey.
The article and report explain how cyber bullying is a growing problem, and involves a range of activities from distorting images, disparaging comments, and in some cases the use of threatening e-mail. In addition the article discusses the rise of sites such as Rate My Teachers where students and parents are encouraged to go on and rate a teachers performance.
I have to admit that I was relieved at not finding my institution on there and think that sites like this are a worrying development.
We are professionals who are seeking to go about our business the best we can and whilst, as the ATL make clear, a certain amount of hassell has always been part of the job, (certain staff have always attracted nick names for example) cyber bullying and rating is a negative and disturbing development. The reason I say this is because of the scale of it and the ability of it to be distributed on a mass scale and often without the knowledge of the teacher (particularly where friendship sites such as Bebo are being used).
I think this is an area where clear policies and codes of conduct need to be developed, so students are aware of the sanctions that will be taken against them and staff are aware of the support that they will recieve and action they can take against this type of deformation of character. I find it astounding and very disturbing that the ATL report states: "The results also showed that 53 per cent of respondents did not know whether their school has a code of conduct to address cyber-bullying, and 39 per cent said their schools did not. Of those whose schools do have a code of conduct to address this issue, 19 per cent said it is not properly enforced and 72 per cent don't know if it is."
As the ATL say, if you are worried about this you should go to the Teacher Support Network for information and advice. They have a very good fact sheet giving practical advice on this issue.