’It’s All Good Clean Fun ’- Sexual Harassment: A Case Study

How offensive can the ’banler of the staffroom ’ be for women teachers? The interviews here show how men and women talk differently about sexual harassment and lead to recommendations for school management on acting on women teachers ’ experience. The case study which is the subject of this article was undertaken as part of a wider project which looked at management and women teachers ’ development. The focus of the project was to develop policies and practice for management across, all phases in order to promote equal opportunities in teacher relationships. Within the project, a teacher research group opted to investigate the nature and extent of women teachers ’ experience of sexual harassment in primary and secondary schools. The group planned to generate both qualitative and quantitative material by conducting a large scale survey (which was eventually undertaken by the teacher unions, NATFHE, NUT, NAS/UWT) and simultaneously by carrying out structured individual interviews of men and women teachers. As the material was being collected it became clear that there was a high level of incidence of sexual harassment of women teachers, much of a very serious nature