Gendered harassment in secondary schools : understanding teachers' perceptions of and responses to the problem

This study explores the phenomenon of gendered harassment in secondary schools from the teachers' perspectives. The few studies that address the biased behaviors that are linked under the concept of gendered harassment (sexual harassment, homophobic harassment, and harassment for gender non-conformity) indicate that teachers are less likely to intervene in these incidents. This dissertation explores how teachers understand and respond to (hetero)sexist and homophobic behaviors when they occur.Six teachers in one urban school board participated in a series of three open-ended in-depth interviews where they spoke about the many factors that influenced how they saw and intervened in various forms of bullying and harassment in their schools. Interview data were analyzed using contextual and thematic codes to locate similarities, differences, and stories in the data. This study is informed by critical, feminist and queer theories. The findings have been organized in a conceptual framework that emerged from the research.Findings indicate that there are both external and internal influences that shape how teachers view and respond to gendered harassment in schools. The external factors, also described as school culture, include both structural-formal and structural-informal influences. Formal influences include policies, training, curriculum and contracts. Informal influences refer to leadership style, relationships with colleagues, policy implementation, and community values. Internal influences that shape teachers' perceptions and responses include: educational biography, teaching philosophy, and personal identities.The implications of this study for research and practice can have impacts on the fields of school policy, teacher education, curriculum, and educational leadership. It provides a framework for understanding how school cultures interact with teachers' identities and shape how policies and curricula are implemented. It also offers suggestions for scholars, advocates, and educational leaders to proactively address the negative impacts of gendered harassment by transforming teacher education, educational leadership programs, and in turn, school cultures