Understanding Teacher Perceptions of Bullying and Effectiveness of an Anti-Bullying Policy: A Case Study of Suburban High School Teachers in the Southwestern U.S.

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to understand teacher perceptions of bullying and the effectiveness of the current anti-bullying policy of a suburban district in the southwestern U.S. Teacher perceptions will be generally defined as what teachers personally believe about bullying and how they perceive the effectiveness of the district\u27s anti-bullying policy. Data was collected from three sources, interviews, teacher journals, and observations. Cross case synthesis was used to treat each case separately and then combine identified themes across cases. Data showed that teachers perceive the policy to be somewhat effective. However, significant gaps exist that need to be addressed, namely a lack of understanding of the district\u27s definition of bullying which leads to a lack of proper identification of bullying, a lack of understanding of the policy itself, leading to a lack of implementation, and a lack of administrator support