Violence against Teachers in Comprehensive Schools: Reasons of Origin, Forms of Expression and Outcome

The violence against teachers discussed in this article is a phenomenon realistically existing in schools and it reflects the processes of modern society and their outcome for the youth as well as the interpersonal value priorities and relation with the surrounding world. This article shows the significantly changed situation in schools and the changed teachers’ work conditions. Teachers working at schools do not feel safe. The pupils’ violence influences not only motivation of teacher’s work but also the quality of education service. The appearance and development of pupils’ violence against teachers is stimulated by both objective (social-psychological situation promoting the provisions of aggressiveness in the country, prolonged Education reform and constant reconstruction of schools, derogation and degradation of teacher’s job) and subjective preconditions and first of all – the pupils’ structured model of behaviour with the surrounding people, which is influenced by negative impact of school and peer groups as well as by propagation of violence in mass media and experience of violence in the family. In modern school pupils use both kinds of violence – physical and psychological. Physical violence can be used against a) the personality of the teacher and b) teacher’s possession, thing or animal. This kind of violence can be committed by a single person (pupil) when an offended pupil uses violence against the teacher or his possession or by a group of persons (pupils) when a group of pupils on agreement or spontaneously uses violence against the teacher or his possession. Actually, physical violence against teachers (the usage of physical power) is rather rare. The most frequently met in the relations between pupils and teachers is the psychological violence and such its forms as teachers’ derogation, devaluation, harassment, assault, isolation, rejection, alienation, terrorizing, etc. The violence against teachers is specific because it destroys the basis of trust and cooperation without which the effective education process of knowledge communication and its acceptance is hardly possible. Reduction of pupils’ violence against teachers is not only the matter of school. In order to reduce the expression of violence against teachers the society should support changing the attitude towards the importance of teacher’s job, as well as state institutions making appropriate decisions concerning material evaluation of teacher’s job, and also the teacher himself doing his job honestly and with responsibility and always ready to understand the needs of modern youth and to react creatively