Students’ violence against teachers: a case study in a secondary school in Jalisco

Abstract

Student violence against teachers is a phenomenon that requires special attention in the discussions about school violence and in the development of intervention proposals, created to eradicate violence in schools. This paper presents the results of a case study of a public middle school in Jalisco, where teachers and students were interviewed. The objective was to identify the forms of violence that students exert against teachers in middle school and to explore the causes attributed by students and teachers to explain this kind of violence. After our data analysis we created four categories: verbal violence, physical violence, property-related violence, and virtual violence. We noted that these types of violence can be direct or indirect and can be inflicted individually or by the group. The causes attributed to student violence against teachers differ depending on the perspective: teachers emphasize thestudents’ family and context, while students refer to teacher’s characteristics. Finally, some implications of student violence against teachers and their impact on the educational process are discussed.