Teachers' attitudes towards school violence and their assessment of their own and collective power to act efficiently

Abstract

Prevencija školskog nasilja, i kod nas i u svetu, sve više postaje jedan od prioritetnih zadataka u ostvarivanju obrazovno-vaspitnog rada u školama, a glavni oslonac vidi se u nastavnicima. Nastavnici će u obavljanju tog zadatka biti efikasni u onoj meri u kojoj prepoznaju nasilje kao dovoljno ozbiljan problem, veruju da angažovanje škole doprinosi smanjenju nasilja, i veruju u vlastitu kompetentnost. Upitnikom je ispitan 9.141 nastavnik iz 188 škola sa teritorije cele Srbije. Većina nastavnika (73%) je zabrinuta zbog porasta školskog nasilja, ali samo manji deo (29%) taj problem prepoznaje u svojoj sredini. Nastavnici vide u porodici glavni uzrok za nasilno ponašanje učenika (66%) i, konsekventno, u saradnji škole i roditelja vide i najefikasniju meru za borbu protiv nasilja (70%). Nastavnici prilično visoko ocenjuju sopstvene kompetencije za borbu protiv nasilja, ali ne vide veliki preventivni značaj metoda koje su u njihovoj direktnoj nadležnosti. Praktične implikacije ovih nalaza su da treba nastaviti proces senzitizacije nastavnika za probleme koje njihovi učenici imaju sa vršnjačkim nasiljem, kao i za veliki preventivni značaj koji ima kvalitetna nastava.Prevention of school violence is increasingly becoming one of priorities of educational work in schools both in our and other countries and teachers are seen as the main support in this prevention. Yet, teachers will be efficient in performing this task according to how much they are convinced that school violence is a serious problem and they believe in their own competence and that their engagement will contribute to the reduction of violence. The questionnaire was filled up by 9 141 teachers from 188 schools in Serbia. The majority of teachers (73%) are worried by the increase of school violence, but in considerably smaller numbers (23%) testify about violence in their environment. The main causes of violence are seen in family (66%) and, consequently, teachers see cooperation between school and parents as the most efficient measure in violence prevention. The teachers assessed their personal competencies for violence prevention rather high, but report that they are authorized to use scarce measures for preventing violence in school. Some practical implications of these findings point to the need for the continuation of sensitizing teachers of the problem their students have with peer violence and the significance of high quality teaching of violence prevention