ABSTRACT
Victimization of teachers is an area of growing concern for administrators and policymakers. Recent research has increased the understanding of the prevalence and negative consequences of teacher victimization; however, one gap in the literature involves understanding the quality of treatment when victimizations are reported to school administrators. The present research attempts to fill the gap by applying procedural justice theory to understand how elements of school responses to victimization events affect teachers’ satisfaction with the process. Data from teachers among 50 largest school districts across the nation were used to identify 636 theft, sexual harassment, and physical assault incidents reported to school administration. Teachers’ satisfaction with the school response was modeled using measures derived from distributive and procedural justice theoretical frameworks applied to administrator actions. Results indicate that procedural justice is an important dimension of school response and influential on teachers’ reported satisfaction with how victimization events were handled.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the thousands of teachers that have participated in this research project. This research would not be possible without their willingness to contribute their experiences and views.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. As described, the research design anticipated sampling teachers from all 50 of the largest school districts. This became impossible, however, due to several technological barriers, which we strongly surmise to be Independent School Districts’ e-mail firewall systems blocking e-mails from Qualtrics, or survey e-mails being directed to teachers’ junk folders. Thus, no or extremely small numbers of teachers in 12 out of the 50 largest independent school districts participated in the wave I survey. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, our ability to ascertain or obtain alternative electronic access was severely curtailed.
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Notes on contributors
John McCluskey
John McCluskey is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His research areas include teacher victimization, procedural justice, and body-worn cameras and their impact on policing and police research.
Byongook Moon
Byongook Moon is a Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, at the University of Texas San Antonio. His research focuses on violence directed against teachers, investigating the prevalence and risk factors of teacher victimization, as well as examining school responses to incidents of teacher victimization.
Guan Saw
Guan Saw is an Associate Professor in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. His research areas include teacher victimization, educational inequalities, STEM education and workforce development, and research/evaluation methods.