| Bullying is a challenge facing most youth in today's society and can be considered a normal part of growing up. The consequences are oftentimes severe and lasting. Research suggests that teachers often do not recognize and underreport students bullying behavior. The theoretical framework that will guide this study is Bandura's social cognitive theory. Bandura's social cognitive theory holds that an individual's behavior is determined by their behavior, personal factors, and the environment. The purpose of this study is to explore middle school teachers' knowledge and perceptions of school bullying. Since middle schools are an ideal place for intervention, teachers may not recognize bullying and intervene to prevent it. Participants in the study are teachers of students in grades 6 through 8 in a large rural school district located in a southeastern state. The district houses over 32,000 students within 36 elementary schools, ten middle schools, eight high schools, four magnet schools and three other schools. The study sample consist of 394 randomly selected middle school teachers. To collect data for this study, a survey/questionnaire was the method utilized, with the intention of investigating teachers' perceptions of bullying. Inferential statistics ANOVA and t-test were used to test study hypotheses for teacher differences in perceptions of bullying based on sex, years of teaching, experience, school level and knowledge of student bullying behavior. |
