International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract

Schools are among the most stressful ecologies because of the nature of learning. The most typical reflection of this is mobbing. Mobbing, which has the potential to destroy schools' effectiveness and efficiency, also affects teachers' performance adversely on an individual basis. Teachers' awareness and perception of mobbing is critical for fighting against it. The purpose of this study is to determine the meanings teachers ascribe to mobbing and the behaviors that they are exposed to and then to assess these within literature. The study was carried out on 44 teachers working in Elazig, Turkey. For the study, which is qualitative research, the data were collected via open-ended interview forms and then these data were analyzed using content analysis. In order to support this analysis, descriptive statistical techniques were employed as well. The results obtained from the analysis are as follows: The meanings that the teachers in the study ascribe to mobbing are generally similar to those in literature, except for some. They usually describe mobbing as a continuous psychological harassment, oppression and violence against employees. Leymann (1993) identified 45 different behaviors related to mobbing. The number of behaviors that are considered as mobbing by the teachers in the study is 12. These 12 different behaviors can be considered as a mobbing perception frame of teachers in Turkish culture.