Teacher coping strategies in the face of peer violence from the primary teacher's perspective

Abstract

School violence between peers occurs in everyday school life with serious repercussions for the victims. Teachers can prevent or aggravate this phenomenon in the classroom and school context. The objective of this study is to analyze the coping strategies developed by teachers to prevent school violence between peers in Elementary-level schools located in vulnerable areas. This investigation is qualitative, and Merriam (2009) basic interpretative method was used to substantiate it. Fifteen teachers participated, recognized by directors and students for effectively standing up to violence between peers belonging to 8 public primary schools. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were used. The results were formed out of the following categories: a) preventive coping strategies; and b) reactive coping strategies. It was concluded that teachers develop preventive strategies, which allow them to reduce cases of school violence between peers and train the student in an integral way. However, when unexpected serious conflicts occur, the teacher uses reactive strategies to stop violent acts at that moment. From the teachers' perspective, both strategies are effective in dealing with the problem, especially in vulnerable contexts, since students are exposed to learning from a continuous stream of violent behaviors both on the street and at home, which are then replicated in the classroom.