Violence and conflict in classrooms increase

The increase of violence and conflict in the classrooms It is one of the main problems in education today. Every day, students are exposed to violent situations in their daily environment and that violence is projected in the classroom towards their teachers and classmates with the aim of marking a superior position before them.

Now, according to the latest Annual Report of the Teacher's Advocate, Conflict and violence in the classrooms have increased, after a few years in which this problem had been reduced.

Key factors of the increase in violence and conflict in the classrooms

This increase in violence and conflict in the classroom is the result of several factors that have progressively changed the role of teachers, parents and students within the school:


1. The economic cuts. The crisis and with it, the economic cuts, have had a direct incidence in the increase of some conflicts while they have paralyzed the advances in the coexistence of the classrooms.
2. Decline in the number of teachers (25,000 less) and increase in the number of students (328,000 more), which makes it more difficult to maintain discipline in the classroom.
3. Reduction of support and compensation programs. The disappearance of aid for school supplies and dining room for families, among others, have caused the parents' discomfort to be translated into an anger with the school and more specifically with the teacher.
4. Impossibility that sick leave can be replaced before 10 days. This delay will often cause the students not to have enough control, being in charge of professors who are not teachers of the subject and who, in many cases, do not know at first hand the students or their particular problems.


Increase in aggressive behaviors with the teacher and classmates

The data of the report have highlighted a slight increase in the aggressive behavior of the students towards the teacher and his classmates (14% of the complaints); of the aggressions of the students (7%); of the insults (14%) and of the problems to give class that the teachers have (25%).

In addition, some teachers (28%) have stressed that not only students are the cause of harassment situations but also, in recent years, there have been increased cases in which parents themselves threaten teachers, file complaints and They present false accusations to discredit them in front of their children. A behavior that corresponds to the unconditional way in which currently parents defend their children, without a prior reflection on whether the behavior of this has been the most appropriate and transmitting at the same time, with the example, the idea of ​​attacking a teacher is a completely valid behavior.


Conflict increases at younger ages

Apart from the worrying reality that indicates that parents are often the protagonists of these violent expressions, there is another indicator of alarm: the age at which the aggressions take place. Thus, progressively it can be observed how the conflict is taking place every time at younger ages, being the complaints in Primary (40%) higher than those that occur in Secondary.

The misuse of social networks, a weapon to defame

On the other hand, defame and insult through new technologies has become another resource for adolescents. Now, Internet forums, WhatsApp groups and social networks are used, among other things, to attack teachers and students. In addition, as indicated by teachers, sometimes parents themselves are responsible for encouraging groups in which they question everything the teacher does.

In reference to this aspect, the Ombudsman has pointed out that in recent years there has been a "relaxation in compliance with the decrees of coexistence", by the directors of the centers and even by teachers. In some way, the teacher's authority has been relegated to the background. What used to be an authority backed by the head of the school, the administration and the parents is now an authority adapted to the circumstances.

Increased depression among teachers

At the same time that there has been an increase in violence in the classrooms, there have also been increased cases of anxiety and depression among teachers, rising in these last three years from 4 to 10%. Specifically, the Defender of the Professor last year recorded a total of 3,345 calls (around 10 per day) that surely do not represent all teachers who really have problems in the classroom. They explain that it is not a generalized phenomenon, but worrying because it implies a change in trend.

In an attempt to take measures that improve the situation of the teacher in front of students and parents, La LOMCE (Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality) has granted the teacher the status of public authority for the first time.However, this measure is considered by teachers as an insufficient measure demanding a regulation to regulate these situations, greater support from the authorities, and a training for teachers focused on the resolution of this type of conflict.

Patricia Núñez de Arenas

Video: Conflict Resolution - The Waterboy


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