Elementary and middle school teachers' reasoning about intervening in student violence.

Abstract

Elementary and middle school teachers (N = 108) were interviewed about interceding in school violence using real-world and hypothetical scenarios. Their reasoning was coded by moral, social-conventional, personal, and multiple domains according to Turiel's (e.g., 1989; 1998) domain theory of moral reasoning. The data were then analyzed using nonparametric statistics (primarily chi-square analyses) in order to explore the nature of teachers' reasoning in general, as well as the differences in reasoning between middle and elementary school teachers. In particular teachers' informational assumptions about such issues as the location of the violence, the root cause(s) of student violence, and teachers' perceived roles within the school were explored with respect to teachers' willingness to intercede in student violence. Results indicate that the majority of the teachers viewed school violence as wrong because it is harmful to students. Results also indicate that middle school teachers were more hesitant than elementary school teachers to intercede in student violence. Elementary school teachers focused primarily on the harm to the students when faced with student violence. Middle school teachers focused on the harm to the students as well as other factors including, but not limited to, the location of the violence, the size/age of the students, their own perceptions of the role of a teacher within the social organization of the school, and potential harm to themselves. These results suggest that different contexts of school violence shape teachers' informational assumptions, and, therefore, their domain attributions, about school violence. This, in turn, shapes their reasoning about their willingness to intervene. In contrast, results also indicate that when asked about the root cause(s) of school violence, the elementary and middle school teachers tended to focus on factors external to the school, including but not limited to, the media, families, and the community. This suggests that if school-based violence prevention programs are adopted and supported by teachers, teacher-education programs must explicitly discuss the link between the physical and social organization of schools and school violence.