A joint study between a number of universities including University of Galway has collected anecdotal experiences of sexual misconduct in post-primary schools in Ireland and the UK.
All respondents took park in the survey because they had experienced some form of sexual harassment or misconduct by a teacher during their time in secondary school.
The study, which is the first of its kind in Europe, recruited respondents over the age of 18 to participate via various social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Its recruitment social media post read: “Did you experience any sexually inappropriate comments or behaviour from a teacher during your time in secondary school (or 6th form college (UK))? Anonymously share your experience in this 5-min survey”.
Overall, sexist harassment by a teacher was the most commonly experienced form of misconduct experienced by both Irish (86%) and UK (95%) respondents, for example, being treated differently because of their gender.
The second most commonly experienced was sexual harassment (72% and 85% in Ireland and the UK respectively).
Common forms of sexual harassment included making offensive remarks about the student’s physical appearance or sexual activity, and making attempts to discuss sexual matters with the student.
Kate Dawson, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich and lead author of the study said: “The findings indicate that some teachers need specific training regarding what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.
“Reporting mechanisms also need to be put in place that enable students, or concerned school staff, to report misconduct without fear of repercussions.
“These preliminary findings need to be investigated further within a larger sample to find out how prevalent this issue is in UK and Irish schools.”
Pádraig MacNeela, Senior Lecturer at University of Galway and co-author of the study, said that the study sheds light on an important issue for the first time.
“It demonstrates that the culture change we need to support in our education settings is wide ranging. It includes supporting staff who work in post-primary schools to speak up and address staff-student harassment if they ever encounter it,” he said.
The responses collected
Among the UK respondents, 98% were female, 1.5% were male, and 0.3% identified as genderqueer or non-conforming. 65% of respondents were 25-34, at the time of study participation.
The full report is available here.
