Why does it occur? How can it be addressed? An analysis of student-on-professor bullying

Abstract

Many studies have observed that bullying of professors by students has increased with the process of commoditization of higher education organization. This process is part of a scenario of devaluation of the professor's role and the exaltation of the concept of the student-client. In this sense, it opens space for bullying practices in the student-professor relationship. The purpose of this paper is to understand why bullying happens in the student-professor vector, and what can be done so that this behavior can be avoided. To fulfill the objective of this research we collected and analyzed statements from questionnaires answered by 51 university professors through the method of the collective subject discourse. The analysis of these responses offers insight on why bullying occurs in the student-professor relationship: reasons range from social values inversion to the marketization of higher education in Brazil. From the responses emerge possibilities for action, promoting among other ideas a serious institutional debate as an important step to build preventive attitudes to solve this serious problem.