This document reports on a study that addresses increasing aggression and violence on the part of students towards their teachers at school; it reviews literature on the prevalence and consequences of violence directed toward teachers, and the impact of offenders’ apologies; it also provides an overview of the sample data, its collection, and analysis; and discusses the study’s key findings and policy implications.
This report describes research that addresses a gap in empirical research investigating the impact of apologies on the emotional and physical distressed experienced by victims, specifically examining the impacts of apologies from offending students, and the perceived sincerity of those apologies, by victimized teachers. The research study described in this report presents its methodology data analysis, and findings, and notes that victimized teachers often endure elevated levels of emotional and physical distress. Findings indicate the urgent need for effective intervention and measures to alleviate distress experienced by victimized teachers. Results also imply that sincere apologies from offending students and holding those students accountable through appropriate punishment can play important roles in alleviating distress endured by victimized teachers.