Engl. transl.: Teacher cyberbullying and possible interventions at school: a view of teachers experiencing student cyberbullying

The aim of the article is to analyse the opinions and experiences of teachers of Estonian general education schools (n=14) who have experienced cyberbullying by students and to investigate what kind of school intervention opportunities teachers recommend to solve cases of cyberbullying. The following two key research questions were formulated: 1) What forms of cyberbullying by their students have the teachers encountered?; 2) How could the school intervene in cyberbullying cases of teachers? Participating teachers had experienced the following six forms of cyberbullying: 1) sharing degrading visual material depicting teachers (e.g. processed photographs); 2) flaming; 3) denigration; 4) harassment; 5) impersonation (e.g. identity theft) and 6) cyberstalking. In order to create a sense of security for teachers who have experienced cyberbullying and to manage such cases, it was considered important to establish measures to denounce cyberbullying in school regulations, create supportive materials, educate school families about cyberbullying and provide psychological and technical counseling.

"The greatest number of teachers in our sample had been cyberbullied by sharing degrading visuals (e.g. processed photos)." (Jürisaar & Siibak, 2020, p. 217). "Teachers in our sample had also often experienced flaming, i.e. students had sent hostile, vulgar and insulting messages (e.g. in Facebook Messenger) or e-mails either under their own name or anonymously and denigration i.e. students had posted cruel rumours, gossip and derogatory comments about the teachers on different web platforms." (Jürisaar & Siibak, 2020, p. 217). "Our interviewees emphasised that schools need to support and protect the teacher when dealing with the incident (e.g. representing the teacher in dealing with parents, talking to the bully) and should have zero tolerance for any negative behaviour directed at teachers." (Jürisaar & Siibak, 2020, p. 217). "The study provides a novel input in assessing what forms of student initiated cyberbullying Estonian teachers have experienced, as well as practical recommendations for possible methods for interventions in schools." (Jürisaar & Siibak, 2020, pp. 217-218).