Male teachers share their horrific experiences of violence and bullying in Australian schools

Threats with knives, accusations of being a pedophile and bullying from aggressive parents – this is the grim reality of being a male teacher in Australian schools.

Male teachers in Australian schools are suffering horrific bullying from parents, students and principals, a new report has found.

Researchers from La Trobe University uncovered the “invisible problem” of bullying towards male teachers.

Lead author and sociology Associate Professor Edgar Burns said men’s experience of bullying in schools was often ignored.

“A lot of men think they’re meant to handle it as they’re a bloke. They think they need to suck it up, so we don’t hear about it often,” he said.

It comes as men make up only 28 per cent of full-time educators, with the gender imbalance most pronounced in primary schools where men account for less than 18 per cent of all teachers.

Waikato University sociologist Edgar Burns was a researcher on the report.

Associate Professor Burns said bullying was not the cause of the gender imbalance in teaching, but it was not reversing it either.

“The male teacher exodus is a one-way downward trend of males being involved in the teaching profession,” he said. “We need to reverse this trend.”

Australian Education Union federal President Correna Haythorpe said “protecting teachers from bullying and harassment – whether from students, parents, or colleagues – is central to building a strong, sustainable teaching workforce” in an era of escalating workloads and staff shortages.

The research involved detailed accounts from three secondary school male teachers as case studies, but Associate Professor Burns said there were a lot more out there.

Here are their stories – names have been changed.

Labelled a pedophile

Parents uncovered an old short story “Rob” had authored and used it to accuse him of being a pedophile. Stock image

Rob moved to a country town in Victoria with his daughter for a short-term contract after a long career teaching across Australia and overseas.

He said his life was turned upside down when parents at the school uncovered a short story he authored years before about a young boy coming out as gay in a country town.

“The parents read that and immediately thought I was grooming their children, that I was essentially a pedophile,” he said.

“They emailed the principal to that effect, removed their students from my class and also started telling people in the community that’s what I was.

“They refused to speak to me.

“I asked for mediation many times; the principal said they wouldn’t mediate. She didn’t push the issue with them and basically sacked me.”

Rob’s six-month contract was not renewed, which he said was due to the principal siding with the parents, despite Rob protesting his story was a creative piece he had written in the past.

He said he felt betrayed by the principal for not supporting him.

Threatened with knives

“Dannie” said he suffered many threatening situations in his teaching career. Stock image

Dannie had taught for 38 years and said one physical attack may have led to his “spiralling depression”.

He shared many stories with the researchers of physical assaults, including threats with knives and threats to kill.

“This year 8 kid approached me with a knife in a rather threatening, aggressive manner,” he said.

“I took that incident to the year 8 co-ordinator who basically said, ‘Sorry I’m too busy, I’ve got to go and teach’.

“I left the school. Not specifically as a result of that incident – I had applied for a transfer on my second day I was there. It was a particularly rough school and a particularly unsupportive school in terms of a whole range of things.”

In another incident, Dannie was physically assaulted by a student.

“This particular student became quite aggressive and I just basically put my hands up and said ‘ease up, slow down’ and he just pushed me really forcefully off my feet. I hit my head and yeah, and it sort of dazed me for a bit,” Dannie said.

“I got straight up and took him to the principal and explained things and he was given the standard three-day suspension or whatever.

“But what struck me was the principal’s almost sole interest was in terms of getting this kid back into school.

“I felt she ignored what had happened to me and I guess that was really indicative of the relationship I had with her.”

Feeling like ‘hired help’

“Mark” said parents became aggressive when he raised concerns about their children. Stock image

Mark noticed huge differences between teaching at government schools and private schools.

He told researchers he felt like “hired help” at the latter. 

“Some parents, if you bring up academic issues or behaviour issues, take it really, really badly,” he said.

“They feel like because they’re spending this money it shouldn’t be an issue.

“So when you bring these things up, they can get very, very aggressive – very rude, angry and aggressive.

“Not physical contact, but in terms of being very argumentative, and you can see them going red in the face and getting very worked up about it.”

Male teachers – have you had nasty encounters with parents or students? Share your story with us at [e-mail]

Originally published as Male teachers share their horrific experiences of violence and bullying in Australian schools