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2015-09-03 Bullying in the Context of Politics, Pedagogy and Power
Buitenhuis, Eelco Bart
Buitenhuis, E. B. (2015). Bullying in the Context of Politics, Pedagogy and Power (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25186 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2428 doctoral thesis
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Bullying in the Context of Politics, Pedagogy and Power
by
Eelco Bart Buitenhuis
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
CALGARY, ALBERTA
AUGUST, 2015
© Eelco Bart Buitenhuis 2015
i Abstract
In this qualitative research study, the causes of bullying between professors in faculties of education in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Australia are investigated.
The study shows how what was thought to be the unique burden of school children appears to also be a menace to academics; more specifically, this menace is found in the area of Pedagogy, the field that provides anti-bullying programs and policies.
After an overview of the literature covering aspects of workplace bullying, the researcher concluded that little research has focused on this group, and that within the literature studied, most researchers were not interested in the causes of bullying. Eight professors were interviewed, and the study recorded many painful and costly effects of bullying.
Through an interpretive qualitative study, the researcher sought explanations for the phenomenon, which may be found in an overly competitive culture, and in the politics and leadership resulting from this culture. Faculty who are forced to struggle for their place in the academy and have sacrificed to get there, have become fierce competitors who may lose their values.
ii Acknowledgements
This research would not have been possible without the scholars who provided support, advice and wisdom: Kevin Alderson, Veronika Bohac Clarke, Lynn Bosetti,
Deborah Britzman, Rochelle Brock, Antonia Darder, Julia Ellis, Henry Giroux, Hans
Jansen, David Jardine, Victoria Percelli, Jackie Seidel, David Smith, Shirley Steinberg,
Griselda Tilly-Lubbs, and Tom Van Zuuren.
A special thank you to my copy editor Deborah Bradley. Without her help my writing in a foreign language would have become a disaster.
The support of Sylvia Parks at the graduate office was much needed to make my studies at the University of Calgary successful.
Thank you all.
iii
Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to
Elly Brinkman and
Gerard Buitenhuis
who lived and worked for righteousness and social justice.
Judith, Ruben en Eva, I dedicate this dissertation to you, because you have taught me
what life is all about:
respect and openness, love, light and peace.
My sister Tonny has unknowingly been my greatest inspiration for this work.
My deep respect goes out to the respondents who have been open and honest about
some of the darkest periods in their lives.
Foremost and conclusively, I am deeply grateful to
my love,
my partner,
my best friend and
my wife
Shirley Ruth Steinberg.
She made me do it, believing in me and supporting me in the best possible ways.
iv Table of Contents
Abstract ...... ii Acknowledgements ...... iii Dedication ...... iv Table of Contents ...... v List of Tables ...... vii Chapter 1: Introduction and Research Questions ...... 1 1.1 Preamble ...... 1 1.2 Introduction ...... 3 1.3 Rationale for Research: Bullying in the Faculty of Education ...... 5 1.4 Research Questions ...... 10 Chapter 2: Review and Overview of Literature and Themes ...... 11 2.1 History of the Research on Bullying ...... 12 2.2 Bullying, Workplace Mobbing and Harassment: What is Already Known ...... 15 2.3 Themes That Emerge Around Bullying ...... 30 2.4 Bullying in Higher Education ...... 31 2.5 Emerging Themes Around Bullying In The Academy ...... 35 2.6 Loners And The Law, A Counterpoise ...... 35 2.7 Educational Leadership ...... 39 2.8 Transformative Leadership as a Means to Create Safe Space ...... 40 2.9 Change ...... 42 2.10 Why not? ...... 47 Chapter 3: Positionality, Theory and Methodology ...... 49 3.1 Is Bullying Bad? A Personal Position ...... 49 3.2 Ethical and Moral Issues ...... 52 3.3 Theoretical Framework: Epistemological And Ontological Aspirations ...... 54 3.4 Interviews And Method ...... 56 3.5 Methodology ...... 59 Chapter 4: Findings: Respondents Speak For Themselves ...... 62 4.1 Vignettes ...... 63 4.2 First Level Of Analysis ...... 67 4.3 Interview With Camellia ...... 67 4.3.1 Camellia’s Story ...... 68 4.3.2 Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Camellia ...... 75 4.4 Interviews With Peony ...... 77 4.4.1 Peony’s Story: First Read of the First Interview ...... 77 4.4.2 Peony’s Story: Second Read of the First Interview ...... 84 4.5 Revisiting The Topic With Peony ...... 88 4.5.1 Second Interview with Peony ...... 89 4.6 Interview With Heather ...... 93 4.6.1 Heather’s Story ...... 94 4.7 After The Break ...... 104
v 4.8 Interview With Rose ...... 104 4.8.1 Rose’s Story ...... 105 4.8.2 Inventory Of Themes In The Second Interview With Rose ...... 108 4.9 Interview With Gavin ...... 108 4.9.1 Gavin’s Story ...... 108 4.9.2 Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Gavin ...... 111 4.10 Interview With Erica ...... 113 4.10.1 Erica’s Story ...... 114 4.11 Interview With Leo ...... 117 4.11.1 Leo’s Story ...... 117 4. 12 Interview With Griffin ...... 124 4.12.1 Griffin’s Story ...... 125 4.13 Inventory of Inventories ...... 136 Chapter 5: Understanding and Discussion ...... 142 5.1 Bullying and How It Works; Making Meaning ...... 142 5.2 The Group And The Other ...... 145 5.3 Others Who Become Vulnerable ...... 148 5.4 The Effects Of Bullying ...... 151 5.5 Neo Liberal Politics That Formed The Current ...... 155 5.6 Dysfunctional Leadership Creates Bullies ...... 161 5.7 Tenure: Both A Trap And An Incentive ...... 163 5.8 Education As Stepchild ...... 165 5.9 Pedagogy That Is Not Always Critical ...... 170 5.10 Right Use Of Power? ...... 174 Chapter 6 Concluding Analyses And Synthesis ...... 181 6.1 Who Is Responsible? ...... 181 6.2 Revisiting Themes That Emerged From The Literature ...... 186 6.3 Relationship Between Theory and Findings ...... 188 Chapter 7 Conclusions and Recommendations: Leadership as a Solution ...... 190 6.1 Recommendations ...... 194 Afterword ...... 195 References ...... 196 Appendix A: List of Quotes ...... 214 Appendix B: List of Interview Questions ...... 253
vi List of Tables Table 1: Themes and Frequency of Occurrence ...... 76 Table 2: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Peony ...... 87 Table 3: Inventory of Themes in the Second Interview with Peony ...... 93 Table 4: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Heather ...... 103 Table 5: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Rose ...... 108 Table 6: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Gavin ...... 113 Table 7: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Leo ...... 124
vii Chapter 1: Introduction and Research Questions1
1.1 Preamble
About twenty years ago, before documentaries about animal behavior permeated
You Tube, I visited the local zoo with my children. At some point, we came across the cage with the little Capuchin monkeys. Our attention was drawn to the cage because screaming burst from it. Arriving at the scene, we saw that one monkey was being chased by a few of the others. After a long race over the fences, branches, and even the ceiling of the cage, the victim found refuge in the water pool. This was apparently a good spot because the others did not follow him there. The chasers were three in number, but the rest of the flock encouraged them, or helped by trying to hit the monkey on the run whenever he passed them. We had a good view of him as he sat shivering in the water. He had obviously been bitten: blood was on his fur, streaming from several wounds on his head and body. He looked terrified. One of the more daring chasers tried to come closer to him. He grabbed the monkey by the sides of his head and forced him to perform oral sex on him.
I was deeply affected by this scene. I felt incompetent and cowardly. I did not know how to talk about it to my children, other than by saying that I found it disgusting. We called the crew and they isolated the victim in a net. We did not witness what happened after that.
The scene kept coming back in my thoughts for days and even now, twenty years later, it still bothers me: the one and the many, the seeming unjustness, the powerlessness of the witnesses (us), the meanness, terrifying to me still. I have eased my mind for a bit
1 Please read the afterword on p. 195 if you, as a reader, are uncomfortable with combined qualitative research methods or interpretive
1 with thoughts about the possible preceding scenes: had he been evil to a mother’s child, had he tried to seize power, had he threatened the group or its rules? I have philosophized about the differences between humans and monkey, that humans are more civilized than these animals. I could understand that their captivity (by civilized humans) could have caused the stress in the first place. I felt guilty about visiting such an institution where injustice happens. I felt ashamed and powerless.
The reason this incident had such an impact on me can be found in my awareness of bullying. I have seen many situations in my youth and at the schools in which I have worked. I have always chosen sides for the weak. Or did I always? In my heart I have, but how did it show in my actions? I am not convinced that I succeeded in getting my voice out at all times.
Have I bullied? I have chosen wrong sides at times and feel bad about that. I know this because the situations where that occurred keep coming back to mind.
Have I been bullied? I am not sure. As a child I may have experienced people laughing at me, or attempts to hurt me. I recall frolicking in the playgrounds, including scenes where I was laying on my back with some kid sitting on me, his knees on my biceps; but apart from that, in my memory, I have not suffered much. I know that other kids have suffered. I recall an incident when I was a Boy Scout, when after seeing a violent soldier movie, as soon as we got outside into the dark evening, a group of our fellows teamed up against my buddy, who wore glasses and was not “cool.” I became frightened and went back inside to get help.
I have chosen sides and I have been aware of what was happening, even when I chose the “wrong” side. At times like that I wanted to belong, I think. I tried to be part of a group that appealed to me.
2 Years later, this has made me aware of the implications of bullying and mobbing.
Recently I have discovered that there is mobbing in workplaces too, even in pedagogical or educational fields. People have shared their stories of bullying with me, and over the past two decades, I have experienced it myself. When I stated earlier that I do not know whether
I have been bullied, I meant that it may have happened but I was not aware of it—but as I re-read my journals, a pattern began to appear. Seemingly loose incidents became meaningful when connected. What I did not initially remember as bullying, I now understand as exactly that. After placing the incidents in context, the discomforting feelings that I had after the incidents now show me that there was consistency in the events.
1.2 Introduction
Over my career of 30 years in education, I have noticed that workplace bullying occurs in an unexpected place: in faculties of education. Teacher education programs provide and promote anti-bullying programs and strategies for schools, but faculty members do not seem able to free themselves from their own bullies.
I take the position that bullying is harmful and unnecessary, costly and damaging to both victims and the faculty as a whole. After examining the existing literature, I have concluded that little has been written about this specific phenomenon. Nowhere has the situation in faculties of education been addressed in a satisfying manner. The literature on bullying is vast, from self-help books and management literature to extensive studies, both quantitative and qualitative in nature, covering the past few decades of mostly North
American and Northern European situations. The situation in higher education is addressed often, but not the specific situation in faculties of education. Through this doctoral research I sought to understand bullying: the culture, the structure, and the
3 societal influences that maintain bullying in faculties of education. When one expects pedagogy in higher education to be excellent, the existence of bullying represents a contradiction; therefore, not only do organizational aspects need to be uncovered, but the very core of pedagogy must be addressed as well. The obvious (and no less unjust) bullying against underprivileged, marginalized professors seems to be a symptom of a systemic problem, genetically embedded in pedagogy. This research represents a philosophical engagement that seeks to unravel and identify the powers at play in reported bullying among professors at faculties of education, and what the causes may be.
In the past few years, I have experienced several occasions where my colleagues and friends in faculties of education in North America, Europe, and Australia have been bullied.
Professors of education have approached me from the above geographic areas with personal narratives of bullying.
At first I was hesitant to embark on a study with this subject; although significant in a humanitarian and social justice sense, it also appeared to me to be a problem of the weak, or of a faculty that already had problems. I worried about being identified as a weak academic by engaging in a study dealing with matters like victims and uncivil behaviour.
Who wants to be the bully doctor? As I can see now, the subject bullied me. After discussions with a number of professors in the field of education, from diverse locales, it became clear to me that the phenomenon needed to be interrogated. Dr. David Jardine encouraged me to continue my interest in the topic of bullying in faculties in education. We discovered the immanent bond of pedagogy and bullying, and decided that this would be the topic of my dissertation.
4 1.3 Rationale for Research: Bullying in the Faculty of Education
Although I searched for specific literature on the problem of bullying in faculties of education between peers, administrators, and professors, I was not able to find any appropriate discussion of the topic. As I have indicated, some publications are obliquely related, but I did not see the sort of in-depth study I desired. I queried why that was the case, as so many professors whom I have met at conferences and through friendship have come to me with their stories, loaded with complaints, with painful recollections of horrific situations, and all within faculties of education.
Literature on bullying recounts the atrocities that people have endured, and quite often, points the finger at the bully. Tables, figures and graphs illustrate structures and explanations. I have not found research that delves into deeper layers of the problems. The philosophical dimension of the bully—the system that leaves the bully in place, the abusive cultures—seem to be overlooked thus far, and through this study, I intend to uncover and find answers to the question of why.
After determining the locus of my research, I took a closer look at the works of the scholars who have addressed the problem of bullying. It is not just victims who can inform us here. I felt I needed to look into the situation in which the victims are located: the faculty, its structure, its culture and subsequent rituals, its leadership, its place in society and in the culture of the country and county in which the faculty is situated.
This research is presented from the perspective of education, a discipline with strong characteristics and affiliations. Education is a field that pre-eminently integrates many disciplines. As the review of the literature shows, many disciplines have researched the bully and the bullying victims, including psychology, psychiatry, sociology, ethology,
5 organization studies, women’s studies, leadership studies, pedagogy, and cultural studies.
Adding to these studies, I hope to demonstrate in this study that a rhizomatic approach
(DeLeuze & Guattari, 1980) is necessary for connecting incidents apparent at the surface with new, hitherto unrevealed, factors of influence.
The position in which education as an academic field finds itself—in general denigrated by the hard sciences, law, and medical science—must be a part of the research, since I have limited myself to faculties of education. Such denigration positions education in general as a victim, leading to feelings of inferiority by many educators. This denigration occurs not only from fellow academics but by society as well: everybody has a say about education, and about educators’ working hours and holidays, and so on. There are only a few well-informed people who understand how varied, dynamic, intense, and tough the profession of teaching is. Teachers, it seems, do not feel the urge to mourn and brag about their work, since it is not in their nature. Many of them believe that teaching is a serving and humble profession.
Professor Hans Jansen, a scholar from The Netherlands, gave his dissertation the shocking title De Leraar als Koelie, which translates as: The Teacher as Coolie (Jansen,
2008). I understand that the use of the word Coolie is seen as offensive; however, it is important to use Jansen’s metaphor in discussing his research. The word was used in the past two centuries to describe enslaved or indentured workers, usually of Asian descent, who did heavy and exhausting work.
His research demonstrates the subordinate position of teachers. At first, many educators found his research to be incredible. I have had many conversations with colleagues about this study that located teachers in the underdog position. That is a
6 shocking place to be, when one thinks the job is just fine. Many people initially denied his views, but after closer reading realized the work was a shocking eye-opener. The subaltern
(Spivak, 1988) to which the coolie can be related is not only powerless, but is also kept in that position by those in power. Also, the subaltern or coolie does not appear to have the means or the will to change his or her position. Seemingly, they resign themselves to their fate. By extension, we can look at the web-published opinion piece on problems related to employment in the academy by Sarah Kendzior (2013), who claims that “Outspoken academics are rare: most tenured faculty have stayed silent about the adjunct crisis”
(Kendzior, 2013, para. 13). In the same article, she reports that since the 2008 economic crash, 40 percent of academic positions have been eliminated in the U.S. and that 76 percent of American university faculty are adjunct (para. 6). She also notes that:
“professors are listed as ‘professor staff’ and as such disposable and indistinguishable” and
“computers that grade essays seem a viable replacement” (para. 7). She also negates the thought that academia is a meritocracy. Too many deserving candidates cannot get jobs and have defaulted to the adjunct track, if they even get to that point. Kendzior quotes a doctoral student who describes how she had to “sell her soul to the devil,” leading to self- degradation. These examples demonstrate the difficult position professors are being brought into and how hard it is to cope. Although this deals with professors in academia at large, it deals with professors in education as well, and more so because they are academics in a disrespected field.
Thus, we find education and higher education in a problematic position since neoliberalism and conservatism have taken over the wheel, starting with Ronald Reagan in the U.S. and Margaret Thatcher in the U.K, all the way through the Bush dynasty. Education
7 is being forced into a suit similar to that of a production unit (Kincheloe, 2008). For many years, attempts have been made to include “outcomes” and “turnout” and the like into the curriculum and the conditions for funding. The reasons given for these changes include the increasing number of students, not only since the baby-boom generation, but also because of economic prosperity. Many students were able to strive for higher education as a result of parents who worked two shifts in their belief that their children would live a better life in a better world. However, more students cost more money, pressing on education budgets. Yet increased government involvement was unwanted after a long period of
Democrats in charge; thus, the richest countries in the world, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., The
Netherlands, Germany, and France, chose to decrease relative expenditures on education, while the budgets for warfare (even when there was a strong sentiment after the Second
World War to never allow war again) rose sharply in those countries (Giroux, 2014). When there was no longer an evident enemy, enemies were created to motivate the spending.
Consequently, in many schools and institutions for higher education, reasons were created to require less contact time for students. My own experience as both a student and a professor in teacher education in The Netherlands demonstrates that movement. When I was a student, my visual arts classes involved 50 class-time hours per year. When I became a professor in the subject at that same institution, I was assigned 16 hours per year, and in the eight-year period I worked there, that amount was cut in half, to 8 hours. After I left, the cuts continued, and I wonder how teachers are being educated now. I am not in favour of professors hovering over their students, and I trust that students can learn to teach while practicing, but there has to be a good amount of transfer of knowledge and experience, too.
That can only happen with sufficient classroom time. Again, there were educational and
8 pedagogical reasons given for the cuts, but in the end, it was an economic cause and a political decision, much the same as I have seen in other Western countries. As I demonstrate in the findings chapter, these political influences are important to understand the phenomenon of bullying in faculties of education.
From the start of this research, I was interested in bullying between professors in faculties of education. I decided not to include students in this study. Although there are many studies dealing with the troublesome behaviour of generation Y with regard to professors inside and out of the classroom, or with poor professors treating their students badly, I did not investigate these problems in this dissertation. I looked at all ranks in the faculty and at aspiring professors, as that condition seems to be of influence. My decision to pursue the topic of bullying in faculties of education may be explained by my childish and perhaps somewhat ignorant ontology that educators should to be the ones helping to create a better world through their students, through the students of their students, and so on. I found that many schools offer anti-bullying programs, and bullying in schools is on many political agendas in the Western world. This takes me back to my initial hesitancy: is dealing with bullying merely a problem of luxury? After my investigation, however, I found it feasible and reasonable enough to keep on making the world a better place even when many of humanity’s needs have been provided for. Although bullying among peers is the main focus, I also look into situations where bullying happens vertically: top-down from the administrative level to the faculty. Similar to the way some of the literature aims at ways to deal with dominating bosses or with toxic employees (Kusy & Holloway, 2009;
Cavailola, 2000; Lubit 2004; Lutgen-Sandvik, 2005; Twale & De Luca, 2005; Hegraines,
2012; Wilkin, 2010), I have found that much bullying is of a vertical nature, due to an
9 imbalance of power. A bully perceives or creates that power imbalance, even when he or she bullies her or his formal peers.
I have come to believe through this research that pedagogy is a problematic field.
Due to my ontology and epistemology of pedagogy, which I acknowledge as limited and perhaps somewhat romanticized, I came to realize that there is also bad pedagogy.
Remembering and rereading the works of Alice Miller (1981, 1990), I am now beginning to adjust my understanding. This is necessary because there are some strong connections between pedagogy and bullying. I clarify these connections later in this dissertation. My research questions were:
1.4 Research Questions
1. What are the reasons for the lack of research on bullying in faculties of education?
2. How have the faculty interviewed for this study experienced bullying?
3. How does power work in bullying in faculties of education?
4. How is pedagogy related to bullying in faculties of education?
5. What is the position of leadership on bullying in faculties of education?
6. What are the cultural and societal aspects relating to bullying in faculties of education?
10 Chapter 2: Review and Overview of Literature and Themes
This chapter reviews the literature on bullying. First, a general introduction is given in a historic overview of the studies on bullying. The next section reviews what the literature has said about bullying, workplace mobbing and harassment, and is followed by a section on how bullying in higher education is documented and analyzed. A few books were written by bullied professors who have taken up a fight against the behaviour against them, and the next section is dedicated to them. The last sections of the literature review discuss leadership in education, which is relevant to the topic of bullying by professors.
The review covers over 50 books and articles on the subject, and I have chosen to give a synopsis of each publication. It is important to note that there were no publications found that touch on the precise topic of my research. The sections begin with a summary of the publications being reviewed, provided to give the reader some perspective. I include several autobiographic reflections throughout my reviews as they relate to the literature reviewed at those points.
11 2.1 History of the Research on Bullying
The history of research on workplace bullying stems from early work by Konrad
Lorenz, an ethologist who studied animal behaviour in the 1960s. He found that groups sometimes cast out certain members (Lorenz, 1966). Recalling the observation I described in the introduction to this dissertation, I wonder to what extent the circumstances of being confined to a cage contributed to this kind of behaviour. Recent zoology researchers stress that harmony is much more common in nature, and refer to flocks of birds gathering in the skies, whirling around for hours creating beautiful shapes without any accident, as if they are connected in such a way that they operate from a collective consciousness. A herd of deer applies a type of representative democracy in choosing the water hole to which they will go next. The alpha female deer looks in the direction of one of the water holes, and more female deer follow that gaze. At the exact moment that 51% of the deer look in that direction, the herd moves toward that water hole. The alpha male seems surprised that the herd moves, but follows suit, contrary to what we, in a male-dominated society might expect (Shadyak, 2012). It appears that the work of Darwin has been misunderstood and misinterpreted in a number of ways. The phrase “survival of the fittest” is only found a few times in his The Origin of Species (Darwin, 1998), still it has become the popularized understanding by his readers of how we have come to be. This was an interpretation that suited the dominant culture of the time, and for some, it still does. Feudalism, colonialism, colonizing, capitalism and imperialism operate under that concept. We find what we search for, and we only hear and understand what we can. If this is true, the typical positivist claims for empirical methodologies should be viewed as hollow.
12 Heinz Leymann (1996), a German psychologist who had moved to Sweden early in his career, set a number of standards from the 1980s on. He added the notion of mobbing to the research field. Leymann did a lot of research on bullying and workplace mobbing, first in Sweden and later in the U.S. (Olweus 1978a, 1978b). A Swedish immigrant to the U.S,
Leymann started his research in the 1970s on bullying among children and later among adults. Ken Westhues (1998, 2006, 2013), did an enormous amount of research on workplace bullying in academia. At some point, he is said to have made the following tongue-in-cheek remark: “Believe it or not, but it even happens in faculties of education”; however, I could not find any specific work of his directed to faculties of education.
Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying at Work (Kohut, 2008), a management self-help-book, presents a number of profiles of bullies, providing an excerpt from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V) on personality disorders. The author gives his insight into the types of problematic employees with whom employers seem to be confronted. Coming from a culture in which disorders are not openly discussed, I was surprised to see how many problems in the work environment stem from psychiatric issues.
When I began to feel at ease with the realization that bullies may have psychiatric problems, the author confronted me with a list of “They are . . .s,” pathologizing vulnerable and sick people. I found this problematic. I think this is an important impulse in trying to make ourselves feel better about “bullies,” as it takes our attention away from the socio- cultural conditions that allow for, foster, cultivate, and support bullying relationships!
Although people with personality disorders often perform “normal,” when buttons are pushed they may behave non-normally. It is also easy to point at “the other” as a cause
13 of trouble. Historically, many leaders have set people up to fight “the other,” with disastrous consequences. The dominant keep the dominant position, described as cultural hegemony (Gramsci, 1971), while simultaneously compartmentalizing the disenfranchised and minorities with the mentally ill. I find that this behaviour leads to estrange as many as we can from our dominant cultural core and power is maintained.
Kohut (2008) borrowed from Ruth and Gary Namie, who have established a strong reputation with their work in the field. I examined two of their titles: The Bully-Free
Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels and Snakes from Killing your Organization (Namie & Namie,
2011) and The Bully at Work (Namie & Namie, 2009). The first book is aimed at the managerial level; the second book, at the employee’s level. Although I tend to categorize the work as being of the “mending” kind, on a different level, the works demonstrate how the design of the work environment leads to unwanted behaviour. In their latest book, they provide a list of Tactics Used by Bullies (2011, p. 18-19). Other than the obvious false accusations, intimidations, discounting, disregarding, constant criticizing, yelling and screaming, stealing and abuse, the book posits that there is something wrong in a place where this happens. The sick and mentally ill have been addressed elsewhere as shown; however, one must consider that not all bullies are “crazy, ” but may be seeking to change the power balance to their benefit. Many corporations have a hard time keeping up to speed with competitors; accordingly, employees often must compete for their positions and jobs, motivated by an economic need to stay on board. When they feel that they cannot produce the figures fairly, they may need to rely on foul play—foul play that may include bullying. At the time of this writing, Toronto’s former mayor, Rob Ford, was in the spotlight because of his extravagant behaviour, which related directly to his bullying habits (Global
14 Mail, 2014/10/28). New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie claimed, “I am not a bully,” yet many of those who know him have stated that he is a typical bully. (Capehart, 2014/1/10)
We must consider the examples set by these leaders and the social structures in which they dwell.
2.2 Bullying, Workplace Mobbing and Harassment: What is Already Known
Westhues (2007) makes this distinction between bullying and mobbing:
Bullying suggests a physically belligerent, hostile, overbearing individual,
usually a manager, who takes pleasure in lording it over one or more
subordinates. Mobbing connotes a number of ordinary workers at whatever
level who unfairly gang up on a manager, peer, or subordinate, tormenting
the person in usually nonviolent ways. (Para. 1)
The body of literature on the topic of bullying and mobbing ranges from self-help books (Cavaiola & Lavender, 2000; Cornett, 2011; Duffy & Sperry, 2007; Field, 2011; Hollis,
2012; Lubit, 2004) to management books (Brouillette, 2013; Caponecchia & Wyatt, 2011;
Cipriano, 2011; Kohut, 2008; Kusy & Holloway, 2009; Namie & Namie, 2009; Namie &
Namie, 2011; Sutton, 2007) to extensive studies, both quantitative and qualitative in nature, and covering the past few decades of primarily North American and Northern
European situations (Baar, 2012; Bazelon, 2013; Bouteyre & Vitale, 2006; Duffy & Sperry,
2012; Einarsen, 2000; Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2011; Grebot, 2006; Grosser, Lopez-
Kidwell, Labianca, & Ellwardt, 2012; Hansen et al., 2006; Hillard, 2009; Jaretta, García-
Campayo, Gascón, & Bolea, 2004; Lester, 2009; Leymann, 1996; Lorenz, 1966; Lutgen-
Sandvik, 2005; Lutgen-Sandvik, 2006; Lutgen-Sandvik et al, 2007; Monks et al., 2009;
15 Olweus, 1978; Power et al., 2013; Randall, 2001; Rooijen, 2012; Salin, 2003; Samuels, 2003;
Saunders, Huynh, & Goodman-Delahunty, 2007; Szigety, 2012; Tehrani, 2012; Vaughan,
2012; Weems, 2013; Wheeler, Halbesleben, & Shanine, 2010).
The self-help books are predominantly written by former victims and therapists, and aim at providing ways for victims of bullying to deal with bullies. Coping with Toxic
Managers, Subordinates . . . and Other Difficult People (Lubit, 2004), gives directions for employees who have to work with or under bullies. Lubit provides insight into the different types of managers, and stresses the importance of emotional intelligence as a means of coping. Toxic Coworkers: How To Deal With Dysfunctional People on the Job (Cavaiola &
Lavender, 2000) offers an overview of people with personality disorders. Although the list of disorders is somewhat shocking, at the same time it is important to understand that a seemingly “normal” person’s personality may not function the same way others do.
Mobbing: Causes, Consequences and Solutions, (Duffy & Sperry, 2012) addresses mobbing in schools, but does not limit the term mobbing to that area. Duffy and Sperry’s (2007) work provides an extensive but strong definition for the term:
Mobbing is a form of persecution, of humiliation, of degradation. [It] includes
multiple players: leaders and followers, a single or multiple targets, a group
or community of participants who are involved by virtue of their witnessing
of the events, and organizational members with the power and status to stop
the mobbing, but who, instead, participate in it either actively or by turning a
blind eye to it. In a mobbing, a sequence of events unfolds over time in which
the victim is disparaged and belittled by the perpetrators who are acting
within the legitimacy of the organizational domain. The effects of mobbing
16 are always loss – loss of dignity, loss of respect, loss of status, loss of personal
identity, loss of professional identity, loss of job, loss of money, loss of
friendship and social networks, loss of family support, loss of health
insurance, loss of health, loss of life. (p. xi)
This helps to clarify the difference between bullying and mobbing.
“Defining Workplace Bullying Behaviour Professional Lay Definitions of Workplace
Bullying” (Saunders, Huynh, & Goodman-Delahunty, 2007) gives an overview of the many definitions used in the field to date:
Definitions used by researchers investigating this serious workplace issue
are generally very detailed and include four essential criteria, including (a)
the negative effect of the behaviour on the target, (b) the frequency and (c)
persistence of the behaviour, and (d) the power imbalance that a behaviour
must create before the conduct is regarded as an example of bullying.
(Saunders, Huynh, & Goodman-Delahunty, 2007, p. 341)
In Strategies for Surviving Bullying at Work (Field, 2011), the author takes the approach of strengthening the victim in order to become less vulnerable to bullying.
Regulating of feelings, restoring identity, effective communication, and self-empowering are some of the topics that Field recommended. Cornett (2011) and Hollis (2012) were both victims of academic bullying, or at least gross misunderstanding, and each in their own manner found ways to bring this injustice to light. I categorized them in the self-help area, because they provide insight into the way they have been maltreated, and as such
17 suggest a way to fight back. I will address this as well as provide some criticism in the section Loners And The Law in this chapter (p. 37).
Management literature is similar to self-help books in the sense that it relies on research outcomes and gives practical advice, in this case to leaders in organizations.
Caponecchia and Wyatt (2011) provide an evidence-based case study in Preventing
Workplace Bullying. The book is basically a plea to have managers take workplace bullying seriously, and is complete with warnings about the social and legal effects, and the costs of bullying. The book is aimed at taking action, giving managers tools to deal with the occurrence of bullying in their workplaces. Similarly, The Complete Guide to Understanding,
Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying at Work (Kohut, 2008) is meant to be a tool for managers. While it is important that issues of bullying are brought to the attention of managers and that there is a body of literature, danger exists that these types of books may be used as a proverbial bible. Although the books give some insight into understanding, their explanations tend to remain superficial.
Toxic Workplace! Managing Toxic Personalities and Their Systems of Power (Kusy &
Holloway, 2009) goes a bit further; the book describes a series of behaviours that so-called toxic people tend to demonstrate. Toxic people are often passive-aggressive and reject negative feedback, for instance. They are masters in team sabotage and abuse authority.
One chapter of the book deals with leaders’ reactions that do not work. This book presents an interesting approach to bullying because it addresses misunderstanding. Specifically useful for my study is the chapter on organizational culture and the ways in which organizations promote toxicity:
1. The structure changes to accommodate the toxic personality.
18 2. The organization tolerates the toxicity, provided the individual is productive.
3. The team climate changes when the toxic person is present.
4. The organization’s leaders are unaware of the toxic person’s behaviour.
5. Less productive team meetings are tolerated.
6. The organization contributes to the toxic person getting away with
counterproductive behaviours (Ch. 4, Location 1086 of 3430).
Peer Aggression and Victimization in Dutch Elementary Schools and Sports Clubs
(Baar, 2012) is a dissertation looking into the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs in
Dutch elementary schools. Baar concluded that since no performance indicators were used, most programs showed little potential for improving their situations. To draw such a conclusion may be questioned, considering the number of optimistic confessions from schools using the programs found in the report; thus it is helpful to re-evaluate claims of success. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (Olweus, 1978) certainly claims to improve situations where it has been employed. Baar also considered control strategies among peers in sports clubs, and found coercive-aggressive, purely pro-social, and
Machiavellian strategies existed. Bazelon (2013) refers to a children's rhyme that addresses the ways bullying does really hurt, in the first line for the title Sticks and Stones.
Her work demonstrates that sticks and stones DO hurt, exactly synchronous with my saying: “Scolding DOES hurt!” in response to a common phrase in Dutch: “Scolding does not hurt.” Bazelon also notes that the bully, in acting out, demonstrates that negative and problematic feelings within are plaguing him or her, and suggests that we also have to understand the bully’s position. At times, this is good advice, but when the victim suffers, it may be hard to be that altruistic.
19 One of the reasons bullies bully is that they gain perceived social status from the act of bullying. Bazelon identifies different types of bullies:
the traditional bully, the thug in training; the second type is the kid who tries
to act like a thug not out of malice, but because he’s clueless. The third type of
bully has more serious problems. He or she is both a bully and a victim. These
kids experience the worst of both worlds. The fourth type is the opposite of a
misfit. These kids tend to score higher than their peers on tests for social
cognition. They’re good at reading the emotions of the people around them,
and at manipulating them. (pp. 31-32)
A fifth bully type is identified as well—the Facebook thug, or cyber bully. As mentioned, the book is about children being bullied and being bullies; however, the resemblance to adults is striking. The types of bullies are very recognizable among adults as well, although also quite randomly identified in the literature. The first and fourth kinds of bullies described by Bazelon seem to refer to sociopaths. As I note in my work, sociopath is the old term for Antisocial Personality Disorder, it may be related to bullying, particularly in the institutions in which my research is focused.
An article by Bouteyre and Vitale (2006) in Pratiques Psychologiques, focuses on the coping strategies of victims of workplace bullying. The lengthy title explains it: Étude exploratoire de la souffrance et des stratégies de coping relevées dans 134 témoignages de harcèlement moral au travail recensés sur le forum d'un site Internet (Bouteyre & Vital
2006) (English translation: Exploratory study of pain and coping strategies identified in 134 testimonies of bullying at work identified on the forum of a website). The authors looked at
20 web forums to study how victims of workplace bullying write about their experiences and relate the ways in which they deal with the abuse. The authors conclude that writing on a forum serves as a means to cope, and secondly, that wording the harassments and wording the coping strategies also serve as coping strategies.
Duffy and Sperry (2007) published an article in The Family Journal on the health consequences of workplace mobbing for both the victims and their families. I found this material shocking. As they show in “Workplace Mobbing: Individual and Family Health
Consequences,” the process of workplace mobbing usually takes between 6 and 18 months, a period in which the victim starts to suffer from severe stress and may be declared mentally ill. They identify 5 phases borrowed from Leymann and Gustaffson (1996):
1. The conflict phase
2. Aggressive acts and psychological assaults against the victim
3. Management seriously enters into the mobbing
4. “Management ally with the mobbers by sharing in the construction of the
victim as somehow deficient and troublesome and often label the victim as
‘difficult,’” (Duffy & Sperry 2007, p. 399).
5. The expulsion phase. They extend the damage to family members because
the victim is often in so much pain and trouble that his or her behaviour at
home seriously affects the partner and or children.
Similarly, a psychiatric study by James Hillard (2009) entitled, “Workplace mobbing: Are they really out to get your patient?” finds that not every patient is suffering from paranoia. He analyzed his patient’s situation and concluded that he suffered from organized attacks on:
21 Self-expression and ability to communicate (victim is silenced, given no opportunity
to communicate, subject to verbal attacks); social relationships (colleagues do not
talk to the victim, victim is physically isolated from others); reputation (victim is the
target of gossip and ridicule); occupational situation (victim is given meaningless
tasks or no work at all); physical health (victim is assigned dangerous tasks,
threatened with bodily harm, or physically attacked). (p. 47)
In 2003, a group of European authors created the first comprehensive volume on bullying on the workplace, revised and renamed in 2011 as Bullying and Harassment in the
Workplace; Developments in Theory, Research and Practice (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf and
Cooper, 2011). This volume gave the relatively new field of research into bullying a body of knowledge to build on and for reference. The book is a concise overview of the work of over thirty authors who address workplace bullying in many ways: risk groups, individual consequences, organizational effects and causes, victims and perpetrators, sexual harassment, discrimination, whistleblowing, and so forth. Chapter 8: “Social Antecedents of
Bullying: A Social Interactionist Perspective” presents a social interactionist perspective as a way to understand the bully’s behaviour and how “social factors may serve as antecedents to aggression” (p. 218). This is helpful and informative material, and a good reference book, but it does not reveal answers to my particular questions. I had expected the book to include explanations for the causes behind the bullying.
Einarsen has published a large body of work, and I chose to look at a few samples.
His article in Aggression and Violent Behaviour (2000), “Harassment and Bullying at Work:
A Review of the Scandinavian Approach,” claims that workplace harassment needs to be
22 also studied outside of Sweden. I take up his challenge in this study: “theoretical models and theoretically-driven designs must be developed” (Einarsen, 2000, p. 398), in the sense that after reading everything I could find on the topic, there does not appear to be an understanding of the causality of the problem.
Grebot (2006) looks at the transactional aspect of moral harassment at work. The term may be understood as similar to workplace bullying. The transactional approach works out well for the victims, and Grebot suggests that any integrated approach will work out well (p. 594). In “Bullying at Work, Health Outcomes, and Physiological Stress
Response” (Hansen, Hogh, Persson, Karlson, Garde, & Orbaek, 2006), the researchers also concluded that bullying victims or those who witnessed bullying at work “reported more symptoms of somatisation, depression, anxiety, and negative affectivity” (p. 63). While this is not surprising, it is important that it has been empirically measured and confirmed.
Grosser, Lopez–Kidwell, Labiance and Ellwardt (2012) delve into the effects of gossip and how it is part of the bullying and workplace mobbing process in, “Hearing it
Through the Grapevine: Positive and Negative Workplace Gossip.” As much as the negative effects may be surmised, there may also be positive effects from gossiping:
Not long ago a co-worker informed Joy that her boss is having an affair. Joy is
glad to have received this particular piece of gossip. She feels that the
knowledge about her boss helps her to manage her job more effectively. Joy
explains, “By knowing the true picture, I can figure things out when my boss
doesn’t return my calls or he disappears for three hours.” (p. 52)
23 This observation is interesting but could also be reduced to being well informed, or understanding how to read and judge information. That being said, we should understand that the latter goes for every bit of information, and that those with critical, scholarly minds should be able to make sensible judgments.
Jaretta, García-Campayo, Gascón, & Bolea (2014) warn us of the legal consequences of false accusations as related to European law on health and safety at work. Many people claim to suffer negative effects from mobbing at the workplace in Spain, but these claims are not always sincere. The study portrays a case in which the claimer turned out to be mentally ill. This contrasts with the case that Hillard (2009) described. We have to believe that the Spanish court and the forensic psychiatrists were correct and at the same time, consider that interpretations have been made, but are not necessarily correct.
I have examined three of the works of American scholar Lutgen-Sandvik. The first is her dissertation: Water Smoothing Stones: Subordinate Resistance To Workplace Bullying
(Lutgen-Sandvik, 2005). Contrary to other studies that claim victims of workplace bullying are unable to defend themselves, her research indicated that quite often opposition to bullies, whether cooperative or individual, was effective. Bullies were fired or reprimanded due to resistance from the bullied. Her chapter “A Dialectic Perspective of Power in
Workplace Bullying” informs my research perspective. I will address her ideas briefly. She describes four issues in the chapter: “workers acceptance of hierarchies as ‘naturally’ occurring, resistance as protection of a favoured subject position, defiance as an expected counterpart to oppression, and the often hidden nature of resistance in these situations” (p.
80). Furthermore, she has found that “subordinate resistance changed systems slowly over time” (p. 184). Lutgen-Sandvik’s (2006) journal article, “Take This Job and . . . : Quitting and
24 Other Forms of Resistance to Workplace Bullying” suggests in the title the robust stance she takes against the phenomenon of workplace bullying. Another article in the Journal of
Management Studies provides an overview of the problems of bullying in the American workplace, as opposed to the Scandinavian situation, which is better documented and studied more extensively: “Burned by Bullying in the American Workplace: Prevalence,
Perception, Degree and Impact” (Lutgen-Sandvik, Tracy, & Alberts, 2007).
In “Bullying in Different Contexts: Commonalities, Differences and the Role of
Theory” (Monks, Smith, Naylor, Barter, Ireland, & Coyne, 2009), the researchers not only created an overview of various locales and their commonalities, but also summarized different groups of theories as they may apply to bullying: evolutionary theory, attachment theory, social learning theory, social cognitive theory, and sociocultural theories. They suggest integrating individual and situational factors in a theoretical approach and conclude that little work has been done that directly applies theoretical frameworks to bullying. This is the direction that I have taken in this dissertation.
In Acceptability of Workplace Bullying: A Comparative Study on Six Continents, 21 authors from six continents describe some differences along with similarities:
Confucian Asia finds work-related bullying to be more acceptable than the
Anglo, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa country clusters, and finds
physically intimidating bullying to be more acceptable than the Anglo and
Latin America country clusters. The differences in the acceptability of
bullying with respect to these cultures are partially explained in terms of
cultural dimensions (Power, Brotheridge, Blenkinsopp, Bowes-Sperry,
Bozionelos, et al, 2013, p. 374).
25
Randall (2001) brings more nuance into the equation in the book: Bullying in
Adulthood: Assessing the Bullies and Their Victims. He suggests that the notion of an
“innocent victim” is too simplistic. He has found that victims of workplace bullying who seek psychotherapy quite often have a history of dysfunctional parenting, mainly
“smothering love,” resulting in social innocence associated with dependent behaviour (p.
105). Bullies tend to sense that and act in response. He names quite a number of other factors, including the negative effects of posttraumatic stress in childhood (p. 119). Randall cites Dan Olweus, one of the “gurus” of bullying, known for his Olweus Bullying Prevention
Program, who has distinguished two kinds of victims: the submissive and the provocative
(Olweus, 1978). Submissive victims tend to cry when bullies confront them. They often have low self-esteem and feel negative about who they are, relating to themselves as stupid and ugly (Randall, 2001, p. 120). Provocative victims have both anxious and aggressive reaction patterns. Their attention control may be poor, resulting in over-activity and disruptive behaviour, causing them to be disliked by other children, who may bully them as a result (p. 121). At this point, I assert that a power imbalance is at play. In essence, it resembles a child who senses he or she is at the bottom of the power play, and thus chooses an aggressive defense technique as a means to get on top.
The Dutch report, Wat Werkt Tegen Pesten? (What Works Against Bullying?) written for the Dutch Youth Institute (Van Rooijen, 2012), provides an overview of effective measures that can be taken and are taken in schools. After naming many methods, the suggestions in this report stress the need for an integral approach. Also Van Rooijen (2012) names both positive and negative research findings on the Olweus Bullying Prevention
26 Program. One may conclude that one approach does not necessarily reach the same outcome all the time and everywhere.
Salin (2003), a Finnish scholar, calls bullying a multi-causal phenomenon and often a self-reinforcing or spiralling process. Conditions act as enabling factors. Salin put these factors in a diagram. The framework discriminates “motivating structures and processes” from “precipitating circumstances,” the latter being triggers for incivility, bullying, and mobbing. Either category feeds into “Enabling structures and processes.” As soon as these categories become utilized as negative factors, the likeliness of bullying practices are set, becoming more and more part of the culture, and thus the academic bully culture is established.
Bullying can take the form of sexual harassment. Samuels (2003) points out that sexual harassment cannot be seen simply as a form of bullying due to the strong gender dimension. She writes from a feminist legal perspective and provides theoretical explanations for sexual harassment. She discusses an impressive amount of theorists; for now I will cite one category of sexual harassment—quid pro quo harassment and the creation of a hostile environment. Although the topic of the article is only partly connected to my research, I wanted to include a brief paragraph on this related topic. Gender plays a strong role in the choice of who workplace bullies victimize, although this does not necessarily include sexual harassment, depending on how that is defined.
Szigety (2012) takes a step further in attempting to find predictors for the occurrence of workplace mobbing, and maps possible solutions as suggested by victims.
Most of the victims interviewed preferred personal solutions. I question this outcome,
27 given the vulnerable position of victims of workplace bullying. One cannot expect victims to be able to have a wider perspective on creating solutions.
The publication The No Asshole Rule (Sutton, 2007) deals with how to influence the work climate. Sutton, after a number of disappointing hires, suggested to his office that for future hiring, a simple rule would be taken into account: if the team spirit is already good, make sure that it stays that way. When someone new needs to be hired, that person needs to fit in and be willing and able to do the work correctly, leaving the rest of the team in place. He claims that his team does not need an asshole to come to ruin the fine dynamics at work.
In “Eating Their Cake and Everyone Else's Cake, Too: Resources as the Main
Ingredient to Workplace Bullying” (Wheeler, Halbesleben, & Shanine, 2010), the authors claim:
As workplace bullying emerges in unsupportive and stressful work
environments, the threat of personal resource loss triggers the low cost, high
reward resource-seeking behaviours that are typically reported as indicative
of bullies in the workplace bullying research. (p. 553)
This relates to Taylor’s (2013) chapter in Workplace Bullying in Higher Education.
Taylor asks: "Does tenure change anything? thus isolating this unique feature of the academic world. Although the formal description on tenure is brief: “After the expiration of a probationary period, teachers or investigators should have permanent or continuous tenure, and their service should be terminated only for adequate cause” (AAUP, 2006, cited in Taylor, 2013, p. 26). This leaves some room for interpretation, but the impression that
28 tenure is hard to achieve prevails among professors. Taylor makes an interesting observation that seems to be an inversion of the function of academic freedom and the role of tenure therein: tenure does not provide the right to a rule-free lifetime job (p. 28).
Tenure may be a necessary means for providing the security to do good research, without fear of losing basic needs of life. The subsequent competition over tenured positions, scarce as they are, quite often troubles the atmosphere in the faculty. The American Association of
University Professors (AAUP) states: “it is very difficult to distinguish ‘constructive engagement’ from ‘obstructionism’” (p. 26). This phrasing suggests that the association is not able to be clearer and provide an instrument to make the distinction between constructive engagement and obstructionism less difficult. It appears that the AAUP is struggling with this matter, since they also state: “a lack of collegiality should never be considered a basis for personnel decisions” (p. 26). Taylor engaged in research using questionnaires that asked all ranks about exposure to negative behaviour. She found a significant difference (p. 30) between non-tenure track, tenure-track and tenured faculty.
One of the non-tenure track participants commented: “I feel trapped and powerless” (p.
30). The tenured faculty appeared to resemble Westhues’ findings: “even tenured professors are ganged up on, humiliated” (p. 30). To me this fact that even tenured professors still experience bullying is scary, and one reason for more research and consequent action upon the outcomes. The impression that those who already have tenure are relatively safe, and those yet to embark upon it are facing more trouble is not surprising, once one understands that bullying in the academy exists. Obviously this is the overture to the next section of the literature review, dealing with bullying in the academy.
29 2.3 Themes That Emerge Around Bullying
I have isolated the following themes from the articles and books cited:
• Bully, bullying, workplace mobbing, harassment, and victim.
• Power imbalance, either perceived or formal, eventually leading to a bullying culture.
• Bullying has only negative effects: loss, cost, pain and suffering.
• Resistance to bullying works.
• Bullying is usually viewed and defined in terms of symptoms and consequent solutions.
• Solving the problem requires an integrated or transactional approach, or both, and
takes time.
30 2.4 Bullying in Higher Education
The situation in higher education has been addressed often in the literature, as articulated in the previous pages. Additional works on the topic include (Cassel, 2011;
Cherwin, 2013; Cipriano, 2011; De Luca & Twale, 2010; Faria, Mixon, & Salter, 2012;
Flaherty 2014; Harber, Donini, & Parker, 2013; Hecker, 2007; Hegranes, 2012; Lester,
2013; Kendzior, 2013; Kolanko et al, 2005; Lewis, 2003; Lewis 2004; Morrisette, 2000;
Murray, 2012; Overall, 1998; Rautio, Sunnari, Nuutinen, & Laitala, 2005; Scott, 2013;
Taylor, 2012; Tokumitsu, 2014; Towler, 2011; Twale & De Luca, 2008; Weeks, 2011;
Westhues, 1998; Westhues, 2006; Westhues, 2013; Wilkin, 2010; Williams, 2001). Twale and De Luca work at a faculty of education; however, they address bullying in the academy at large.
In Bullying in Academe: Prevalent, Significant, and Incessant, Cassel (2011) provides not only proof that professors bully each other, but also proposes a framework to produce a caring, respectful, and safe environment for professors to engage in their teaching, scholarship, and service. In a web page, Workplace Bullying at Colleges and Universities,
Kelly Cherwin (2013) suggests a number of tactics to stop the bullying in higher education.
In short these are: ignore, confront, prove yourself, document, report, and stay positive.
Cherwin quotes Hollis’ Bully in the Ivory Tower (Hollis, 2012) to offer the numbers of professors that suffer from bullying, although this book is not always well informed, or is at least a biased document, as I demonstrate in this chapter (p. 37).
Facilitating a Collegial Department in Higher Education (Cipriano, 2011) is a management book laden with words like strategies, managing, structural realignment, budgetary support, and so forth. The first page states: “Incivility and lack of collegiality are
31 on the rise in institutions of higher education” (p. 1.) The book offers “1) strategies for department chairs to use to deal with toxic colleagues and 2) the importance of fostering a collegial climate within the department” (p. 2). Chapter 7 offers examples from case law, basically claiming that lack of collegiality can be used to dismiss an employee, and subtly states that US courts have ruled that such a reason would not be considered a breach of contract (p. 158). That is indeed a worrisome statement. The perspective of these writings is that of the chairs and deans. The professoriate does not have a voice here. The author distributed a survey to chairs around the country and found that 76 (73.1%) of those responding find that collegiality should be a separate criterion for tenure decisions. While these may be impressive figures, it is important to ask what these figures tell us. Providing answers to that question is a goal for this dissertation.
Another web-published article, Mediating in the Academic Bully Culture: The Chair's
Responsibility to Faculty and Graduate Students (De Luca & Twale, 2010), deals with the same topic: incivility on campus. De Luca and Twale address chairs as well as administrators. They warn chairs to be attentive towards faculty that provide information about others and themselves; these faculty members might very well be bullies, and their victims tend to retreat into their own world. Administrators, whether or not they dare take the role of mediator, as a first step should provide an environment in which the victim feels comfortable to share what is happening. The authors then suggest that policies about bullying should be drawn up and executed. The same authors wrote Faculty Incivility, The
Rise of the Academic Bully Culture and What to do about it (Twale & De Luca, 2008). They pick up on this theme in the book’s preface:
32 Although we do not know everything about faculty incivility in the academic
workplace, we do recognize that our academic world is changing faster than
the academic culture and organizational governance structure can
accommodate; thus, we can expect some reaction or repercussion, and we
cannot expect it be all positive. (p. xii)
Faria, Mixon and Salter employed an economic model using a Stackelberg differential game to play out the possible options for a dean and a targeted professor
(Faria, Mixon & Salter, 2012). “The economic model indicates that, when subjected to . . . mobbing by the university’s administration, it is optimal for the professor to increase his research in order to increase his job mobility” (p. 725). Tenure serves as a threshold in academe, once you are in, you are good, although this last publication indicates that productivity is an ongoing need for professors. Most institutions require “post tenure reviews” every five years, which directly affects merit pay and possibilities for promotion to full professor. A web-post in Inside Higher Ed by Colleen Flaherty (2014) makes a point of questioning the effects of tenure. Her column reviews a study named “When Tenure
Protects the Incompetent: Results from a Survey of Department Chairs” (Political Science and
Politics, 2014), and she quotes Henry Reichman, chair of the AAUP’s Committee A on
Academic Freedom and Tenure and emeritus professor of history at California State
University at East Bay: “I would suspect, frankly, if you went to a campus where there were no tenured faculty members and said 'Are there incompetent members of your faculty you wouldn’t mind getting rid of?' "hypothetical respondents would say yes, he said.” He refers to the protective effect of tenure on incompetent faculty. The widely used
33 instruments to give faculty job security appear to be not necessarily of influence on the competence of faculty. Nonetheless, there is a strong competition around the tenure track and the process of getting tenure, and that is a strong trigger for faculty to feel bullied.
Rothgeb states in the same article that competence “gets in your blood.” He compared post-tenure professors to professional athletes who typically don’t stop performing once they win that big contract (Flaherty, 2014). This discussion about the effects of tenure may also be seen in Taylor’s (2013) work. In her dissertation,
Leadership Response to Workplace Bullying in Academe: A Collective Case Study, Hegranes
(2012) describes her research on how academic leaders deal with bullying in the faculty.
She determined that a tendency to ignore or deny the occurrence of bullying exists, and that in doing so the problem perpetuates. Despite other interesting findings, for this review, I limit the discussion of Hegranes’ work. Even though she defended this research at a faculty of education, she did not make a connection between the occurrence of bullying and that particular field of study. This lack of attention to education faculties provides an important and relevant entry point and object of study for this doctoral research.
A number of journal articles and dissertations address the problem of bullying in nursing education: (Kolanko et al. 2005; Dunham-Taylor et al. 2008; Rautio et al. 2005;
Faria et al, 2012; Wilkin, 2010 (dissertation); Taylor, 2012; Hegranes, 2012; Lutgen-
Sandvik, 2007, 2005 (dissertation); Saunders, 2007; Jardine, 2013; Einarsen, 2000;
Wheeler et al, 2010). Also there is some work on librarians in academe who suffer bullying and workplace mobbing. It is interesting that those sections of the academy publish about the problems they encounter around bullying at the workplace, yet I could not find proficient work on the phenomenon in education faculties. However, this body of literature
34 gives insight into similar problems at somewhat similar faculties, but in order to maintain focus I will not include a review thereof.
The works of Ken Westhues are directional and foundational for the field, especially as he addresses the situation in the academy. Some of his more provocative titles include
The Envy of Excellence: Administrative Mobbing of High Achieving Professors (2006), and
Eliminating Professor: A Guide to the Dismissal Process (1998). According to my investigation of the literature, he is the first author to seriously research workplace bullying in academia. Westhues (1998) also claims that we have to name it as it is: abuse and terror.
2.5 Emerging Themes Around Bullying In The Academy
After my exploration of the works named above, I have discerned the following themes:
• The effects of tenure: both a motivator and a source of dissatisfaction. Tenure is
conflated with competence, and does not necessarily provide a good model for
protecting academics.
• A tendency to ignore and deny the existence of bullying in the academy.
• The lack of research related to bullying in faculties of education.
• A need for safe spaces for victims. However, one might then ask, how about the bully?
Does he or she always have to be cast out?
• An alleged connection between incivility and bullies.
2.6 Loners And The Law, A Counterpoise
35 I found two “loners” in the literature. Both featured maltreated professors on a quest for justice for his or her case. Quite often the story was painful, shameful and really needed to be brought out in the open. A documentary produced about Norman Cornett
(who guest lectured at Calgary in 2012) describes how he was fired from his job at McGill
University of Montreal “for no reason.” The documentary only shows how reasonable his case is and how unjust the authorities have been to him (Cornett, 2011). Hollis (2012) created a website and wrote and self-published a book: Bully in the Ivory Tower. Her trouble in getting tenure (which she presumably deserved, but did not get), is tear-jerking, and her attempts to do right for her case and for similar cases are strong and courageous.
Nevertheless, these einzelgänger, or loners, also have a story they do not tell. Their stories are not complete, because they are one-sided and lack counter narrative. As someone in the faculty once told me: “nobody gets fired without a reason.” A person’s work must be taken into consideration; however, the “reason” must also be deconstructed.
This brings to mind the situation of a former colleague in Holland in teacher education. She received a settlement of a million dollars after being fired; she had a good lawyer and a relative on the board, but her teaching was not good. Students and colleagues loathed her. I happened to see video footage of one of her classes and was shocked by the anarchy in the class. I felt her dismissal was appropriate, and I believe her solace money was beyond reasonable.
Stone (2013) provides useful legal information. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court named the university a marketplace of ideas, making higher education a cornerstone of that principle. This leads to the type of free and unlimited debate that made the academy a flourishing institution (p. 87). The understanding of this liberty does not make academic
36 life embrace a sense of responsibility for the shortcomings of the rules of the marketplace.
We do not have to go back to Karl Marx to find that the market as the sole ruler of social life has huge limitations. Apparently the marketplace of the free flow of ideas and debate has a shadow side as well. Professors feel restricted in their contributions to this debate, and are not able to take part in the marketplace as equals. In the U.S., bullying is not unlawful, although Stone warns that victims may make successful claims based on other legislature, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and ageism, for instance, which may be related to bullying. Also, in some situations a candidate may be disadvantaged, or have experienced disparate impact as a result of bullying. A third type of claim may be based on protected class status. Usually this is a fair claim when sexual harassment is at play (p. 90). Stone is quite illustrative in describing how a system may create bullies. Since there is no rule that forbids bullying, perhaps the whole market notion causes people to want to behave badly, but remain within the boundaries of the law. For example, many drivers tend to drive slightly faster than the speed limit. This may give these people a thrill, the excitement of ignoring the law and not getting caught. This may be understandable behaviour for an employee who must do what the boss tells him/her to from 9 to 5; then when he gets home, is expected to be a good spouse. Similarly, there seems to be a need to be naughty at work because one can, and because some people just feel the need to be bold. Up to this point I have discussed what bullying is; it is also important to know what bullying is not.
Caponecchia and Wyatt (2011) from Australia include an excerpt from the “South
Australian Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act” (p. 16). After descriptions of what bullying is, the law is clear about what it is not. The slippery phrase “reasonable” is key in each of the five rules described in the document. Apparently, judges determine what
37 behaviour is reasonable and what is not. The upside of the Australian situation is that there actually is a law to prevent bullying in the workplace. The Netherlands also has legislation
(ARBO-wet: Health and Safety at Work Act) in that field as well, as do most countries in the
European Union (Jaretta, García-Campayo, Gascón, & Bolea, 2004). In North America, bullying is allowed (Stone, 2013; Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety,
2014). There are rules governing behaviour in the US and Canada, and those apply to work settings as well, but there appears to be nothing specific to work circumstances and work- related health issues. Unions that traditionally protected the rights of its members are being restricted or downright forbidden as we have witnessed over the past few decades, which does not help the faculty either.
Admittedly, I have some difficulty with the way maltreated victims of bullying sometimes choose to use the same bullying tactics. Scapegoating the dean in the ivory tower, in the case of Hollis, or the administration of McGill in the case of Cornett, or the administrators in Utrecht, is nothing other than bullying, albeit without any effect. In that respect, Towler’s (2011) work about how he, as a new dean, was faced with an incompetent faculty, lethargy, and psychopathology, is sobering in this respect. Chaos and
Academic Mobbing: The True Story of The Renison Affair (Towler, 2011) is a cautionary tale for every administrator or dean entering a new job. In some ways this relates to my own experience moving from job to job as a teacher and professor over the course of my career.
Each time the new school felt much better than the previous one. Everything that was bad in the old job initially seemed so much healthier, but after a while the cracks in the walls started to show, and slowly but certainly the decay would reveal itself. I give praise to those
38 administrators on my path who have succeeded in changing the trends in the schools in which I have worked.
2.7 Educational Leadership
Studying leadership literature enabled me to view the problems and the possibilities educational leadership can bring. As a conclusion to this literature review, I want to take a look at leadership in faculties of education. It will lead from general theory on leadership to transformative leadership in faculties of education. I have seen both great leadership and poor leadership as a faculty member, obliging me to take a position of critique.
I want to be clear that I do not limit the concept of leadership in faculties of education to the dean of a faculty. Although overall responsibility lies in the dean’s hands, it is important to understand that it is not just the dean who may influence the occurrence of bullying in a faculty. There are formal and informal leaders in every faculty, and given that the profession of most faculty members in faculties of education is teaching, we can fairly state that all faculty members are leaders to some extent. There may arise a problem when this is true: the natural leaders may choose to not be in a formal position, but will frustrate the administration of the faculty by acting as opponents and by frustrating any movement or progress. Also, faculty members may choose to execute their leadership aspirations in their classes, by which the students do not necessarily benefit. In most universities, the hierarchical structuring places a dean at the head of the faculty, and is thus held responsible for the outcomes, the results, and the academic and general position of the faculty. He or she is responsible for optimizing the performance of the faculty. Even if the dean is burdened with incompetent faculty (Towler, 2011) (s)he will still be measured by the results and the rankings. Given the neo-liberal way of handling academic institutions
39 (as if they were construction companies, mining corporations or financial institutions), the dean of an academic institution is responsible for creating a work environment that ensures optimal productivity for every researcher, professor or adjunct. However, I posit that each faculty of education member should assume leadership in some way.
2.8 Transformative Leadership as a Means to Create Safe Space
Many of the authors in Wren’s (1995) The Leader's Companion: Insights on
Leadership Through the Ages, look only at leadership itself—its aspects, qualities, expectations of the leader—in a general way. They question who the successful leaders are, and which conditions require what type of a leader. Leadership can only be “good” if the leader has vision (Couto, 1995; Greenleaf, 1995; Kotter, 1995; Nadler & Trushman, 1995).
Understanding the importance of vision, we need to explore what should be included in the vision and what is of consequence.
Gardner (1995) explains the troublesome title of manager in The Nature of
Leadership. Of course labeling is always problematic, but in his view leaders distinguish themselves from managers in six respects:
1. They think in the long term.
2. In thinking about the unit they are heading, they grasp its relationship to
larger realities—the larger organization of which they are a part, conditions
external to the organization, global trends.
3. They reach and influence constituents beyond their jurisdictions, beyond
boundaries.
4. They put heavy emphasis on the intangibles of vision, values, and
motivation, and understand intuitively the non-rational and unconscious
40 elements in leader–constituent interaction.
5. They have the political skill to cope with the conflicting requirements of
multiple constituencies.
6. They think in terms of renewal. (pp. 17-26)
Many universities have found a way out of the dilemma of transforming educational leadership into a business-like managerial leadership conforming to neo-liberal politics—a trend since the Reagan presidency—by acquiring other streams of income. The competition for donor money has taken a prominent place on the agenda, next to the positioning of research and publications of the faculty, which also create competitiveness.
In spite of many government initiatives or endless explanations, we must acknowledge that government funding and donor funding are opposing and will not merge into a one-size- fits-all policy. Nevertheless, it is a reality with which leaders in education have to deal. How does this dilemma affect the type of vision that includes the wellbeing of faculty members?
The leadership of the faculty must serve every need that is within their responsibility. In order to strive for faculty success in an academic sense, leadership needs to encourage professors to engage in more research and more publication. The need to be accountable increases the need for external money, rather than responsibility for one’s doings. Both needs feed competition among the faculty. If the leadership in the university or the faculty is not able to handle this quest for competition, seeds for bullying will be sown. This discrepancy may also be seen at the issue of tenure (Taylor, 2013). At the opposite end, education benefits from cooperating professors. Soloists cannot do the work, although one respondent to my interviews claims otherwise:
41 I think that it’s the personality. Sometimes people are very easy going, but I
think that in academia people are so strongly entrenched and specialized in
their area that it makes them vulnerable to engage in a broader range of
issues and that sometimes is a bit of a problem because you have people who
are very specialized that are in leadership positions. (Interview with Leo,
27/11/2014)
How does a dean set up a productive, positive climate that makes all this work? In order to do that well, a vision is needed, combined with some creative intelligence.
Peter Senge (2007) states that an organization cannot learn more than its members can. He demonstrates that companies that encourage personal mastery in their staff perform better. He quotes a captain of industry:
Business is the only institution that has a chance to fundamentally improve
the injustice that exists in the world. But first, we will have to move through
the barriers that are keeping us from being truly vision-led and capable of
learning. (p. 11)
From the context that Senge provides, we may conclude that this CEO does not mean to increase injustice. He gives clear insight as to what is still to be done. What works for business should work for the university as well in this matter, given the neo-liberalist climate of the past decade.
2.9 Change
I have noticed in previous positions that when my dean was willing to invest in my personal and/or professional development, it enhanced my motivation toward my job. I
42 consider myself fortunate that this was the case with the three last jobs I had before I came to Canada. In every job there appeared to be an understanding of how the team could, and maybe needed to, be trained to become better professionals and to better work together.
This training was not aimed at day-to-day teaching practice or the topics we taught; instead, it focused on gaining the qualities that we needed, given the progress the institute was making or the changes in society that were taking place. This falls in line with Burns’
(1995) understanding of transactional and transformational leadership. The former occurs when an initiative for the exchange of valued things is made. The example above suggests that the organization as a whole must understand and prepare itself for the changes with which it is confronted, and when the members of that organization recognize that need for change and accept the offer for the proposed measure, then and only then has the transaction taken place.
Burns (1995) contrasts transforming and transactional leaders. Transforming leadership occurs when the engagement of leaders and followers raises levels of motivation and morality. In the example in the previous paragraph, the two seem to have embraced each other, because the leadership in those schools wanted team members to understand and experience the need for change. Team members generally accepted this need; thus, both the transaction and the transformation took place. This leadership demonstrates in part the view I have discussed thus far. Burns (1995) also defined transcending leadership in cases where the followers may feel elevated by the changes brought forward, leading to more activity, which in turn leads to followers becoming leaders.
43 Blackmore (2011) also points out that the idea of transformational leadership seems to have been hijacked by neo-liberal forces in ministries and school boards, as the focus seems to have lost its original content and has started to aim more at
individual schools and not education for the public good; teacher efficacy
driven by standards rather than a wider sense of education professionalism
and advocacy; knowledge production to improve effectiveness rather than
coproduction of knowledge for more inclusive schools; evidence-based
practice rather than research-informed inquiry; heroic individualism rather
than collective activism; emotional intelligence as an acquired skill to better
manage others, rather than emotionality as a way of being and thinking
about the self and with regard to others; and viewing diversity at a second-
order level, as elaborated in pedagogical notions of personalization, while
ignoring how first-order difference is constituted through unequal structural,
social, and economic relations of gender, race, and class. (p. 25)
As illustrated in the above quote, the concept of transformational leadership is becoming diluted. The cup of tea from the first use of the teabag is fresh and tasty, the second will still do all right, but after that we might wonder if tea was ever involved in the making.
Authors in Carolyn Shields’s (2011) Transformative Leadership, A Reader explore transformative leadership. In the introduction, Shields continues Burns’ ideas, stating that power is an organizational quality and not an entity; thus, it may either discipline or lead to bullying. More importantly, the articles describe transformative leadership as a means to improve social justice in organizations. It appears that many educators, even during their
44 graduate programs, did not have a chance to discuss social justice issues in high school or in undergraduate programs. Shields (2011) is dismayed by that revelation and points back to the students’ own responsibility: if they choose to be ideological leaders they need to inform themselves so as to address social justice in their schools or classrooms (p. 8). In
Shields (2011), Blackmore (2011) writes that transformative leadership understands the relationship between the work conditions of teachers and of students. In my own experience, I have often seen that the ways administrators behave reflect on the way teachers behave, and that reflects on how students behave. I have never believed that student behaviour is a phenomenon unto itself. It is always explained by what is going on in the school, and quite often the pedagogical climate in the classroom explains much of the behaviour. Similarly, the climate among teachers and between teachers and administrators may determine the way students feel on the school grounds and in classrooms; hence, a bullying culture may be nurtured, and not always consciously. One may understand bullying as a means to wielding power.
Paul Carr (2011) delves deeper into power issue and uses a critical pedagogical framework, as provided by Freire, Kincheloe, and Steinberg
to position an argument in favour of a more engaged, politically meaningful,
and counter-hegemonic transformative leadership, one that deemphasizes
neo-liberalism, the reproduction of social relations, and the solidification of a
rigid educational system that too willingly weeds out those with lower
cultural capital, incongruent lived experiences, and divergent identities. (p.
37).
45 He continues to say that “cycles of disenfranchisement do not mesh well with the oft-repeated mantra of American ‘greatness’ and the development of a highly-developed, advanced nation, one often invoked as being blessed by God”(p. 39). He also writes that rather than “reducing inequities society is actually becoming less united” (p.40).
Tryjankowski (2011) writes “in an ideal world, recognition of the need for social change in social conditions in order to move toward a more equitable society would be the norm” (p.
175). Since an equitable society is not yet realized, transformative leadership offers a path to that goal. Steinberg, co-founder of the International Institute for Critical Pedagogy and
Transformative Leadership, brings youth into the equation, critiquing the way leaders look at youth. She encourages youth to become leaders. Steinberg (2011) argues that we need to look at how youth define themselves and their cultures. She also notes that she has seen that parents and teachers tend to talk about youth leadership, but do so “giving the word and taking the power away from youth at the same time” (p. 270). I would like to add that youth have become more informed through all types of media, and thus, often recognize and identify the games grownups play. Freire told us that empowerment couldn’t be taught
(Steinberg, 2011, p. 273). We can, however, create opportunity, facilitate and create safe spaces, in which youth can open up and start to flourish. In my view, this is exactly what leadership should be doing.
Møller (2011) provides the following definitions for transformational leadership:
Transformational leadership focuses on improving organizational qualities,
dimensions, and effectiveness; and transformative educational leadership
begins by challenging inappropriate uses of power and privilege that create
or perpetuate inequity and injustice. (p. 280)
46 A study by Boske (2011) finds that respondents (who were educational leaders) identify themselves as bridge builders, catalysts, and movers and shakers. This identity leads to an understanding that their ways of leading are changing. The consequence of being catalysts implies that they have to respond accordingly, something that may be learned. Educational leaders should commit themselves to knowing more about the social issues in their schools. They see the need to reflect on lived experiences. Consequently, transformative learning occurs and is recognized.
2.10 Why not?
The views of Nadler and Tushman (1995) must be included when addressing vision in a leadership context. They wrote about leadership and the charisma factor, and conclude that a charismatic leader is envisioning, energizing, and enabling. Envisioning means articulating a compelling vision, setting high expectations, and modeling consistent behaviour. In my view, the leader with vision has an obligation to guarantee a safe space for the followers as team members. Safe space may not be a topic for leadership pundits.
Yet some leaders understand that staff may perform better when they feel secure. Here a transfer of teaching and leading is needed: the teacher who creates a safe space for his or her students will witness the students performing better, perhaps at their best, given their possibilities and restrictions. The classroom atmosphere that is safe for every student is the responsibility of the teacher, but will be achieved through common effort by both students and teacher. My point is that in such a classroom, there is no need for bullying in order to maintain a certain level of authority or control. Similarly, the leader of a business, a government, or in this case, a faculty of education, has an obligation to create such an atmosphere, so that faculty may perform at their utmost and do not feel the need to
47 compete, but rather support, their academic peers. So why do we still see problems in faculties of education regarding working conditions that lead to bullying?
48 Chapter 3: Positionality, Theory and Methodology
3.1 Is Bullying Bad? A Personal Position
There is no question in my mind that bullying is bad. I have always believed that there is injustice in bullying. In many instances in my life I have been confronted with bullying children and adults, friends and colleagues, strangers and family members. I could never understand nor justify what went on. I was not built for the game. When I entered a new elementary school as an 8-year old, I had to adjust to the new “frolicking,” and I ended up on my back in the playground with a bigger kid sitting on me. It was supposed to be a fight, but I did not understand and refused to play that game. On other occasions, I may have been a nasty bystander and sometimes maybe even ignited some meanness affecting others. Later in life, I may have said things that contributed to putting someone in a bad place. However, I have always been very keen on preventing my students from being nasty.
I have had strong feelings of justice and could not always formulate words about these feelings; I was astonished that some others did not recognize the harm being done. My own children understood quite well what was right and what was not, and sometimes words were needed to explain, but not often. In that sense, I could have written the aforementioned book, Sticks and Stones, myself (Bazelon, 2013).
When bullying happens, its effects are not always seen right away, partly because in our culture, we do not show that we are hurt or show weakness. In addition, the victim does not always feel the pain right away, due to a disbelief in other people doing bad things.
Bazelon (2013) discusses bullying among children, and suggests that we expect more of schools nowadays. Safety does not only mean schools without weapons, but schools with a
49 safe and welcoming climate for every student. In my experience as a pedagogy professor in
The Netherlands, we referred to this as a safe pedagogical climate, meaning that every child in the classroom and in the school can feel safe and as such feel free to express personal thoughts and feelings. Many bullies have been victims of bullies themselves and work hard to put themselves in a position to show the world what they are worth. Because they have no better example, they adopt the way of the bully, and thus, a chain of bullies is created and sustained. In that respect, the “drama triangle” that Tom Van Zuuren introduced me to
(personal communication, 2013) is of a similar nature: one side is the perpetrator, the second side is the victim or the prosecutor, and the third side the saviour. (This has a counterpart in the fire triangle: fuel, heat and oxygen. When one of the three is taken away the fire is put out.) The three keep each other in place, and the spell is broken when one of the players stops playing this game. The triangle falls apart; the drama is over. This is quite often hard to understand from the saviour’s point of view. I have applied this idea to many dramatic situations in my surroundings and was astonished by the simple truth of it. This idea ties in neatly to Jamie Lester’s (2009) “Not Your Child's Playground: Workplace
Bullying Among Community College Faculty.” She describes some factors that enable bullying to occur, beginning with a perceived power imbalance. I think that the adjective
“perceived” is very important. For someone else there may be no discernible reason, but when the bully perceives an imbalance, the bully starts to work. The findings chapter will discuss whether the victim also plays a part. Lester continues to name those who traditionally have less power: women and minorities, racial and ethnic groups, and people of a non-dominant faith. Lester also states “restructuring, changing of leadership, downsizing, and other crises make employees feel powerless and uneasy, leading to
50 increased destructive, deviant, and hostile behaviour” (Lester, 2009, p. 447; see also
Ashforth, 1989; Hoel & Cooper, 2000; Rayner, 1997). This “messing around” with the given structures in schools and academies is a means of power, and another way in which power encourages bullies to continue their nasty business. Note that this constant reshuffling in many schools and faculties has become the ultimate management tool of the past few decades. Not only is it intended as a means to be more efficient, but it also provides a concealed personnel assessment tool. While some of us may remember a time when only a few changes were made each year, we are now surprised when the number of changes seems to be limited. Chomsky (2013) explains in The Corporate Assault on Public Education that efficiency is not just an economic concept. The relocation or transferring of costs from the institution to the student and the faculty members is based on a corporate ideology that does not care about student and faculty members. Consequently, in the end it is short sighted and hurtful to society as a whole. Taking responsibility for education by elected representatives of the people implies that students and faculty members should not be paying the costs at the scale as now occurring.
Organizational work has come to take up more time than the actual job of teaching and researching. Vaughan’s (2012) chapter “Ya’makasi or the Art of Displacement in the
Corporate World” in Tehrani’s Workplace Bullying (Tehrani, 2012), also relates how reorganizations can lead to shifts in both formal and informal power and consequently to bullying. This kind of power play may also be seen in John Williams’ novel Stoner (Williams,
2012). The somewhat dreary main character, a tenured university professor of English
Literature, gets into an argument with his department chair over the competencies of a student. Stoner perseveres, and the next term he cannot teach any graduate courses, is
51 confined to grammar and spelling classes for undergrads. The chair denigrated him for being persistent and true to his academic conviction, since he dared to contradict the person in power. After a few years, Stoner gets back at him in a gentle but successful manner, showing an example of a power play as well, but from a different platform. The power has shifted to the smarter individual, and he plays it out well, in order to make his point and to get back at the chair (Williams, 2012). This is one way in which bullying may be experienced. One may argue the notion of whether or not horizontal bullying exists: the bully sees, perceives, or creates a power imbalance in order to score, which makes it top down in that specified and chosen niche.
3.2 Ethical and Moral Issues
The research on bullying has strong ethical implications. For one, the climate in which the bully may thrive and the way to deal with it has dimensions of “virtues, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics,” as Gallant (2013) points out: What is expected?
(virtues) What is normal over here? (utilitarianism) What does the boss say?
(deontological ethics). These are questions that matter. For faculty, there is an ongoing mental process to address all of these issues.
As a researcher, I have to answer to everyone involved in this research. Since it may be applicable to every faculty member in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia, it must be clear that no one person can be identified in the text or the context of the dissertation.
An ethical consideration is that my personal stance, having taught in faculties of education and in three high schools before that, has informed my understanding and experiences, whether they include personal experiences with being bullied or as an observer or bystander, must be part of my research here. This profound positionality
52 implies that I, as researcher, must be cautious not to harm any individual. That is why I will gear towards the general and a meta-perspective as I discuss my thoughts and ideas on the topic. Consequentially, I have chosen not to look at one or more specific faculties, but faculties of education in general. I was lucky to be informed by many people across the world, and to be able to travel and visit a number of universities to get an impression of the atmospheres in each school. Although every place has its unique characteristics, I was astonished at the prevailing similarities. My positionality as a researcher has a moral consequence, though—from my critical theoretical background I feel obliged to name the problems I encounter, in order to give myself (and others) an opportunity to question and eventually judge them. By omitting the individual cases, I may seem to walk away from that position; however, by researching the connections between cases, I identify, name, question and judge the mechanisms behind the obvious.
Furthermore, my personal position, undertaking this research towards the end of my teaching career, gives me both the chance and the obligation to do so. Based upon the cultures in faculties of education that I have witnessed, I imagine that many faculty members or deans will not appreciate my research; hence, this research may not increase my chances for a tenured job; that is the harsh reality. I have had to fight for my job for many years and am in the blessed position that I am not the provider for the household right now. That position gives me a moral responsibility to embark on this research, because no young professor would dare to do so, given the sometimes toxic situations. A playful last thought on my motivation: the Dutch love to be the moral watchdogs of the world. Of course, I hope that my research is welcomed and widely appreciated, in order to really add to a better world, starting at many faculties of education.
53 3.3 Theoretical Framework: Epistemological And Ontological Aspirations
Critical ontology is the basis for conducting this research. I am informed by the works of critical theorists like Gramsci (1971), Fromm (1969), Arendt (1956), and Adorno
(1950), in order to obtain a better and deeper understanding of the bully and the structures of power that keep the bully alive.
The starting-point of a critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one
really is, and is ‘knowing thyself’ as a product of the historical process to date
which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory
(Gramsci, 1971, p. 324).
Considering myself to be a critical pedagogue brought me to the topic of this research. Hence, Freire (1972), Giroux (2011, 2012), Kincheloe (2004, 2011), Steinberg
(1997, 2010, 2011, 2012), and others have helped me to refine my ontological understandings of the phenomenon of the bully in faculties of education. Thinkers like
Britzman (2003, 2006), Gadamer (2007), Hillman (2006), Illich (1971), Jardine (2003,
2008, 2012, 2013), Krishnamurti (1996), Sarason (1971), Schön (1995), Tolle (2005) and others also serve as epistemological mentors.
I am a visual artist, and have found that working on a piece of art has powerful characteristics that sometimes apply to writing and researching as well. The urge to create develops a spark into the idea, followed by the concept and consequent phases of development of the work, creating a constant process of shaping, reshaping, breaking down and rebuilding. All the while during this process, deep connection with the soul silently informs and steers the rigorous dialogue with mind and the hand. I am pleased with the comfort of satisfaction reached after every step to completion; this process resembles my
54 adventure in academic work—the fragility and vulnerability of the idea, all the way through until the process turns into a sturdy and powerful body of work, ready to face the world confidently.
“Interpretive researchers are sensitive to and aware of themselves as mediating the research. Despite believing this on an epistemological level, researchers may or may not have evidence of how or when this mediation occurs” (Lutgen-Sandvik, 2006, p. 428).
Hegranes (2012) writes, “A defining characteristic of interpretive research is that the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection, working from the particular to the general” (p. 14). At the same time, I am well aware of the risk “based on the assumption that academic ‘high theory’ is a sort of masturbatory activity aimed at a privileged few that can have no ‘real’ effect in the material world” (Lather, 1996, p. 540). Contrary to that risk, I hope that the outcomes of the research will benefit many, and that it will make a change for the better in the academic culture; however, I understand that the work is controversial and may face some obstructions or neglect.
Freire introduced the world to the importance of conscientization, “the process of developing a critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action. Action is fundamental because it is the process of changing the reality” (Freire, 1972, 2015), and in this dissertation I apply conscientization to the notion of bullying in the academy. There may be a fear among professors to address the painful subject, for fear of what will happen if they do. Oppression is a familiar notion in the increasingly hierarchical structures in universities. Whether executed by persons or by rules and policies, or by the imposing power of the academic elite itself, one must be strong to withstand it and to survive it. Even if Freire’s concept emerged from his work with impoverished peasants, for whom the
55 understanding of their position was a revelation, I suspect that when a bullied professor understands the ontology of his or her own oppression, the inconvenient truth reveals itself, causing us to admit that we are in a similar, although not the same, position (Freire,
1972; Jansen, 2008). By making professors and others in faculties of education aware of the position they are in—that bullying is a common and unwanted practice in too many a place—we might say that conscientization has taken place.
Finally, it should be understood that although it is not addressed as such specifically in this dissertation, I trust in Eastern and Indigenous epistemologies as much as I do current Western thinking.
3.4 Interviews And Method
For this research, I interviewed eight professors from faculties of education in
Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. I interviewed one of them two times.
None of the interviews dealt with the University of Calgary. The University of Calgary
Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board, given the consent provided by the interviewees, ethically approved the study and these interviews. All professors reported having had experiences with bullying, either personally or among their colleagues, although they sometimes beforehand mentioned that the discussions did not allude to them. The professors held ranks from associate professor to endowed chair (for convenience I have used the Canadian rank equivalent where needed). There were five women and three men; two identified as gay, one is transgendered; two are Black or African American, one is
Latino, two are Jewish, and four are White. More than half of the interviewees had to work hard and study to make their way up the career ladder from poor non-academic backgrounds. I chose people to whom I had access through earlier contacts at different
56 universities, at conferences, and through my associations. I chose them to obtain a variety of understandings and approaches. Also, I wanted a blend of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicities, and different experiences with bullying in different countries, but all interviewees are from faculties of education.
After making the initial contact about the topic of my research, they agreed to be interviewed by me on the topic. I applied for, and attained approval from the Conjoint
Faculties Research Ethics Board of the University of Calgary, I sent the interviewees a personalized copy of the approved Letter of Consent and a list of possible interview questions (Appendix B). I took an ethnographic interview approach, asking the respondent to share his or her story on the subject matter. We set up meetings, mostly though Skype or by telephone, some in person. I asked for permission to record the interviews. The transcripts were created by Inteleants services, an online business that promises confidentiality. After making necessary corrections, I sent the transcripts to the respondents for approval. After receiving their comments and approval, I read and reread the transcripts and marked significant sections of the text, keeping in mind that the sections would clarify or illustrate answers to my research questions. This was the start of a phenomenological research methodology (Van Manen, 1990). I then collected the sections that were marked as quotes into a database. Each quote was coded with a unique number and the pseudonym of the respondent. I placed the numbers in the transcripts as well, following the section in the text that was marked earlier. From the database, I summarized each quote with a brief description. I tried to use descriptions that could be repeated for other interview sections, but that did not always work well.
57 After I completed an outline for the dissertation, I used the subsections of the findings chapter (Chapter 4) to organize the quotes into groups. In writing the outline, I formulated themes that were both in the literature and in the interviews. Using the options of the database that I had created, I was able to make selections of the quotes that helped me in writing the findings in an organized and readable, legible fashion. For one section of the quotes, I received help from a group of students, who reflected on the way I had organized the quotes and who provided suggestions for new themes. This is part of the process of phenomenology, breaking my own thought circles open to others in order to achieve a better read of the data. This may appear easy, but applying a hermeneutic way of making meaning from the data and its implications has meant a long process of thinking and rethinking the deeper layers in the quotes and their connections to other quotes. I started to write down the line of thought, as presented by the data, and always kept in mind the focus of the research questions and any new questions that arose during the process. I made interpretations of what I had collected and combined, and made choices about which passages to include and which could be replaced or left out. Where possible, I made connections to the literature already reviewed and the new titles that had surfaced during the time of the research.
In the database, I kept track of the quotes that had been used as a means to see if every important issue had been covered, and to prevent using quotes twice. The respondents shared their life stories in the interviews. As a researcher, I am aware of the bias that personal life stories have by their nature. Memories are coloured, rewritten, and full of foci chosen by the respondent; nevertheless, the respondents are those who experienced it and relate their story in the way that the occurrence has affected them. Their
58 choice of words, the fragments they choose to share, and the way they speak, all add to the way the story may be read and understood. I make no claim that it is a factual
“independent” or “objective” way of gathering data. It is a recognition that stories are carriers of truths, and validate the individual person who shares the story.
3.5 Methodology
In this research, several methodologies are brought together in a sensible and natural manner. Conducting interviews is an example of ethnography: through the interviews, the respondents share their accounts of occurrences including facts, emotions, and reflections (Kincheloe, 2004). This is the holistic start of the study, and by interviewing a number of people in the same positions, at different places and with individually unique experiences, I laid bare the commonalities and central themes that the respondents shared.
In this process, I chose a phenomenological approach (Van Manen, 1990). I allowed the life stories shared to speak for themselves, in order to get a fair understanding of the phenomena with an open mind, not biased by theory, opinion and prejudice. The next step involved working towards an understanding [verstehen] (Gadamer, 2007) of the phenomenon and of being in the world. This required understanding the life stories of the respondents (Goodson, 2008), as well as the time and the circumstances shared, the presence of the interviewer, and the emotions that surround the retelling of the story. It also involved understanding the impact that the event had on the individual, when the bullying occurred, when it was relived through sharing in the interview, and during the time between the two. Did the respondent have a chance to process the events? Was the respondent still in the same situation? Did the respondent receive support to overcome the negative impacts? During the interviews I paid careful attention to the respondents’
59 emotions. I made sure that when the respondents felt strong emotions while sharing their life stories, that we took time to acknowledge the feelings and address the effects of the bullying before we went on.
In reading the transcripts of the interviews, I marked fragments that jumped out at me. Without having a conceptual predisposition, striking phrases were marked. The phrases were chosen so that when isolated, they would still make sense and could be understood after separation from the interview itself. Those phrases were then collected and coded. I used my intuition and my intellect to create a coding system. Each phrase or quotation received a unique number and a mark with the pseudonym of the respondent.
The list contains a little fewer than 600 quotations. I reviewed this list, re-reading and coding each quotation with one or more words or a short sentence, as a summary of the quote. Whenever possible, the codes chosen were also found in the other transcripts. From this point, the quotations were organized into themes. This organization is a complex and fuzzy process: after reading and selecting from the transcripts, ideas began to develop about what the possible themes could be. Also, during the literature review, some understanding was formed about the important themes surrounding the phenomenon of bullying in faculties of education. As a result, my bias must be recognized in the selection of themes.
In a natural way, I entered the hermeneutic phase of my research (Gadamer, 2007).
“What does it mean?” became the leading question for matching quotations to the themes into which they had been grouped; was the setup the one needed? By writing, rewriting, thinking and rethinking, I entered into a process of going deeper and deeper into understanding the findings in a meaning-making manner. I revisited one of the
60 respondents for a second interview, and we looked at her experiences once more, but now from a number of different angles. In that way a hermeneutic cycle emerged. These understandings needed words, sentences, and paragraphs. While writing and rewriting, the essence and the truths that were given by the respondents became clearer and more outspoken. By sending the first drafts of this dissertation to the respondents with a request to give me their feedback on how they recognize their own stories in my analysis, I was able to go full circle and exclude any bias through [hineininterpretieren] or as we would say
“interpreting to meet goals” Most respondents gave me their blessings, and two respondents gave me corrections to the sections that they provided, mainly to secure their anonymity.
The final result of the wording—the becoming of theory evolved from praxis— forms the text of chapters 5 and 6.
The transcripts of the interviews are in my safe possession and cannot be included as appendices out of respect for the privacy of the respondents. The coded list of quotes may be found in Appendix A. To provide insight into how I have used the words of the respondents, I have included numbers in brackets that refer to the chosen quotes from the interviews. APA does recommend not using citations from interviews in order to protect the identity of the respondents. But since the quotes maintain interviewees’ anonymity, and to obtain better understanding and the ability to trace back the origin of the quotes, I have included the quote numbers. I chose rigor over rules in this respect.
61 Chapter 4: Findings: Respondents Speak For Themselves
For this research I interviewed eight professors working in faculties of education. To protect their true identities, their names and other details cannot be given in this dissertation. In order for the reader to have a general understanding of who the respondents are, their anonymous profiles are given in the following set of vignettes. I chose names of flowers for the female respondents’ pseudonyms, and tried to match the flower with how I’ve come to know the respondent. For the men, I chose boys’ names such that the name carries some of the personality of the interviewee (in my understanding).
I give global indications of the region the respondents worked and lived in during the time of the story they shared. An age range is also provided, as I felt that age could be of influence. Because not every faculty of education is the same, I have given indications of the type to show the difference between a fully academic faculty that includes a strong research interest, and a faculty that focuses on teacher education. One professor works at a community college that provides a program for educators. I give gender, ethnicity and sexual preference; I did not differentiate in ethnicities other than white or non-White in order to protect privacy. Here I can state that one respondent identifies as Latino, and two as Black. Because it plays a role in the respondents’ stories, it needs to be mentioned that two of them identify as Jewish, but again for reasons of protecting identity, this has not been identified in the vignettes. Furthermore, a few interpretations about the work or the person are provided and the duration of the interviews is given.
62 4.1 Vignettes
Camellia
Rank Professor Type of faculty Full Faculty of Education Region North America Age range 60s Gender ♀ Ethnicity Non-White Sexual preference Straight Characteristics High ranked researcher Sensitive to issues of social justice Speaks her mind Many important publications Spiritual Creative Duration of interview 55 minutes
Rose
Rank Professor Type of faculty Community College Region North America Age range 50s Gender ♀ Ethnicity Non-White Sexual preference Straight Characteristics Modest but outspoken Duration of interview 1hour 16 minutes
63 Erica
Rank Senior Lecturer Type of faculty Teacher Education Region EU Age range 50s Gender ♀ Ethnicity White Sexual preference Straight Characteristics Creative Spiritual Dedicated to the arts Duration of interview 47 minutes
Peony
Rank Professor Type of faculty Full Faculty of Education Region North America Age range 50s Gender ♀ Ethnicity Non-White Sexual preference Straight Characteristics Sensitive to issues of social justice Does a lot of community work Modest but outspoken Duration of interview 1st: 55 minutes; 2nd: 37 minutes
64 Gavin
Rank Professor Type of faculty Teacher Education Region North America Age range 40s Gender ♀ > ♂ Ethnicity White Sexual preference Gay Characteristics Sensitive to issues of social justice Modest but outspoken Duration of interview 36 minutes
Heather
Rank Professor Type of faculty Full Faculty of Education Region North America Age range 60s Gender ♀ Ethnicity White Sexual preference Straight Characteristics Sensitive to issues of social justice Many publications High ranked researcher Powerful Speaks her mind Duration of interview 54 minutes
65 Leo
Rank Professor Type of faculty Full Faculty of Education Region North America Age range 40s Gender ♂ Ethnicity White Sexual preference Straight Characteristics Sensitive to issues of social justice Many publications Duration of interview 37 minutes
Griffin
Rank Lecturer Type of faculty Teacher education Region AUS Age range 40s Gender ♂ Ethnicity White Sexual preference Gay Characteristics Sensitive to issues of social justice Modest but outspoken Duration of interview 50 minutes
66 4.2 First Level Of Analysis
This findings Chapter illustrates the first level of analyzing the interviews, in which I marked sections in the transcript that spoke to me. I chose sections that I believed were of most relevance to my research and to the research questions. I made a serious effort to also mark sections that I had not foreseen which could change my research focus. I also note that some of the interviews went into directions that I did not find to be of interest for the research focus.
4.3 Interview With Camellia
The first respondent I interviewed was Camellia. I met her in person and told her about my research and asked her if I could interview her. She gave her consent and we set up a meeting and conducted the interview. I set up a laptop for recording and gave her the questions I planned to ask. I afforded her all the time she needed. It was clear to me that she had thought about what she wanted to say, and at times I’d steer towards things that intrigued me in her story. When I was triggered by something she brought up, I responded or asked ahead in her train of speech.
The questions I used were the following:
• Have you had experience with bullying while working at a faculty of
education?
• Tell me your experience of bullying in a faculty of education, providing as
much context as possible.
• What roles have you been involved in with regard to bullying? (i.e., the bully,
the victim, the observer)
• What effect did it have on you at that time?
67 • How did you understand it at that time?
• At what time did you recognize that you were mobbed or bullied?
• Were you a victim? Are you still a victim?
• How do you read your story now?
• Did the bullying affect you in the long run?
• Have you learned anything about yourself from the story?
• What emotions has bullying created within you?
• Has the bullying experience changed you? What impact, if any, has it had on
your professional life?
(The questions are also included in the Appendices)
After reading the transcript of the interview, I marked sections of what Camellia said. I extracted those sections and searched for themes. The following list is a result of that process.
The numbers in front of the text sections are identifiers and are used throughout the dissertation for reference and as a means to follow the research. In the far right column are the themes allocated to the text sections. The quotes are organized with their related emergent themes below.
4.3.1 Camellia’s Story # Text section or quote Theme
126 We’re not given a great many roles. Either you get Victimized -> with the program, what the administration wants, powerlessness -> surviving what your colleagues decide is appropriate, the way you speak, the way you research, engage, all these things, right? And when you don't do that, you walk this line. To try to be yourself, if yourself doesn't fit into their criteria of what you ought to be, then you're
68 walking a fine line. Why maybe it’s hard for me to say, yes, I think it was a moment of being victimized but maybe why I never thought of myself as a victim, I felt powerless in the moment, is because I always had this sense that I had to find a way to survive but I don’t know what it'd be like for others 127 He said, “this isn't racism.” I said, “oh yea, well, you Racism would know. I'm the one that's going through this. I'm Perception of the one that is experiencing the impact of your discrimination discrimination and you're telling me this is not Denial of power of racism.” I said, “this is my area of study but my area of knowledge study isn’t just an abstraction.“ I said, “this is what I've been struggling against, these kinds of things within communities and schools and now I'm in the middle of it and you're essentially trying to make me feel that somehow I don't know what I'm going through.” It was so paternalistic 128 I've seen women who have gone through being Racism pushed, and they just okay and the next thing you Women have narrower know, they get with the program in a sense and some choices of them go into administration, do different things. I think our choices in the university as women— especially women of colour—is much more narrow than people realize. 129 EB: So she didn’t even hear your side of the story? Denial Respondent: No, so I went to the president. 130 But leave your uzi, uzi being a gun Intimidation 131 The whole faculty, one by one by one, confronting me Mechanisms; about the email, each one. intimidation 132 They mobbed me. It was real clear. They had all Mechanisms; mobbing prepared. 133 And then this woman looks at me and she goes, “well Mechanisms; feeling say something,” I could not. I was ambushed. I ambushed would’ve never, ever even thought something like that would happen. After sitting there for almost an hour of hearing these people go on and on about what I did. 134 Now, I come to her and tell her this is happening, and Naming it; stonewalling she's stonewalling. 135 How can it be that you don't see what's going on right Denial of bullying in front of your face? What do you think is happening to me? 136 “If you can't stand up for me, then what does your Denial; leadership fails
69 work mean?” 137 Attempted to get her to look into the legal Mechanisms; leader as possibilities of having my tenure revoked. orchestrator 138 Then another person said, well I heard you said this Mechanisms; group at this conference. Because at the conference I said orchestrates bullying right now some of the students are protesting. 139 She went into action and made this hysterical case Mechanisms; leader as that I was trying to destroy the department and bring orchestrator the department down. 140 What I did at that meeting, I was so upset, I just stood Social isolation, up and said, “well if this is the way you all really feel, wavelength; paralyzing maybe this isn't the place for me.” And I just walked impact on victim out 141 In ______there were different issues, not that kind of Ethnicity, gender, class as intense mobbing situation but there were professors, factors in this case male professors, seniors professors, I came in as a distinguished senior professor and the treatment, I think that- but that’s another story. That has to do with what happens to women at the academy and how it’s implicated in this case because even if I had been a male Latino, that kind of hazing could’ve happened to me. 142 She said, “I know all your colleagues up there and Denial; obedience to they're all very respectable and they’ve told me about administrator; justification what happened.” And I'm saying, “well, what have that the group is right they told you?” She stonewalled me. 143 Obviously, I went to talk to my dean; he just blocked Power; intimidation by me. leader 144 So it was essentially a hazing, the closest thing in Mechanisms; orchestrated academia. It was a mobbing. I call it hazing, other obedience people call it mobbing. 145 But it was irrational, that's the bottom line. The irrational made rational; obedience to administration; justification in spite of facts; consensus to deny facts 146 When this thing kicks in, a case is made, but it’s The irrational made irrational but because everyone going into the rational; obedience to consensus to make the irrational rational, and administration; academics are smart people, so they never want to justification in spite of feel they're irrational. facts; consensus to deny facts
70 147 So they're going to support each other and they were The irrational made going to back each other up. rational; obedience to administration; justification in spite of facts; consensus to deny facts 148 At the time, in that moment, I felt very victimized. Victimized -> powerlessness -> surviving; paralyzing impact on victim 149 This felt very abusive; it rekindles old feelings of Victimized -> abuse you thought you worked through. It re-triggers powerlessness -> surviving; as an adult. paralyzing impact on victim 150 I use victim but it’s a sense of powerlessness. Victimized -> powerlessness -> surviving; paralyzing impact on victim 151 I never thought of myself as a victim, victim. Victimized -> powerlessness -> surviving; paralyzing impact on victim 152 It is a form of victimization, if I think of it but, I felt Victimized -> powerless. I felt this was happening to me, I felt it was powerlessness -> surviving; unfair, unjust, and I felt powerless to do anything to paralyzing impact on victim change it, which are the ways that victims feel. 153 That was the feeling, a sense that I was persona non Naming it grata. 154 This is part of that very same dynamic that Denial; hypocrisy; supposedly you write about and then you go and orchestrated approach to allocate millions of dollars for foundations so that you ethics can go out and do training on diversity. 155 An incredible, tense, kind of mean spirited Social isolation, conversation ensued and I was – I wouldn’t wavelength; obedience to understand what was going on but all of a sudden administration; there was a way in which they were critiquing the orchestrated isolation proposal and saying that I was going to take students away from other programs. 156 So not only did I write this email, then that came up Mechanisms; orchestrated and I couldn’t say anything because I got so isolation incredibly- I'm done, really. 157 I remember sitting and there was a window and there mechanisms; paralyzing was a tree and a bird on the tree. I almost had to go impact on victim; out of my body, or go somewhere else so I could embodiment withstand how painful that experience was. 158 It felt very racial because I don’t think he would've Racism as factor
71 said that if I was a white male colleague. 159 I said to him,” answer me one thing, do you believe Racism as factor that racism exists in the academy?” He said, “yes.” I said, “well, what do you think this looks like?” 160 EB: So to you it’s clear that your race was involved. Ethnicity, gender, class as Respondent: My ethnicity, my gender and I believe factor my class. 161 What I would say is they would probably experience a Ethnicity, gender, class as similar dynamic, however perhaps not as deep and factor; Embodiment, not as painful; but I think anybody put in a situation emotions who is suddenly isolated by all their colleagues not— first hazed and mobbed and then not spoken to—I think almost anybody is going to feel something, but I think when something like that happens particularly to somebody who has had to struggle every step of the way and had to face micro-aggressions in institutions that have to do with racism and sexism, and class and the ways those elements enforce us and act themselves onto the environment, relationships, then I would say that it’s not so much that we wouldn't all experience it. 162 She said to me, “as far as I'm concerned, this is an Denial; obedience as a individual thing. This is not the issue. I'm not going to survival strategy go down on this issue.” In other words, I'm not going to stand up for you. 163 I believe and again, it’s not that this is what I think is Discrepancy between true, we have beliefs that help us in life, but I believe theory and praxis; that I or anyone could be that way. We all have the hypocrisy; orchestrated potential to be that way, but part of our work is to be approach to ethics self-vigilant in terms of what are the mechanisms in ourselves? What are the values, what are the ways that we behave and how do we deal that? By being vigilant we can stay true to a more humanizing path so that doesn’t happen. I'm not saying that we will all be that way. I'm saying that we all have the capacity to be cruel, and we all have the capacity to be mean spirited. We all have the capacity to be arrogant. It’s the reason why we have a responsibility to be vigilant and be perfective about our practices. 164 It just continued Took 5 years to overcome it; paralyzing impact 165 Thank goodness it was the end of the year Took 5 years to overcome it
72 166 It’s that our history of abuse, our history of Took 5 years to overcome oppression, will make that experience a bit different it; paralyzing impact; for us. I do believe that. So maybe somebody under Racism and/or collective different circumstances within six months or maybe a memory as part of the year, they’d be over it theme 167 It really did take four or five years before I could get Took 5 years to overcome to the point where I am now, where I could talk about it; paralyzing impact this and I don't cry anymore. There's always a part of us that feels like I still don’t believe it happened, at least for me. 168 EB: Can you see a pattern? Is being mobbed the story Took 5 years to overcome of your life? Respondent: Well, I don’t know. I have it; paralyzing impact struggled with this. 169 EB: You start doubting yourself? Respondent: Many Took 5 years to overcome times but I think because I’ve gone through so much it; paralyzing impact in my life that I have this way of kind of just picking myself up. 170 Interviewer: Survival energy? Respondent: I have a Took 5 years to overcome very strong survival mechanism. I will survive. The it; paralyzing impact; problem with surviving doesn't mean you don’t go Surviving, emotion through enormous pain. 171 It just felt very, very negative and insulting. Intimidation; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 172 I knew there was some tension, things that would get Social isolation, said, kind of little comments would be said here and wavelength; group there, but I would try to not pay too much attention to obedience; orchestrated that. isolation 173 It was kind of hysterical but that’s what happens, why Social isolation, they call a workplace mobbing because everybody wavelength; group kind of gets on that wavelength. obedience; orchestrated isolation 174 So from then on, what happened was, nobody would Social isolation, talk to me. I would walk, people would just turn. It wavelength; group was social isolation. obedience; orchestrated isolation 175 It was like they were questioning everything I had Social isolation, said and done. wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 176 I said, “I cannot believe this. I have worked with you Social isolation, wavelength for 10 years. What has happened?” There was almost a veil of secrecy.
73 177 They would not tell me exactly how they came to this Social isolation, information but instead they came asking me wavelength; group questions. obedience; orchestrated isolation 178 The feeling that I had was like persona non grata. Social isolation, wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 179 It didn’t matter what I said, what I did, it was just… Social isolation, wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 180 I felt—I think the experience and I felt alienated. Social isolation, wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 181 It wasn't just a feeling. Social isolation, wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 182 I was alienated, isolated, and completely Social isolation, marginalized. wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 183 I had suffered- it wasn’t like there weren’t elements of Social isolation, marginalization. wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 184 It left me completely isolated. Social isolation, wavelength; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 185 It was really obvious to me something was going on. mechanisms; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 186 I didn’t realize it was at the level that it was. mechanisms; group obedience; orchestrated isolation 187 They would say things like as far as I'm concerned Mechanisms; hypocrisy; you're not trustworthy. orchestrated approach of ethics 188 That I had acted completely non-collegial mechanisms; hypocrisy;
74 orchestrated approach of ethics 189 That I tried to destroy them, destroy the department, mechanisms; hypocrisy; and try to bring down the school of education. orchestrated approach of ethics 190 “I can have no faith in you, in your work. You cannot Mechanisms; personal be trusted.” It just went on. bullying by leader 191 Was that the woman who orchestrated this, when she Having had a hard time -> came in, she was the only woman and she had talked getting into a power to me about how hard that was many years before. position -> orchestrating mobbing; personal bullying by leader 192 So it was crazy to me that she would be the person Having had a hard time -> orchestrating and she had now been in a position of getting into a power power. position -> orchestrating mobbing; personal bullying by leader
4.3.2 Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Camellia
After organizing the first selection of quotes and labeling them, I did a second run of labeling, in order to make them easier to compare or to put into groups. The table below present themes and their frequency of occurrence.
One has to bear in mind though, whether frequency is of significance in this kind of qualitative research. Each respondent has shared his or her life story, and I have picked the fragments that spoke to me. Each fragment has a value in and of itself. The number of times a theme is addressed does not necessarily make it of more weight or importance. A fragment that is themed just once may still represent an important fragment; nevertheless, the frequency gives information too, especially when comparing themes between respondents.
75 I did refrain from forcing themes on the interview texts, but categories of themes
were recognizable when comparing the quotes from the different interviews.
Table 1: Themes and Frequency of Occurrence
Quote ID Theme Frequency 155, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174 > 186 Obedience to administration 16 140, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 157, Paralyzing impact on victim 14 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170 155, 172 > 184 Social isolation 14 126, 128, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, Obedience to administration as survival 8 162, mechanism of faculty members 164 > 170 Took 5 years to come over it 7 126, 148 > 152 Victimized, powerlessness 6 130, 131, 132, 133, 138, 156 Orchestrated intimidation by group 6 141, 158, 159, 160, 161 Ethnicity, gender, class, racism 5 154, 163, 187, 188, 189 Hypocrisy – orchestrated approach to 5 ethics 137, 139, 143, 190, 191 Leader as orchestrator of bullying 5 129, 134, 135, 136 Denial of bullying 4 145, 146, 147 The irrational made rational 3 145, 146, 147 Obedience to administration; consensus to 3 deny facts 191, 192 Having a hard time 2 128 Obedience and racism 1 127 Denial of racism 1
76 4.4 Interviews With Peony
The second interview was with a professor I knew somewhat better. We had met on a few occasions, and she heartily agreed to be interviewed because she too experienced bullying and workplace mobbing in her academic life.
I followed the same script and picked sections and themes from it for my analysis. In fact, I did two runs over her transcript. At this point I felt that I had to find commonalities between the interviewees. I first did an in vivo read and marked the segments that spoke to me intuitively, given my research interest. I collected the quotes and gave them words that captured the significance of the quote. In the second reading, I identified more unified sections and themes that I had also found in the interview with Camellia. Later on, I decided that there was no need to come up with commonalities between the respondents, so I used both reads and both selections and given themes.
The following two subsections show the two readings of the same interview.
The numbers given have been added at a later point in the research and are not indicative of chronology.
4.4.1 Peony’s Story: First Read of the First Interview
# Text section or quote Theme
516 It wasn't one particular thing that happened. It was kind of Series of things like a series of things. It’s really hard to say what happened because it wasn’t one specific thing. 517 P as a research one institution and so there wasn’t a lot of No collegiality collegiality at the institution. 518 The only Black professor out of a faculty of about 140 people. Race
519 African American female being in a predominantly White Race town and predominately White college.
77 520 Feelings of alienation and aloneness Environmental; alienation and aloneness 521 The other two women were White Race
522 I would be completely left out of the situation. Alienation
523 Rather than ask me, the coordinator of the class, they would Ignoring ask the professor in the office next to me. 524 She didn’t teach the class, she wasn’t the coordinator, but Ignoring they would ask her. 525 It was kind of like silencing or usurping a power. Silencing
526 It was really weird. Weird
527 And rather than asking me how many students do you have Ignoring this semester- and all I have to do is look at the grade roster and see, they would ask someone else. 528 Or, it could be something highly theoretical like, “what is the Ignoring theoretical foundation for your syllabus?” or something like that. So it didn’t matter if it was the most superficial question or a really deep question. I was to be ignored in the process. 529 My colleagues never came to—it was called Culturepalooza. Insinuation One of my colleagues actually insinuated that she developed it even though I had been doing it since ______(doctoral program). 530 So it was just constant belittling of being who I was, and not Belittling just my talent but my importance to the university. 531 If someone was writing a paper, a senior professor, I wasn’t Alienation one they asked to be part of or if they were working on a grant, I wasn’t asked: be part of this grant. I know it’s important to your professionalism, your getting tenure. 532 For five years it was a constant being ignored. It was a series Ignoring of little things. 533 Prior to a specific time, I just didn’t accept things as they Ignoring were. It was almost like it was commonplace, like I knew I would be ignored in meetings. I knew my voice wouldn’t be listened to but whatever. 534 But it was in June 2005 and I was actually living with friends Gossip for six months finishing my book and ______called me on my phone and started telling me about things they were hearing that were being said about me and my work.
78 535 A friend from the university called me to tell me some gossip Gossip going around campus or going around the department that I didn’t develop this art program. 536 I wasn’t going to get tenure because I wasn't worthy or I Class hadn’t published enough. I wasn’t a good teacher. I mean it was like being in high school again. 537 The gossiping just became really large and it started getting Gossip; alienation back to me and once it did, when I went back to the university I confronted the main people who were saying things and there was denial or if not outright denial it was like, no, you misunderstood. I didn’t mean it that way but I ended up feeling so alienated from the department that I moved my office so I could be away. 538 So I moved my office to a lower floor because it was such an Actions in response: uneasy feeling being there. moved my office; survival 539 Getting on the elevator and just saying to myself I hate my Hate my job job, I hate my job, as the elevator went from the first to the fourth floor. 540 It was really hard just even going into the office. So I thought Alienation; survival well if I move my office, then at least I don’t have to see these people that I know don’t have my best interest at heart. 541 I mean in the context of high school, 18, 17 and 16, gossiping Cliques and the cliques. Cliques meaning like groups of people. There's the popular clique and the unpopular clique. There's a lot of cattiness, for children, immaturity. 542 People who are supposedly educated Supposedly educated 543 You think they're mature and you would think that if you Not mature have a problem with me, let’s talk about it or even if you have a problem with me, that’s okay. 544 We don’t have to like each other, we’re colleagues; we have to No respect respect each other and the fact that that respect wasn’t there. 545 Kind of like the he said, she said, childish behaviour Pettiness
546 They succeeded in pushing me out. Feelings of alienation and aloneness 547 I moved my office and that helped the situation for a little bit Actions in response: but because I had always been—the five years I was there I moved my office was not part of the in crowd.
79 548 Once I realized what was being said and how I was being Speak up constructed, I'm like well fuck, I don’t have anything to lose. 549 I started being really vocal about things because I figured Speaking up they don’t like me .already. They don’t respect me already; I might as well. If there's a problem, rather than not saying anything let me talk about it. 550 For example, we were at a faculty meeting with about 140 Speaking up faculty members and they were talking about diversity, and they were talking about it in a really superficial way, and I spoke up and I said the fact that they were talking about it in a superficial way and the fact they were identifying African Americans and what African American students needed to succeed because again, I feel like I had nothing to lose. 551 The more vocal I became, the more difficult of a time they Vocal had accepting me. 552 I knew I was already not being accepted, so what the fuck. Speak up Does that make sense? 553 I think I was being victimized. Feelings of alienation and aloneness 554 I think that I was already—from the time I accepted that Class job—I was set up for failure. 555 During the time that P_____ had a School of Education, there Race had been like 10 faculty of colour altogether, whether we’re talking African American, native American, Latino, only one person had been tenured. 556 So they had a way of bringing coloured people in and then Race pushing them out. 557 But I was still like, oh I could be different. Naivety
558 I can do what I need to do and I don’t need to fall into this Fighting it whatever. 559 But once things started happening, I was like hmm I guess Revelation I'm not special. 560 I never felt like a victim I just felt like life is fucked up for Race Black faculty at P______. 561 But once I left the university, it probably took me a year. I Became unsure of was mentally drained. I felt that my identity had been stolen, self and I became really unsure of myself and my own intelligence and who was I really and what did I have to offer. It took probably a good year and a half to get past it.
80 562 It was really difficult for me to think about one particular Continually instance for me where I was bullied. It was constant. 563 Things happened on a daily basis whether it was being Ignoring ignored in a meeting or whether it was not being—like I knew the mentoring that other faculty were going to help them move towards tenure. 564 I knew that I wasn't getting that. Revelation
565 It was on a daily basis. Continually
566 It’s really hard to pinpoint one thing and because it was on a Environmental daily basis, it was environmental. 567 It was a climate that existed within the school and because it Damaged was a climate, then for five years, little pieces of me were taken away. 568 So at the end of the five years there's this little piece of me Defeat left. 569 It took that year and a half for me to figure out what my faults Insight were because I was to blame—well, not completely, not the biggest part. 570 I think I made some wrong decisions like instead of changing Reflection my offices I should've stayed there and fought or I should’ve just left the job all together. 571 I was young in academia. I was young in academia 572 Ninety percent was, again, the environment that I existed in. Environmental
573 It was the climate. Alienation
574 Environmental. Specifically there were two colleagues, both Environmental of them are still there, who were the instigators of everything or if not the instigators, they pushed it along and made it worse, I believe. It was almost like– 575 My mother had a saying, egging something on, pushing it on, Make it worse making it worse and I think I had two colleagues that just made the childish behaviour a lot worse. 576 Other faculty were like: write this with me. She was getting No mentorship the mentorship that I said I never received. 577 So I don't want to say it was easier for her because it’s all Closed door for me hard work, but people opened the way for her to make it, whereas I think the door was constantly closed for me to make it.
81 578 A White male and he was new to the faculty but she grabbed Race hold of him as someone who would look up to her. He wasn't her equal. He would look up to her in order to advance and so it ended up being those two like a united front. 579 It was only working against me and helping each other. They Pushing out weren’t about developing community. 580 It was about what can I do to make myself better. To hell with Egocentrism anyone else and I don’t even think it was about the students. 581 So that's why things got so bad that eventually it ended up No tenure that I knew I wasn’t going to get tenure and the last thing you want to do is go up for tenure and not get it. 582 So that’s why I just left before I even went up for tenure. No tenure
583 Before I do things, I really try to think about what it is I'm Repercussions doing. I think to think about the long-term effect. I try to think about the repercussions and then decide are those repercussions that I'm willing to take. 584 Choose your battles. Action
585 You can’t fight everything. Can't fight everything 586 Also understanding that if I'm being silenced, how to speak Speak up up, how to make that voice heard. 587 So while I was in it—actually going back, while I was in it, I Victim did feel like a victim as I think about it. They don't like me, they won't help me, they won’t help me publish. Nobody wants to write a grant. So I really did feel like a victim. While I was in it I did feel like a victim, but once I got out of it and I reflected back on it, I decided I didn’t like that word because victim is helpless. I did feel helpless but looking back on it, I really wasn’t helpless. I could’ve done things differently. I could’ve gotten out of there much sooner rather than spending five years. I could have left sooner. 588 And that actually ended up hurting me because the less I did, Doing things that the less I was able to write, to really do the things you need to weren’t helping me do as a professor. So as I was trying to please them I was doing things that weren’t helping me. 589 If I had made different decisions, well yea, that’s true. If I had Alienation made different decisions it still would’ve probably ended up the same way. 590 I like that word environmental because in my particular case, Environmental I think one of these main reasons that I was being mobbed or
82 bullied was based on how in America—well, in the fucking world, but in America, how African Americans are perceived, how we’re looked at as not being intelligent, as not being worthy, as not being smart or being different or being the other. 591 I guess it couldn’t have been different. I don’t think different No choice things could’ve happened. 592 You grow up Black in America, you're going to have Being African insecurities because everything tells you, the media, to the American newspaper, other people that you're full of shit. So you're going to have insecurities and I think going into a place like P______that was toxic. 593 I think that I didn’t have the foundation to bear the assault Class because there was already stuff going on up here from childhood that I hadn’t built up the reservoir of strength to deal with that kind of stuff. 594 You have to believe in yourself to deal with it, but when you Mental abuse grow up in a home that there are already problems, mental abuses that you never really learn how to believe in yourself, so the little bit that you do believe in yourself when someone attacks it, it’s easier for them to tear it down. 595 They talked about, they were scared of me to say anything Scared because of retaliation. 596 It just got really crazy and what I learned from P_____ and Fighting it handling this new situation was I fought it. 597 I made sure people understood my side of the story. I also Speak up spoke to the people in charge to let them know that the school of education wasn't following process and giving me my due process and letting me know exactly what the complaints were against me or reading these letters that were going around. 598 So I made sure my voice was heard. Action
599 Then when I realized—then I told my current students what Affected students was going on because it also affected what they were doing in my program. 600 Then when I realized that things weren’t going to change, Things weren't that my school wasn’t going to follow due process, that they going to change were going to allow these students to get away with certain things, I decided fuck it. 601 I'm not going to go through the hassles. Defeat
83
4.4.2 Peony’s Story: Second Read of the First Interview
# Text section or quote Theme
221 It happened from the department chair to the dean to Feelings of alienation other faculty members to the secretaries. and aloneness 222 I knew I was not getting mentoring towards tenure. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
223 You grow up Black in America; you're going to have Being African insecurities because everything tells you, the media, to the American newspaper, other people that you're full of shit. So you're going to have insecurities and I think going into a place like P______that was toxic. 224 Ignore me Feelings of alienation and aloneness 225 Be completely left out of the situation Feelings of alienation and aloneness 226 I was to be ignored in the process. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
227 Constant belittling of who I was, my talent, my importance Feelings of alienation to the university and aloneness 228 It was a constant being ignored. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
229 I knew I would be ignored in meetings. Feelings of alienation and aloneness 230 I knew my voice would not be listened to. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
231 Telling me about gossip: that I did not develop the art- Feelings of alienation program, I was not going to get tenure because I wasn’t and aloneness worthy or hadn’t published enough, I wasn’t a good teacher; there was denial. 232 Being ignored in a meeting Feelings of alienation and aloneness
84 233 Started being real vocal about things because I figured Actions in response: they don’t like me already. moved my office 234 And I spoke up, I feel I had nothing to lose. Actions in response: moved my office 235 (Memories on high school): gossiping and cliques, popular Feelings of alienation and not popular, cattiness, for children, immaturity and aloneness
236 I just felt like life is fucked up for Black faculty at P______. Feelings of alienation and aloneness; Being African American 237 Friends at foreign language and sociology, that is where I Actions in response: got my support and when I told them they were shocked, moved my office because there was more of a community and they tried to help young faculty. 238 Colleagues who were doing the backstabbing Feelings of alienation and aloneness
239 Only one of ten faculty of colour had been tenured. Being African American 240 So they had a way of bringing in people of colour and then Being African pushing them out. American 241 How African Americans are perceived, how we’re looked Being African at as not being intelligent, as not being worthy, as not American being smart or being different or being the other. 242 Ask the professor in the next office; ask someone else Feelings of alienation and aloneness
243 Colleagues never came to (my art project) Feelings of alienation and aloneness
244 One insinuated that it was plagiarism. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
245 I wasn’t asked to write a grant. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
246 I ended up feeling so alienated from the department. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
85 247 Respect wasn’t there Feelings of alienation and aloneness
248 They succeeded in pushing me out. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
249 I was not part of the in crowd. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
250 I think I was being victimized. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
251 I never felt like a victim. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
252 I felt that my identity had been stolen. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
253 I became really unsure of myself and my own Feelings of alienation intelligences. and aloneness
254 For five years little pieces of me were taken away. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
255 It took a year and a half for me to figure out what my Feelings of alienation faults were, because I was to blame. and aloneness
256 It was the climate. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
257 Two colleagues made the childish behaviour a lot worse. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
258 I think the door was constantly closed for me to make it. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
259 Those two like a united front, working against me. Feelings of alienation and aloneness
86 260 They weren’t about developing community. It was about Feelings of alienation what can I do to make myself better. and aloneness; lack of collegiality
261 Choosing my battles and not trying to fight everything Actions in response: moved my office 262 It was constant. It was a series of things
263 Things happened on a daily basis. It was a series of things
264 It is really hard to pinpoint one thing. It was a series of things
265 It was environmental. It was a series of things
266 It was a climate that existed within the school. It was a series of things
267 Environmental Environmental 268 I was young in academia. I was young in academia
Table 2: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Peony
Quote ID Theme Frequency 221, 222, 224, 225, 226, Feelings of alienation and aloneness 32 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 235, 236, 238, 242, 243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 517, 522 > 535, 537, 540, Workings of bullying 26 541, 544, 545, 576, 577, 579, 580, 589, 594, 548, 549, 550, 551, 552, Speaking up – insight 10 558, 569, 586, 596, 597, 518, 519, 521, 536, 554, Factors race, class, 10 555, 556, 560, 578, 593, 539, 561, 567, 568, 569, Effects of bullying 9 589, 594, 600, 601 516, 520, 562, 565, 572, Environmental 7 574, 590, 223, 236, 239 > 241, 592 Being African American 6
87 262 > 266 It was a series of things 5 233, 234, 237, 261, Actions in response, moved office 4
4.5 Revisiting The Topic With Peony
Later in the research, I realized that I wanted to know the respondents’ views on issues of pedagogy, education, politics, and leadership in regard to their experiences with bullying in faculties of education. I interviewed Peony a second time, because we had not touched on those topics in the first interview. The results of that interview can be found in the next section of this chapter. The second set of questions consisted of:
• Does it strike you that this bullying happened at a faculty of Education?
• And if so, how do you understand that?
• Do you think tenure has an influence?
• What is the role of leadership, do you think?
• Chomsky recently said, “Thinking like corporations is harming American
universities” (Chomsky, 2013, Para. 1). Does the neo-liberal climate that has invaded
the universities have an influence on the occurrence of bullying in faculties of
education?
• How do you link pedagogy and bullying?
I chose to conduct this second interview with Peony only, since Camellia and another
participant, Heather and Camellia had touched on these issues already. Interviewing
Peony twice gave me a chance to revisit the earlier interview, and we did, but this did
not generate any new understandings of her experiences. Her reflections were, on the
other hand, very informative and helpful.
88
4.5.1 Second Interview with Peony
# Text section or quote Theme
269 I believe in conspiracies. It's probably more of an effort Keep masses ignorant being made where you keep the masses ignorant. Do they know they're being mistreated? And if they don't know they're being mistreated, then they're not going to fight against being mistreated. 270 So he was threatening me saying if you don't get the Threatening me enrolment up, I can cancel your classes or end your program. I'm like that's not the way to motivate me to do better. Threats don't motivate me to do more. 271 I think bullying in faculties of education happens too It stops me; takes frequently. It’s making professors rethink their jobs and is away from the things this really where I need to be. I guess it just stops me that really need to be personally. It inhibits me from doing what I really need to done be doing as a concerned educator because you're so busy dealing with the bullying or the shit that happens. It takes away the time from you really going out and doing social justice in the community and making a difference, and sometimes even doing the extra things that you need to do with your students because you're fighting whatever ridiculous thing you're fighting within the actual faculty. It takes you away from your true purpose in doing all of this. I think that's the biggest thing with bullying that bothers me 'cause you know people will be assholes and you know if you're above the age of you know 15 you're used to people being assholes and if you're especially above the age of 30 you know that that's part of what you have to deal with in life. What upsets me the most is when I'm so busy dealing with that stuff, I don't have time to do the things that are really important. I think that's what really makes me the angriest. 272 But when I would tell her about things that were Bad leadership happening in education, she would be like, in sociology you know that type of stuff doesn’t happen. 273 Well now she teaches in the school of education at V____ Bad leadership and some of the things that I experienced at P____ she's now experiencing at V____.
89 274 In my experience, unfortunately, I've never been at a place Bad leadership that's had good leadership. The leadership when I was at P and the leadership here at I____ has been really problematic. I think because it hasn't been strong leadership it creates the climate for bullying to take place, because it creates this competitive climate or this climate where there is this lack of respect and people already have very fragile egos. So because there's not good leadership going on, they feel justified in doing certain things. 275 Bad leadership I think makes the problem. It can be like a Bad leadership small problem, but with bad leadership what is very small and minute can grow 10 times in a short period. 276 I think good leadership is being able to listen and really Good leadership hear what people are saying. I think that good leadership is going into a situation - I think that leadership is not having the answer to every situation you go into, you've got to be open - open minded and listen to what the people you're leading are saying, what they need. 277 Honestly, I've never had a good leader. To me that's not Bad leadership good leadership because it's leading by command rather than by consensus. I feel that's a problem. I think a good leader has a sense of humor. I think a good leader - what is that form of leadership called - servant leadership? Which to me, that seems like that would be a good form of leadership. I can tell you more what bad leadership is [Laughing]. 278 I know that bad leadership whether we're talking about Bad leadership you know in a faculty or at McDonald's, it creates this really negative climate amongst the employees, a climate where you don't really want to do the work. 279 I mean you can say well let's sit down and discuss how to Good leadership increase enrolment. 280 You know good leadership is mentoring the person or Good leadership giving the person suggestions and ideas about how to do better at whatever rather than threatening. 281 Well, I haven't been under any good leadership in my Bad leadership career. 282 Have been in the other departments of the programs of the leadership universities, and it seems like they have good leadership. But, of course, that's from the outside looking in. 283 They supported me in this particular way. Support
90 284 Yeah, well M___ didn't get tenure. She was at J____ in C___, Racial; not she didn't get tenure. M's research is qualitative and its understanding arts based so you know - poetry, whatever. Her research work university—she was the only black female at her university, and I don't think her university had ever tenured a person of colour. And they did not understand M's research nor respect it, even though she had more publications than anyone else there. I mean she's had many articles published and she's had, I don't know, three or four books. So it's kind of like - if I don't understand the research you're doing I'm not going to take the time to understand it. Since I don't understand it I don't respect it, therefore, you don't deserve tenure. 285 When I was at P____, definitely, which didn't so much relate Learn how to play the to tenure because I was at the beginning - I was far away game from tenure. By the time I quit, I knew that I wasn't going to get tenure based on everything else that happened. When I was here, being a person of colour it didn't hurt or it didn't help. But, I also after what happened at P______, I figured out how to play the game and I just didn't piss people off. 286 Thinking like corporations is harming American Power; economics Universities. 287 I wanted to go out into the community and do some work Neo-liberalism; with some of the teachers in the community. He's, well conservatism; that's not increasing your enrolment. economics 288 Unable to see the long term effect Short term thinking; economics 289 Right and here the conservatives have taken over. In the Conservatism States, there’s a very conservative ideology around education - not schools of education - but just universities. 290 If people who have a traditional way of looking at Pedagogy pedagogy and they remove politics and power in their mind from pedagogy, then they're not understanding the politics and power that are part of pedagogy so then bullying is going to happen. 291 You have an open way of looking at teaching in a more Critical pedagogy critical way, then bullying will not happen. Because you're understanding relationships of power and you're listening to your students and you are - I want to use the word - accepting what your students offer without you 292 I think tenure is just so subjective and it's so political. Politics; tenure
91 293 if somebody operates under a real traditional way of Pedagogy pedagogy like they're the great knowledge giver and students have nothing to add or say that's important, then that is bullying or can lead to bullying. 294 I think that it happens all over in all disciplines. Disciplines; departments 295 It is a place, it's a space where there can be a lot of bullying Personality taking place because it's about personality. 296 It seems to happen more and this is amongst my friends so Fac of ed this isn't empirical research, but it seems to happen more in education. 297 I just think education faculty are screwed up. I think they Fac of ed; stepchild of just have so many issues with you know? Maybe part of it disciplines; Inferiority is education’s kind of the step child of all disciplines, complex and proving their worth maybe is a real - proving that they're real scholars 298 It seems to happen more in education. Fac of Ed; Inferiority complex 299 And is that a position that was put upon education do you Fac of Ed; Inferiority think, or is that a position that education loves to take on? complex 300 There are students that could not necessarily make it in Inferiority complex pre-med so they might - well I'll become a math teacher. 301 I think we dumb down education quite a bit. 302 Because you know education is one of the professions. Ed is looked down We're not looked at as a profession. You know States upon throughout the United States - I don't know about up in Canada - but you know they're getting rid of pedagogy classes. You got a degree in math you can teach. You don't need to have a pedagogy class. So, education’s just looked down upon. 303 So again, I think some things are particular to education. Fac of Ed 304 That inferiority complex that seems to be hanging over Inferiority complex education? 305 I think faculty of education can be kind of full of themselves Inversed inferiority and think that they are more important than what they complex; really are. And the only way to do that is to build yourself up beyond what you really are and what you really do. And the only way you can build yourself up is by tearing other people down.
92 306 Like there's more of a value if you're going into say Hierarchy of business vs. Liberal Arts. So, I think they place the disciplines disciplines in a hierarchy. I mean I guess overall there also is (at least in the States) they're calling it dumbing down of the population and we all see that as a big deal. 307 She speaks her mind - right. So I think that was another She speaks her mind issue that - I don't want to be colleagues with this person that speaks their mind. 308 So, you were . . . because of your experience, you were Learn how to play the smarter in dealing with matters that could have turned out game; smarter to become bullying? 309 I believe so. Some things I just stayed away from. And it's Choosing my battles kind of like I was wiser in choosing my battles. 310 I don't remember what specific instance of bullying I had Continually then because shit happens every day. 311 Now, it's personality, it's collegiality - whether I like you, Collegiality; it's about you know - do I respect your work even if I don't Personality understand your work.
Table 3: Inventory of Themes in the Second Interview with Peony
Quote ID Theme Frequency 297 > 306 Faculty of Education Inferiority complex 10 272 > 275, 277, 278, 281, Bad leadership 7 276, 279, 280 Good leadership 3 286 > 289, 292 Neo-liberalism 5
4.6 Interview With Heather
The third respondent is close to me. We have worked together, and I have known her for a number of years. She used classroom situations to give examples of her experiences with being bullied in a faculty of education. Her main story is about how one particular colleague treated her and used his power to have her leave the faculty. I used the same methods of interviewing and analyzing as with Peony and Camellia.
93 4.6.1 Heather’s Story
# Text section or quote Theme 341 A couple of girls came in one day and their hair was cut very Outspokenness of short. students and of respondent 342 They wanted to speak and they stood up and said that they Outspokenness of had decided to cut their hair because as Cuban girls it was students and of expected by their father not so much their boyfriends that respondent they would always have their hair long and they wanted to defy that. 343 He was bothered by because he felt like ___ was not right. Outspokenness of students and of respondent 344 He felt that as a Cuban male that empowerment and gender Outspokenness of to look at women was important. students and of respondent 345 He liked what we were learning in our class. Outspokenness of students and of respondent 346 Other kids in the class started to say yeah we agree. We are Outspokenness of very uncomfortable. students and of respondent 347 I said this is really inappropriate. I can't help you about this. Outspokenness of students and of respondent 348 You need to know that we do have different political points of Outspokenness of view and I feel that what I am teaching here is appropriate students and of and that it is a university and we are able to say whatever we respondent want because of academic freedom. 349 The faculty was uncomfortable. Outspokenness of students and of respondent 350 All of a sudden they started being gossiping and sort of Outspokenness of whispering behind me about why are the students learning students and of the word deconstruct, why are they talking this way, why are respondent these students doing this. 351 And I said I am not saying that suicide is a healthy thing Outspokenness of obviously ____ was disturbed he shouldn’t have done this but I students and of am saying that a professor has no right to write something respondent like that on a piece of paper that is sick, that you don't say
94 something like that to kids about dying. You just don't.
352 I knew I was being fucked then I also knew that I would Outspokenness of always be fucked. It's like I just not I guess I realized that my students and of craziness wasn't my inability to be told in an authoritative respondent way what I had to be. 353 And it's very hard in my philosophic way of seeing the world Outspokenness of to not name when things are not right. students and of respondent 354 That absence thing was not right. How my students were Outspokenness of being treated was not right. Humiliating my student to make students and of her sing a song was not right. respondent 355 What I notice is that most of the time even now women I am Outspokenness of around don't say what's not right, and am I the only one who students and of notices it. No. I just think people choose not to open their respondent mouth. So, yeah I am crazy not knowing how to keep my mouth shut. 356 I think my leftist politics bothered a lot of people. I think that outspokenness of was the problem and I think a lot of the bullying—I have not students and of known a lot of centrists or conservative people who have respondent been bullied, but the people I know that have been bullied tend to be bullied by people like that. 357 And I still to this day and I still have a paper of _O____’s. And Reflections this topic sounds insane and whoever reads this is just going to think I am crazy. I just feel like had he not have that man in class I don't think he would have killed himself. I just think he had other things in his life, maybe family, wife, something, but I think something that man did to him and basically telling him you've missed three classes you need to die. I just think—I mean it reminds me of Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society when he worked, did all this empowerment stuff with his boys, but then the one kid couldn't fit his life into empowerment and ended up killing himself, and I just feel I don't think I was the player in this but I think sort of what he learned from me and what he discovered on his own, his own empowerment, was against what he saw was happening. I'll never know why he phoned right before he died. 358 My students were very upset and they would come in and Solidarity of they would say we need to talk to you and O______was very students upset.
95 359 He just said this is wrong, you can't keep having this happen Solidarity of to you. You have to do something, he said. students 360 And the students vented and it's hard, it's hard when you are Solidarity of being beaten down, like I had to not let them and I have to students admit that was probably not a good thing. I should have been a professional but they really were unhappy. 361 Well because they were talking about my colleague and even Solidarity of though the colleague physically assaulted me I just felt like I students shouldn’t have encouraged it, but I didn't discourage it. 362 So I basically let them talk and that's what I do. I've always Solidarity of done that as a teacher. If I knew it was a touchy subject I students would just be quiet and let my students talk and that's what happened. 363 And my kids said a few times, a student keeps calling and I Solidarity of didn't know who was. Student keeps calling him on because students students keeps calling him and about two days later I get a phone call from one of my students and he said to me, O______killed himself. 364 And just as I was getting ready to go to the funeral I found Solidarity of two notes on my desk at the house and I asked – on the students calendar, scribbled on the calendar and it said mom O____ called, and I asked my kids and they said, oh he called a couple of days ago; we forgot to tell you. 365 It wasn't about me but he had felt, he had gotten personally Solidarity of entrapped in this battle between this man and what he students thought was the battle with me and he was very angry. 366 His attitude was what he had written was how can this man Solidarity of be a teacher and treat people the way he does and now he students tells me basically if I miss three classes I better be dead. 367 And students who knew him really well said that you know Solidarity of they just nobody knew why he killed himself, but the fact of students the last conversation we all had with him was about missing and him having to be dead. 368 If you ask the two students I still after all these years have Solidarity of contact with will tell you with great anger and fury how awful students those times were. I mean so I think those two are actually the most evidence I have that it was I am just not an idiot that there were bad things going on. 369 What this man started to do was to be aggressive toward me. Aggression 370 He says: what's wrong with you? And she said I am not going Aggression to sing, this is stupid. And he said you are _____’s student aren’t you and she said yes, but what is that have to do with
96 it, I am not going to sing a stupid song.
371 He said you are just scared because you wear braces. Aggression 372 He said: stand up and she said no. And he said: stand up and Aggression she said no. And then he said: stand up and so she stood up by now she lost it and he said stand up and turn to the class and sing the song. And he just humiliated her in fact so badly that she called me and came to my house in just tears to tell me what this man had done. 373 And as soon as he was made assistant department chair he Aggression comes blasting in the office one day and screams at me that I need to clean up the office, that it was humiliating and I was a pig. 374 So I am standing at the desk and I weighed about 130 pounds, Aggression and I am reaching over the desk and it's a large room and this man, this large man walks up to the desk and physically, physically pushes his entire body weight against me, throws me across the desk and secretary sitting there and basically bruises my hip, walks away. And he assaulted me and I turned around and I said did you see that and she said, see what? I said did you see what he just did to me? I didn't see a thing, are you crazy, what did he do, he is way over there. 375 I called the dean to report it. And he called back and said that Aggression there was no proof that it happened and that I obviously made it up, that the assault never happened. 376 He just assaulted me. Aggression 377 And everyday at my office he would leave notes about me Aggression being a pig or how disgusting my office was and stuff like that, and all of a sudden the faculty stopped talking to me. 378 He would give them marks if they would critique my work Aggression and my teaching. 379 He also got obsessed about absences, and he had an absence Aggression chart that was like if you miss one day, you get a minus; two days, you get two minuses; three days and no excuse: wedding, death in the family nothing, and the third one said if you are absent three dot for the third time and still—I kept this for years—if you are absent three times it better be because you are dead, and that's what it said. 380 And then it got worse, just the treatment, this man kept on Aggression me and I felt like I couldn’t even breathe, I couldn't even breathe.
97 381 But there is no man alive that would have taken that man Aggression hitting me and drawing me against the desk, no man would have done that. I mean I have seen most men are conditioned to turn and to be physical back. I was so shocked and had never been struck before like that, not as an adult, maybe as a kid but it just wasn't even my comprehension that I could be treated that way. 382 Friends that I had I would notice were starting to talk aside Neglect and denial from me and when I would come in would stop talking to me. (passive aggressiveness) 383 And I noticed my mail started to be not being in my mailbox, Neglect and denial little tiny things. (passive aggressiveness) 384 I just wanted him to leave me alone, but there was this kind Neglect and denial of feeling that if his students started to like my class, then (passive they started to get punished. aggressiveness) 385 I was starting to not get invited to faculty meetings. Neglect and denial (passive aggressiveness) 386 That wasn't it at all, and they had all lied, and I called him and Neglect and denial he didn't believe me, didn't believe me. (passive aggressiveness) 387 At the secretary’s desk I was standing, asking her yet once Neglect and denial again about phone messages. (passive aggressiveness) 388 I started to notice that my partner’s phone messages were Neglect and denial starting to be delayed or lost. (passive aggressiveness) 389 People in the faculty stopped talking to me and started to Neglect and denial make reports about me. (passive aggressiveness) 390 And then all of a sudden, pick people and it was like a fungus Neglect and denial or a disease that spread, it was really weird. And that was all (passive this plausible deniability like: I didn't see that. What do you aggressiveness) mean? You didn't have any mail today. You didn't do this, it was all like, are you crazy. 391 So for the rest of the months it got ramped up and it became Obsession my entire obsession. 392 And there were just so many stupid things that I kept Obsession thinking; there is I am imagining, I kept thinking I was imagining, it became a constant conversation in the home,
98 and to the point that it was apparent that there was no way this could continue. It was getting worse and worse and worse. 393 And so I tried to tell my students just let's keep what happens Safety in class to ourselves, let's keep it our safe space because I have found that if students celebrate my teaching and that sounds really egocentric and I don't want to make it sound like I am so important, but I can't deny what happened to me. 394 I was most vulnerable and most able to be hurt. Vulnerable 395 And I left astounded of everything. Just astounded and I kept Vulnerable thinking what, what did I do in the first place. 396 Mostly about gender Ethnicity, gender, class, education 397 He treated women very badly, not in the misogynist way but Ethnicity, gender, that they were little girls and he would have these little class, education Cuban girls running around sort of doing work for him. 398 And I watched kids on the playground, and if a boy gets Ethnicity, gender, punched or pushed, immediately he'll turn around. Usually class, education when a girl gets punched or pushed she sits down and cries, and so I think gender allowed me to get pushed. I think size because I was small and he was enormous that allowed me to be touched. 399 I think because I didn't have a doctorate my class position Ethnicity, gender, was lower. So that allowed gossiping and conversation. class, education 400 I think my differentness because what I did wasn’t like a lot of Ethnicity, gender, the other people. class, education 401 I think that's ethnic and education. Ethnicity, gender, class, education 402 I also was even though I didn't have my doctorate I had Ethnicity, gender, written books and articles and most of the colleagues hadn’t, class, education and I think that there was sort of like who did she think she is kind of stuff, but honestly I think the biggest, I think one of the biggest problems is how much my students liked me. I really do. 403 I just didn't even expect that this could actually happen. Disbelief 404 He said no, I don't believe you, I don't believe you, this is Disbelief crazy. He said you are talking crazy and I had, seems so clear to me, and so I realized that I was done for him. 405 I decided to move in and share an office with someone and Walk away from it that got turned down.
99 406 So I decided to share an office with my spouse and so I moved Walk away from it my stuff in and started to live out of that office, and at the same time this horrible man who became horrible at this time to me. 407 We started to see that two of us were getting pushed about it, Walk away from it but he was a professor so it wouldn't hurt him and as much as it would hurt me. 408 I kept hiding. Walk away from it 409 So it got to the point I would secretly run into an office so that Walk away from it this guy wouldn’t bother me, or other people wouldn’t harass me because I just felt so picked on. 410 Strong women have this happen a lot. Strong women (fearlessness) 411 So my life professionally was wonderful. My students adored Strong women me. Everything was wonderful. (fearlessness) 412 I had issues with men usually who didn't like that I would Strong women talk directly to them. (fearlessness) 413 And she called me a couple of weeks later and said the dean Strong women had said he had to fire me. I said well you can't fire me, he (fearlessness) hired me and he’s going to have to fire me. 414 And so he fired me. Strong women (fearlessness) 415 He said but it's aggressive and I said in what way is this. Strong women Maybe it's just because you are so such a New Yorker and I (fearlessness) looked at him and I said do you mean I am too Jewish and he said yeah that's what I mean, and I thought that was real interesting. 416 I wasn't a victim, no I wasn't because had I been a victim I Strong women think I could have done a little girly thing and said poor me, (fearlessness) but I didn't; I stood up. And so no, no I wasn't a victim, now I realize that I was not a victim. 417 That was one thing I was told: just let the system take care of Strong women it. Sort of that idea that bad things never happen if you just let (fearlessness) the grown ups take care of it. Well bad things do happen. 418 I was always the kid to get in trouble. Strong women (fearlessness) 419 I never smoked, never smoked a cigarette, yet if I was around Strong women kids smoking, I was the one who was just picked to be the (fearlessness) smoker and I didn't smoke, stuff like that. 420 I don't think that's about being a victim, I think it's because I Strong women had never hid myself. (fearlessness)
100 421 It's easier to pick a target of an aggressive female or an Strong women assertive female than it is of a girl, especially at my age, who (fearlessness) should have been quiet, because we were not supposed to be talkative in the sixties you know, 422 Was eventually fired through workplace mobbing (No) collegiality 423 When I first got there I was the darling of everybody and they (No) collegiality couldn't love me enough, 424 He taught this course before and he’d love to help me, (No) collegiality 425 I just thanked him profusely and went away and of course (No) collegiality never used the kit. 426 He was saying things that were contradictory to what I was (No) collegiality saying, 427 I could see starting to not like me ended up coming to the (No) collegiality next campus. So it first started by people writing notes to me and forgetting to give them to me so that there was a phone call: I wouldn’t get it. And then someone would say but I called you, called you and the secretary said well I told you, I told you they called and they didn't. So it was things like this but I couldn't prove it. 428 And one day all of a sudden they were really nice to me and (No) collegiality called me up and asked me to come over. And so I am just like this pleased, like coming racing over. He said we need you to help us to put together the most important grant we’ll ever do. 429 Then all of a sudden people started saying you’re wrong, (No) collegiality you’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong, no, no, no and by the second day they said you need to leave, you can't do this. 430 Started to tell me about all the trouble I caused. How I had (No) collegiality upset all these people, all these people, all these people, all these people, all these people and then all of a sudden that there was a pattern and that I was basically ruining the life of the department, and he basically threatened me if I didn't straighten up, and I didn't know how to straighten up because I hadn't done anything. 431 I told him everything that this man had done to me and how (No) collegiality my students felt, and how somehow all these people came from different ends and started out him and then another person, then another person, then the secretary and all of a sudden gathered and things were being stolen from my box, and just all the stories I am sort of written them now and I tell him the story about O______and he said well what you are saying. And I said I am not saying anything but I am saying that one of our student has killed himself and that student
101 was told he was going to fail the class by the professor who said if he missed three times, he needed to be dead.
432 Why didn't you do the grant? And I said because they threw (No) collegiality me out of the room and they wouldn’t do with me. She said that's not what they said. This is my best girlfriend. 433 And I just realized that well all I did was do what I did. And I (No) collegiality have seen it a lot in the last 20 years that when my students are too loud and enjoy my class too much, like you enjoy a class you talk about it. My colleagues don't like that. 434 Respondent: But with those people around she couldn't (No) collegiality possibly have the same friendship. Interviewer: Yeah. She had to be part of that system. 435 I had no one else believe me or saw it because—except my (No) collegiality students—would tell me what they thought. 436 That people don't think for themselves. They very often let (No) collegiality other people think for them. And I think I saw that very much play this stuff out at the school with the secretary and with the colleagues that they just let people run their lives. 437 I think that's interesting in a class sense because it's not any (No) collegiality different than people, in a factory or in a bank or anywhere turning their head and just saying it's not my problem. I am going to go with the pop, I am going to get with the popular crowd, I am going to go with the majority. No way am I going to get dirty on this one. 438 He said that I was poison and that I crossed the line. And I (No) collegiality said, well you don't have to tell anybody. 439 He didn't have to ever tell anybody the story but he did. (No) collegiality Think that I was poisonous. And I was thought if he went to the top he would be left alone, because the top didn't have anyone to be threatened by. 440 I started getting memos about my teaching and my manner of Corralling teaching. 441 Then there started to be a buzz: why are her students always Corralling in her office, why are they so noisy, and so this fat man keeps coming through and say: be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, you are too noisy, you shouldn’t be here. 442 I was starting to get, things were starting to be stolen off my Corralling desk.
102 443 People that I didn't even know, but they would report that my Corralling curriculum is wrong. That I was teaching the class wrong. And the department chair called me and said I was teaching it wrong, and I said well how can you teach it wrong, it's a course on multiculturalism and hardly anybody’s ever taught this class. 444 You are causing trouble. So that entire semester I was causing Corralling trouble. 445 At the same time this man and then a colleague who had been Corralling a friend of mine started to talk about me outwardly in class that I didn't know what I was talking about, that this was crap, that this is not teaching, that nobody can teach this way, that this is not acceptable teaching. 446 What amazed me is that this big sort of weird guy with sweat Corralling pants could corral people and act like he was the victim of me. 447 I felt picked on. I guess yeah I did. I don't like that word but I Picked on felt like I couldn't get out. 448 Maybe a victim is powerless. Picked on 449 I didn't have my Ph.D. I didn't have a career really, so I was Picked on very vulnerable. 450 I also noticed that my spouse was treated much worse than Picked on he should have been. 451 And eventually we left the city right after that, got another Picked on job. I mean we couldn't stay.
Table 4: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Heather
Quote ID Theme Frequency 422 > 439 (No) collegiality 18 341 > 356 Outspokenness 17 369 > 381 Aggression 13 410 > 421 Strong women (fearlessness) 12 358 > 368 Solidarity of students 10 382 > 390 Neglect and denial (passive aggressiveness) 9 396 > 402 Ethnicity, gender, class, education 7 440 > 446 Corraling 7 447 > 451 Being picked on 5 405 > 409 Walk away from it 5
103 4.7 After The Break
After completing the first three interviews and the analysis thereof, I took a break in the gathering of data. It gave me time to give some presentations on my research and the findings thus far, and I used every instance I could to talk about where I was in the process, which gave me time for reflection. During this time, I noticed that I did not only want to look at female respondents, because that focus would divert too much from the causes I was after. I did not want the problem to be cast aside as a “typical” female problem. I had found that issues around race and being part of a minority were of importance, but in my conversations with colleagues all over the world it became clear to me that the problem was much bigger and could not simply be typified as a specific gendered or underdog case.
During conversations with David Jardine, it became clear that the problem may rise from other factors that faculty members in faculties of education share: education, pedagogy, leadership, politics and tenure. The workings of power were evident from the beginning. So
I included new questions in my list for the next five respondents. The complete list of questions can be found in the appendices. In the previous pages, the two sets of questions were given separately. I chose the next respondents in such a manner that I would have a diverse group, regionally, ethnically, in age and experience, and in gender. Three of the next five respondents have experienced bullying, two indicated beforehand that they felt they were not being bullied, but during the interview they changed their minds about it, probably because I steered the conversations towards issues of leadership and politics.
4.8 Interview With Rose
Rose and I had met at a conference and at a later point in time she told me that she was willing to share her story. With Rose, I used the extended list of questions. She took a
104 long time to set the scene, so that I would be able to get a better understanding of the situation. She had taken a stand against a new colleague being hired because she felt the person was not fit for the academic position, since the candidate’s experience was with a community college and in the midst of identifying its program as vocational education, rather than academic. In taking quotes from Rose’s text and from this point going forward, I did not strive to ascertain if the themes that I found matched with any of the other interviews. Of course there was always some reference to the stories of other respondents in the researchers’ head, knowingly or unconsciously.
This respondent had serious issues with the transcript of the interview that I had sent her. She felt that her story was not represented well. After another edit of the transcript, I resent it along with the recording of the interview, in order to clarify that my work was done correctly and I had no intent to misrepresent her. We sought to make adjustments until she agreed on the version of her life story as used for this research.
4.8.1 Rose’s Story # Text section or quote Theme
101 Most of these people who retired, who were in high power Corralling; positions before they retired, they were program coordinators; politics they were department chairs. So, they also had a name and reputation to preserve. When they saw that this person was starting to be let go, they would have some of these people writing letters, even though they were not in the environment anymore. They have some of these people writing letters to the administration to support that individual just because. You see the politics . . . . 102 It’s not just about the program coordination itself, but there is Race, a lot going on in relation to ethnicity, your race, your gender. ethnicity, There are some expectations that some roles they expect you gender; to fulfill. And you are going outside of those expectations and Challenging you are not fulfilling the role that they basically have painted the system; about you. You are challenging the system. And I said very
105 interesting because I have not thought about that.
103 He was a union representative, and he was contacting all the Corralling; EDU students, and he was setting up a meeting with the EDU mobbing students behind everybody's back to have them basically raising questions and turning against the program coordinator, 104 They want to basically portray that their expertise should not Power be questioned. 105 Combination of ignorance and arrogance Incompetence 106 So if the person is somebody they like from the beginning, they find all ways to view this person up. If they have doubt, or do not know the person, they leave that person alone. And that was what happened to this individual. She was alone and again, she was teacher ed., “whatever she had probably was enough.” So there is that idea too, behind expectations of the department. Should she have been perhaps in another field: Let’s try to bring her here. She was teacher ed, and she probably was considered enough for that. To some extent, to answer your question, would that have been different? I would say perhaps it probably would if you had had more people pushing for that person. But I do not know to what expense she would have accommodated. 107 I should have, if everything made sense, they should have Leadership listened to me; they didn't. 108 There's a ranking, and Teacher Ed is all the way at the bottom. Inferiority complex 109 But then, things became even worse, like the no talking, the Micro- kind of reports coming a little late, and things that I asked to be aggression done immediately by the secretaries, and stuff like that. I went to her and I said forget about the meeting, people have made their minds about whether they want to leave or not. 110 The main issue was about competence. Incompetence 111 Because I asked questions she didn't know how to answer, Incompetence basic questions, like how do you keep updated, she had no idea about journals, about associations, nothing like that. What kind of journals did you read? She didn't have anything to report. 112 And she added that I think you should call and apologize. I Incompetence think you should call the candidate and apologize. And I basically said, "Miss. Such-and-such. I’m sorry, but I will not call anyone."
106 113 I was not fully convinced that she was the candidate that we're looking for. Again, nothing personal. 114 Committee start telling me that I had offended the candidate. Offended; And I offended the candidate because during the interview Incompetence time I asked some questions she could not answer. 115 So I learned to ignore everything. Sit in my office every day, Coping; have my door cracked, do my work, enjoy myself with the Ignoring students. Going back, my main fear was that somehow the program would collapse because the students would have a manifestation, a question or something like that. 116 And what hurt the most were the people that actually said they Losing were friends, people that had come to my house. It was friends hurts something very, very important. And I share that the person was special. So these are the people that hurt me the most, none of them ever phoned; none of them ever stopped by. 117 I was totally outcast; I was totally isolated during that time. Outcast; Mobbing 118 One of them talked to me after that meeting and said, well one Losing of the reasons I never spoke to you was because of what the friends hurts department head said—I thought you were real upset about that. And I said I was not upset about that; you could have talked to me anytime you wanted to, so you basically act like that . . . . 119 The whole situation, but I have a sense of freedom that Coping; perhaps I did not enjoy fully before that happened. And that Liberating sense of freedom comes to me because I was able to see all the problems that have now come up. 120 So that was like I said a very challenging experience but I grew. Growing from . . . experience 121 So, I have come along. I think I am a better person after what Growing form happened to me, to be honest. It had made me better. experience 122 So what was so terrible for me about five years ago, actually Growing from became something that empowered me now. experience; Empowered 123 That was when my life became a hell because I was Bullying accountable for everything supposedly. 124 After the time she was let go, she suddenly became Corralling, everybody’s best friend. mobbing 125 So, I would come to the office, say good morning to people, Isolation; people would ignore me or not reply to my greetings. I would Mobbing then, I was totally outcast, and I was totally isolated during that time.
107
4.8.2 Inventory Of Themes In The Second Interview With Rose
Notice that below I have grouped the found themes from this interview in an effort to make matching with other interviews possible. See the note at the introduction of the interview with Rose.
Table 5: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Rose
Quote ID Theme Frequency 105, 106, 107, 110 > 113, 114 Battling incompetence; leadership quality 8 101, 103, 117, 124, 125 Corralling, mobbing 5 101, 109, 123 > 125 Bullying tactics 5 114, 116, 117, 118 Outcast, Losing friends hurts 4 120 > 122 Growing from experience 3 101, 104, 107 Power, leadership, politics 3 102 Race, ethnicity, gender 1
4.9 Interview With Gavin
I knew of Gavin, but we had not met before the actual interview. We got in touch through a mutual friend and set the date for the interview. His position is quite specific because he speaks openly about his transition and how that affected others, with a negative consequential effect on him.
4.9.1 Gavin’s Story # Text section or quote Theme
108 312 I told them. I said she is a bully. There are other Bully people in my department who can tell you she’s a bully. I’m on what’s called the campus and climate team in my school of education, which is about creating a neutral and safe, productive work environment for everybody, and I was asked to be on that team. She wasn’t and there’s a reason; they pulled me on to that team, and I was elected, was the next president of our department for unionizing or coming together as a faculty. If I were that much of a racist I would have never been elected, so yea I mentioned that too. 313 I am tenured but I still felt intimidated. Fear; Intimidation 314 It has to do with people that really seem to want to Change agent – embody change, and there’s a real resistance. If scapegoat; you’re a change agent you’re scapegoated, and I neo-liberalism; think it has to do something with preserving what problematizers some people see as education that has been a certain way for a long time, and now there are people that are coming in that are very much fearful of neo liberal reform and the people that are against neo liberal reform are being targeted as problematizers. 315 Because she’s Black. I didn’t want people to perceive Race; Fear of me—I knew she was going to pull the race card with siding against me. I don’t want other Black scholars that I’m close me with to take sides with her. They may side with her, who knows. 316 I get an email from the office of equal opportunity, Racism this is a year from when I started cataloguing things that E_____ has filed against me for race based sabotage. 317 I had two doctoral students come up to me and say, Fear; “I’m so sorry E____ is being so rude to you,” and I intimidation; asked them if they would be willing to be witnesses, Students and both said no because of her power and because support they're doctoral students. So my witness pool shrank by two. 318 Well, I think the winning is in your own morality. I Belief in self know I didn’t do anything. 319 And the one thing that's been constant, students Students’ have been fantastic across the board. They couldn’t support care less. It’s the adults that seem to have a harder
109 time.
320 She’s endowed (chair). She walks on water. Fear of the Everyone thinks to respect her, but I think its bully feigned respect. I think people are scared of her because the way she snaps. 321 One thing that I noticed, and it’s not just me, but the More people more people that I’ve actually talked to about this experience it recently, the more stories I’m hearing, and I’m hearing it from either assistant or associate professors who are being bullied by full professors. 322 It was never direct, but it was indirect micro Micro- aggression aggression 323 When I would speak up in a meeting, anybody could Micro- respond, she would slam me down. aggression 324 I’ve always been trouble. Always been trouble 325 This person realizes you're trouble. Trouble 326 I mean mostly when I started my medical transition Discrimination absolutely, a bunch of things happened. It’s one of of the reasons I left my former job. transgendered 327 Micro aggression, but they weren’t doing it Discrimination intentionally, but I would walk into a bathroom after of I’m living as a male, I would have other faculty look transgendered at me kind of rudely and walk out. I had people continually call me she to my face and say I’m really a guy. 328 They would introduce me as Doctor M_____ whose Discrimination done work on blah, blah, blah and then start to of pronoun me as she. So here I am living as a male and transgendered they destabilized the environment by calling me a she in front of other students. 329 When I’m talking to any Black female right now, it’s Racism never hit me this way before. How am I being appreciated, by being racist? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to talk to a Black woman the same way again without—I mean it changes your psyche. 330 Especially like I’ve had Black lovers. Two of my best Race friends are Black women but it’s like- it’s like someone punched you in the chest. 331 If you're going to find that people who file do so Discrimination from a - under a - the discrimination policy that’s in
110 place at the university, like are they filing as a protected class? 332 This woman is really not that nice and I started to have some of my own questions about how she got to her rank. 333 I did become a lot more out since this because fuck it. I’m not going through what I went through again. 334 I’m not going to work in an environment that half Racism, the people now are reading me as a racist, where if homophobia you look at everything I’ve ever done in my life, it’s fighting racism. It just boils down to she doesn’t like me and is calling it racism. 335 The middle school syndrome Middle school syndrome 336 The middle school syndrome is this, new kid comes Middle school to the school and the first person that reaches out is syndrome usually because they're lonely and they don’t have allies, and they want a friend. 337 I have two prominent Black female scholars who say Race; Support if you need anything, we will be there. They’ve laughed at the charge. 338 I believe her bullying towards me began at that point How bullying because I pulled away, and I think she was works; Micro- uncomfortable. None of that could be proven but aggression that’s what I believe happened. I have purposely not gone to her. I don't ask her questions. I separated myself from her and I think she resented that. So what happened is I started noticing these micro aggressions from her towards me from that point forward, like in meetings I would raise my hand, she wouldn’t call on me. 339 People started to come up to me and say things like, Solidarity “why is E_____ being so rude to you?” 340 I think I became a scapegoat for whatever reason Scapegoat
4.9.2 Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Gavin
Notice that I have grouped the found themes from this interview in an effort to make matching with other interviews possible.
111
112
Table 6: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Gavin
Quote ID Theme Frequency 314, 315, 316, 326 > 331, 334, 337, Othering, discrimination of groups 11 312, 313, 317, 320, 322, 323, 338 How bullying works 7 314, 340 Scapegoated 2
4.10 Interview With Erica
A post in social media caught my attention; it was about the work conditions at the
faculty at which I formerly taught. I told the person who posted that I was interested in
interviewing her on the nature of her post with regard to my research. She was willing
right away to share her story, but thought that she was not facing bullying situations in her
work. During the interview, it became clear that bullying through the system, its leadership
and the financial conditions, existed.
113 4.10.1 Erica’s Story
# Text section or quote Theme
193 It is not bullying among each other, but there is a kind of Underground chill in the greater group of colleagues. And with our resistance; smaller groups we have a kind of solidarity, we shut the door and start chatting, you know. Almost like an underground resistance atmosphere. 194 In the past, all our marks on our assessments were “good,” Power; and now the people that work as madmen will get “great” intimidation and some will get “good,” and some that they think of as we would like to get rid of, get a mark “inadequate.” If you get that mark two times you are being fired. 195 The sphere is fear; the word is out that there are still too Fear; many jobs; people will have to be fired, so it is used as a intimidation tactic almost to get rid of people. Because they do not want to openly fire people, but they want to get rid of people, so they have come up with this tactic. 196 And now they also have something called “unbraiding,” so Unbraiding administrative staff like secretaries and such, now have a different boss as the department boss. So our team leader can’t give assignments to these people anymore. There, too, divide and rule is in play. 197 Researcher: do you think this is due to the leadership of the Leadership director? Respondent: No it is due to the board, it is a board policy and the board determines more and more and they give assignments to the deans and also, we have become a colossus. We are not a small school anymore. 198 N___ and H____ had a huge clash because the musical was Learning not good anymore, all of a sudden. Students learn too little results; from it. Researcher: that is an example of things that are Leadership being learned that are not on the list or in the test. Respondent: totally. 199 The times with K___, was paramount, a time where you Leadership; counted, in which everyone was being seen---and of course Could make a K___ had personal preferences, positive and negative and difference his emotions that were strongly present, but it was a time in which you could make a difference, you were seen, carrying each other, and now nobody carries someone else. 200 And the funny thing is, we have made it through Leadership; accreditation now, and you would expect a sphere of relief; acknowledge well that happened for ten minutes, and after that a lot of ment
114 people collapsed that have worked very hard to make it successful. And from those, only three are mentioned by the director and the others not, although they worked very hard too. 201 It feels like we have to change everything continually, and Leadership; probably it is less, but that is how it feels. Everything has to Sickening be renewed all the time and in all different directions, and nobody has the overview anymore. When you are in the building, you feel it in your head. 202 We suffer from an enormous shortage of money, and that is Politics; an alibi of the board, to tighten the control with all kinds of Power; rules and regulations, leading to tasks that you got 40 Economics; hours for before, now you get 30 and then 20 and so on. Neo- And it is held against us: If you don’t comply, you better liberalism; leave. Power; Intimidation 203 Researcher: true, a teacher must have something of an Teacher as artist, being able to express oneself. And when we become artist needs to production staff you are of less importance. Respondent: express precisely, and a teacher is of less importance, everything herself/ has to now be blended into the Huble, the electronic himself; learning environment. Teacher is of less importance 204 In my field, which is drama, I have always been able to Art losing its work the way I think is important for students. Now we bearings have to change that, and students have to take a test and learn form the book. And there is a lot in it I disagree with and a lot that I think is badly written. They now have to learn the textbook by heart and word it at the test. Has become very instrumental. I find it so terrible. 205 Who you are as a teacher is not important anymore; you How you have get an order of who you have to be. That is how you have to to be be. And that is totally different from the time with K_____, “ode to differences,” and to subjectivity. Now you get a kind of blueprint, you all have to fit in the format and there is hardly any scope left. 206 See, you can battle, than you win 3 square centimeters or Coping you go down in the battle, and that costs a large amount of life energy, or you become apathetic; there are a number of possible ways to deal. And I sometimes battle, sometimes laugh about it, I do all kinds of things. And that suits me and makes me feel free.
115 207 You know it all has to be sold in a certain way. The Loss of uniqueness gets lost. uniqueness: story selling 208 Too many things are changing, that is why I am starting to Coping; retire, and I have to reduce. And you know, today I have Stepping back been to sauna and then I can get rid of it all, too. Earlier I was a ringleader, and battled for everything and at a certain point, now I think let it be, others don’t do it, but I am not doing it anymore. It is done. 209 Researcher: that is due to your way of coping. What I see Anti- around me is that many people are taking antidepressants. depressants 210 How I feel about it is variable; yesterday night I drove back It grabs me; from H and it was dark and it takes more of me. I notice: Cognitive my head is full. And it is partly age, but not totally. I am not dissonance; able to lose it completely. It happens to me too; it grabs me, Leadership; I cannot prevent that. Also because I see my colleagues embodied collapse, or being treated unjustly. And what I think is interesting is the cognitive dissonance. We have to sell things that we do not support. And that is increasing. 211 Our team leaders have to do that too. H___ is team leader Bad for your now and he has to promote something that he cannot soul; Bad for support, and I think that that is so bad for your soul, or so yourself; Not bad for yourself, you get cut in half. You are not faithful to faithful to self your self anymore. 212 Yes, but I also see a wish to escape by a lot of people, or Escapism; that some people do remain in the sphere of complaining Ruins your life and whining. And that too ruins your life to remain on that level. 213 Researcher: Do you see that colleagues among each other Losing our are becoming irritated? Respondent: yes it is more. Before power; losing we were more in touch with the whole community and that our sense of is getting lost. And as clusters we were very strong and we being strong stepped up to the forefront as clusters. And that too is all together gone. So we have lost the sense that we can be strong together. 214 And I notice that people are so busy that they become more Collegiality indifferent and colder towards each other. And for sure not diminishing interested in the other. Meetings in the breaks are non- existent; lunch is at the computer desk. 216 That is the sphere, and then there is complaining. But we Complaining; got sick of that too, so now we chat mutually, and now the coping sphere arose, oh well, we mention it, and we try to manoeuvre through it, but stopped taking things too
116 seriously.
217 On the other side, the funny thing is the human nature will Human nature not be restricted. You will find it in short encounters with can’t be others. At one point when the system failed and the destroyed students would all get “1” (F) scores, we have said: we will not do that, sometimes you must go against it.
Although the quotes from this interview can be labeled, it is hard to bring them together in themes, unless each label can be thought to be a theme in itself. An inventory is not added to this information, although a number of quotes deal with qualities of leadership. In the next level of analysis I will address this issue further.
4.11 Interview With Leo
Through a mutual friend I got in touch with Leo. He is a sociologist and has been working at faculties of education. His personal experience beforehand was that he had not encountered any bullying, but during the interview he gave an example of how his situation could have turned into a bullying situation. He has some explanation for that and in the next round of analysis it will become clearer what that means for the research outcome.
4.11.1 Leo’s Story
# Text section or quote Theme 452 These things are so circumstantial. I think bullying in Personality; general relates to many factors: personality, Predisposition predisposition, institutional culture, societal culture. Institutional culture; Societal culture 453 Academia is very unusual because I think that there Sense of smart is the sense that all of these very smart people must people have really split the atom together.
117 454 They are very advanced and it seems to me, there are Disgraceful some jokes that nothing is as disgraceful as university politics university politics. 455 But in academia what is interesting is this propensity Larger egos and sometimes to carve out the larger egos and arrogance arrogance and “who’s done more.” 456 I think what I’ve noticed and observed is that Internal sometimes in an academic situation for various competition; reasons, because there is this internal competition, Constantly you’re constantly evaluated. evaluated 457 And, there are awards and tenure and promotion and Tenure the culture itself. 458 You’re autonomous and you are almost anonymous Autonomous; in the way that you do things, but everything you do Anonymous; is somehow reported. Everything is reported 459 I found it very interesting that I was not appreciated Not appreciated in two different universities in the departments that I was in. 460 Outside of that, in other milieus, at conferences, Contrast with rest associations in the broader community, out there in of academia the academic world people were contacting me, people were giving me awards, people were congratulating me, people were asking me to be on doctoral committees. 461 The Chair seemed to really disregard everything that Chair seemed to I had done, even though I was contributing and really disregard producing. Also trying to single me out to identify me everything; Trying saying that I wasn’t doing committee work, I was to single me out always away travelling. 462 I was given a course load teaching 5 days a week. It Course load 5 days could have been condensed to 2 days but the chair a week insisted that there was no way to change it. 463 My wife was very ill and I had to be there with her. Course load 5 days Also, why should I teach 90 minutes a day for 5 days? a week Just the way I think and work, and it could have been done like that, and she pushed it and wouldn’t allow me that it couldn’t be done. 464 A few things like that that I thought were not only Not only unfair, unfair, but quite stupid. but quite stupid 465 Reasonable is why don’t I make you happy ‘cause if When happy more you’re happy, you will be more effective. effective
118 466 “Personal harassment complaint” against the Chair Complaint 467 One of my colleagues went to the Chair and asked, Ignored “should we announce this to the whole department?” because I had a few colleagues who were very close to me. She wrote back and said, “well he hasn’t given approval to announce this so I won’t announce it.” 468 Yet; if E______gave a talk at the rotary club today she Ignored; “is this would announce that. In the beginning, I was a little odd?” paranoid thinking, “is this odd?” but after a while I documented everything. 469 The personal harassment complaint, the university Policy; Complaint; obviously was not interested in having personal Harassment harassment complaints. There was no outside mediator who came in, but she interviewed the Chair twice and me only once and interviewed the Dean. So, everything was put together to make it seem like it wasn’t a bona fide complaint, though she did write that the complainant, myself, was of good faith. So, we were dropping the case and there was no real harassment. But, in my mind, there was harassment and I documented it. 470 These are small things, but these are things that can Ostracize be used to ostracize and I’m not sure why. 471 And I’m not an egregious person. I’m not looking for Formal complaint; conflict. But, it went to such a point that I had to Chair stepped make a formal complaint. Actually, after making a down complaint, there was another person who complained about something too, and then the Chair stepped down. 472 That my complaint helped make it a better situation Improvement 473 But I had to push it to that extent. It was stressful for Stressful me, but I was extremely focused on my research, like a laser, that I tried not to get side-tracked. 474 Really, some of this pettiness can really eat up This pettiness is someone’s whole day. energy consuming 475 In this other department, there were all sorts of Acrimony; acrimony. Not just with me, but with other people poisoned and it was a poisoned environment. environment 476 Education is organized in a very distorted way in my Education is mind. organized in a distorted way
119 477 People like us are almost distinctively put into the Wheelbarrow full margins within the faculty education. You’ve got of frogs pedagogy, curriculum, methods, ed psyche, and then you’ve got this foundations group. Often this foundations group is seen as this “add on.” They don’t have as much power, authority, or resources. 478 Curriculum groups and teacher ed groups are sort of Wheelbarrow full kind of rigorously, extraneously methodical; this is of frogs the way the meeting starts, and this is what we need, we need this rubric. Then they have people, who think outside of that, and these people are either seen as a sort of threat or I’m not sure. 479 What happens in these faculties of education is they Wheelbarrow full lump these foundations people into departments of frogs with leadership, or ed technology, or counselling. 480 Here you’ve got educationists, but some people are Wheelbarrow full studying mathematic or subjunctive and it’s like this, of frogs and other people are looking at it at a very large sense. 481 It is so multi-disciplinary and it hardly ever becomes Multi - vs inter any inter-disciplinary disciplinary 482 I’ve noticed in faculty meetings, often you’ve got this Preachy preachy schoolteacher vernacular that comes out. schoolteacher vernacular 483 It’s almost like treating the faculty like a school or Old school vision principal and this is the way it is. I’ve seen it so often that I could say it’s a bit of a generalization where it’s not considered to be as a broad academic venture. 484 The way I would condense it is the context is where Context it’s at. 485 But what we do in education is we focus on the Obsession with content and the content is really nebulous. “This is accreditation; the policy, this is the curriculum,” but that’s not going content vs context to lead to a better sociology. Understand the context like in Ferguson, or whatever we do around the world. I noticed when I was in the United States and in Canada, there’s an obsession with getting accreditation and rubrics and numbering, and it’s important, but it shouldn’t overwhelm these other areas and topics. 486 If we were to say that “there’s no racism, just work Denial; Neglect; cf harder and stop being a downer” and neglect that racism there is, the way I would say it is let’s talk to people
120 who aren’t White to see if they agree that there is no racism. 487 There is some power and people who don’t want to Be open for challenge. I think that we have to constantly strive to conversation build a decent society. That might sound a bit romantic, but be open. If you tell me that I’m bullying you or that you’re not feeling comfortable or that things are not working out, I should be open as a leader or Dean to kind of review these things. It takes a lot of courage to kind of open up and have these conversations and look for change. 488 I think that if leadership has a good understanding of Understanding of the sociology within his team, it should be hardly sociology in team unheard of that there would be any bullying or harassing occurring. There would probably be conflicts, but then they would probably be sorted out and life would continue. 489 I think you have to really work through the Work through the institutional culture, power relations. institutional culture, power relations 490 But within faculty of education, you can tell when we You hear all kinds go to a lot of conferences, we know a lot of people in of really crazy stuff faculty of education. You hear all kinds of really crazy stuff. 491 Every university has stuff but I think that the key Be open for really is to, as best as possible, reach out and to be conversation open, and it’s not easy. 492 Even with being a man, there is a lot of pressure for Pressure for men men to try to be open to kind of challenging all sorts to try to be open of stuff; violence against women and violence in general. 493 These are complicated things. But I think that there is Rhetoric and often a mismatch between rhetoric. The rhetoric is policy often very good. We look at Obama and everything is implementation fantastic, we’re working together, but then you look are a mismatch at the policy implementation. When you look at the policy in faculty of ed and what kind of policies are there, I think people can read through that. There has to be some sort of authenticity. 494 In fact, all of the cases that I have referred to involved Women whom women who have done odious and hideous things have done odious toward other men and women. Race, sexual and hideous things
121 orientation, all of these other things weren’t really one of the issues.
495 The issue was more of jealousy or wanting to control. Jealous or wanting to control 496 in my case, I’m not a difficult person, but I also have Not a doormat my own values of my own, so I’m not going to be a doormat, so I might say some things. I think that maybe that might be a threat, I don’t know, but I think A______and some others have written some very nice things about this problematic. 497 I wouldn’t look at this as strictly an identity issue. I Personality; think that there are personalities. Identity 498 You could have 10 Dutch people, all White male or 10 Dutch people female, and you may have very similar things. 499 I think that culture is another issue. Culture 500 But I think there are other things that are happening It's complicated; at the same time and it’s difficult sometimes to put Easier to say it your finger on it. That’s why it’s easier just to say it doesn't exist doesn’t exist, “suck it up,” “be a man.” 501 I think within a Marxist critique, we live in a highly Not meant to bring consumerist, individualist, hyper, new liberal, people together capitalist society. All of those things mitigate against having effective decent normal human relations. They are not meant to bring people together. They are meant to divide people and to ensure there is competition; threats against men and women, White/Black, different people in different power, etc. As long as education is structured that way, it’s not healthy. 502 At the last university, I went up for a promotion for Mobilized a full professor. This was part of my complaint about campaign against the Chair. I had published, someone told me, more me than the entire committee. I had something like 8 books, and 75 articles and it was just very productive, but I had just put it there on paper. I also had a number of other things in the university and in the community. But the Chair mobilized a campaign and people within my department voted against me. I had support in the sociology department and elsewhere. This is something that is wrong. Just looking at it objectively, it’s not what you think and the reason that was given was “well, you’re not in the
122 department that often, and you should wait and you haven’t participated” but when you look at what I had done, I was doing all of these things. I’m not crying. When I went to the new university, they immediately gave me a full promotion to professor and that made me feel better, but it also made me feel that I was given a raw deal at the other place.
503 It could be my politics, and it could also be just the I was a bit fact that I was a bit different. different 504 To be honest with you, and I don’t want to make light Motivated me to of it, it affected me but not so much that I was unable leave the place to work. It affected me in the fact that it motivated me to leave the place. 505 If I hadn’t published so much and I was in that Depression situation, I probably would have been in for a pretty serious depression. 506 It was actually a woman of colour as Chair who was Woman of colour disingenuous, and I actually thought when I made my as Chair who was complaint that she might say that I’m making a disingenuous complaint because of race. I thought about that even though I have been working on anti-racism for a good 3 decades at least, because I thought she would play any card there is. 507 I’m not of the opinion that because someone is White Race that they could absolutely be garbage. I think that these things are complex. 508 I think that it’s the personality. Sometimes people are Entrenched and very easy going, but I think that in academia people specialized; are so strongly entrenched and specialized in their Vulnerable to area that it makes them vulnerable to engage in a engage in a broader range of issues, and that sometimes is a bit of broader range of a problem because you have people who are very issues specialized that are in leadership positions. 509 I think that in academia you’ve got a lot of smart Trying to vote me people and, in my case, effort was placed on trying to down, just foolish vote me down, and it was just foolish. 510 It’s not like in a school yard “he called me this, and It's very I’m going to . . .,” it’s very sophisticated. In talking to sophisticated and you, that’s what I would end up with as a conclusion. psychological That it's very sophisticated and psychological. You’re dealing with smart people, but there’s also a lot of
123 rewards and competition, and that’s why people try to ostracize or isolate people.
511 It would be interesting to gather different colleagues You have to build who work on this because it seems there are some something very functioning things. I think you have to build together something together. It has to be organic. 512 I think that you bring together good people. Bring together good people 513 I know almost every place you think of has got these How intense are issues, the question is how intense are they? the issues 514 For me, authenticity, being open, developing plans Leadership but being flexible, providing feedback, checking-in, cultivating, etc. There are a few people that I can think of who are very decent and open-minded. They are not problem people. They are there to assist you. It’s not necessarily a leadership quality per se. How do we do it: with these types of people. 515 There are some very good people, but the people Cut throat going up there also have to be very cut throat.
Table 7: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Leo
Quote ID Theme Frequency 457, 458, 461 > 465, 468, 469, 470, 475, 481 Wheelbarrow full of 29 > 485, 487 > 491, 493, 494, 495, 506, 511, frogs 512, 514, 515 476 > 484, 490 Education is a different 10 playground 454, 456, 469, 485, 493, 499, 501, 515 University politics 8 disgraceful
4. 12 Interview With Griffin
I had met Griffin at a conference in Holland before I started the research, and again at a conference in Australia, where he enabled me to present some of the proceedings of my research. He curses a lot and in the table I have left the expletives in place, but in the next
124 chapters, I have edited his stark language. Being queer and a foreigner in the country in which he works are strong reasons for being bullied, unfortunately, according to his own understanding.
4.12.1 Griffin’s Story
# Text section or quote Theme 602 Well it’s not just one event. I think when bullying happens, it Multiple ways happens in multiple ways. 603 It’s often left to the person who is being bullied to connect Didn’t the fucking dots because while it’s happening, I certainly recognize it didn’t recognize it as bullying. 604 I thought it was something else, and I think that’s why Question bullying is so insidious, because I think the immediate yourself impact is that you actually start to question your ability to do the fucking job that fucking that’s the first materialization of bullying. 605 It started with colleagues who didn’t agree with me Accusations of coordinating the Master’s program. Sending out emails and incompetence basically accusing me of not being able to populate the teaching staff with credential lecturers. 606 Just dragging people off the street to staff this Accusations of incompetence 607 And then it kind of – it was insidious. It kind of got – there Accusations of was little kind of drip things that were happening. And then incompetence it all kind of blew up when an email was sent to the Vice Chancellor accusing me of numerous things under my coordination role. And basically escalating what initially had been kind of bitchy remarks into an institutional incident. 608 And while that was kind of happening, I kind of put it down Being other basically to the disgruntlement of the previous coordinator and his requirement and need for revenge. But thinking about why the context in which I work, there are kind of a casual remarks that are made, which I do think on reflection have a lot to do with a) me being British in an Australian University; me being a critical scholar in a context where criticality or any kind of intellectualism is regarded as suspicious; and also me being a very out and a certain type of gay male.
125 609 I think my performance of queer enabled people to make Being too remarks which they wouldn’t make remarks about if I was a much little less flamboyant. I get the sense I’m a little bit too much and therefore it’s quite legitimate to make comments because I’m too much. 610 If only if I wasn’t so gay or if I didn’t have to speak about it Hetero- all the time, and I find that in terms of kind of a hetero- normative normative culture and a hetero-normative bullying, which is seen as actually seen as legitimate. legitimate 611 It’s all right to make those remarks because there’s the Personal and distinction between being an academic on what that is academic life supposed to look like, and then one's personal life. And it goes back to kind of the critical paradigm where the personal informs the political. 612 And in my university, I’m surrounded by a majority of Norm people who are former teachers; it’s not an education studies department, it’s initial teacher training department. And they still behave like they are in the fucking classroom. And anything which slightly deviates from the norm is suspect, suspicious and/or is kind of slapped down. 613 Interviewer: But is it, now you say that, is it not also that Threat by they feel endangered by an intellectual? Respondent: I think intellectual that’s certainly that’s part of it. That’s part of it. 614 I think that it’s the British thing. I mean this is where I say Being other kind of joining up the dots. 615 I mean initially I thought, well, I don’t go through life Homophobia thinking people are homophobic, I don’t. But having – when I initially arrived here, there was a staff meeting. And one of the – and were all the colleagues were around the table and one of the staff members made a comment that she was not going to be anybody’s bum boy. And I’m like, I then believed she’s just fucking said this, and not one person around the table registered that comment as inappropriate, and I went to the Head of school and I said, “Did you not hear what she said?” 616 I said, if she had said she wasn’t going to be anyone’s nigger, Discrimination what do you think would have happened? And the look on his face, when I said the “N” word. I said, you didn’t even register it. Did you, T? 617 I said, well, unless something is done I’m going to make a Social justice formal complaint. And at that point I realized that I was in a kind of an intellectual fucking desert or I was in a critical consciousness desert, because in a faculty of education
126 which is predicated on the principles of social justice that comment was unheard except by me.
618 Researcher: Yeah. Unbelievable. Respondent: And it is not Competitive unbelievable. I mean I’ve kind of come to realize that you sell narcissistic – there are very few places where one can be, where one can place be where one feels supported by one’s colleagues as allies. And so wider understanding in the academia basically is a competitive narcissistic place. And if one is seen or perceived to be getting anywhere, then people will kind of very quickly slice you fucking down, and they’ll slice you down with whatever they feel is legitimate that they can slice you down with. 619 The thing is in academia it’s done very cleverly. People don’t Insidious come up to and say, you fucking queer, but they certainly comments kind of make insidious comments, you know: colourful, flamboyant and it’s like, yeah, because I’m performing queer as a way of disrupting, the normative discourses that exist in institutions. And if you don’t fucking get that, you’re even more stupid than I thought you were to begin with. 620 But if you got to explain, people don’t fucking get it. And I A space where refuse to behave in a way that puts me in a space where I I feel that I’m feel that I’m being undone everyday by doing this job. I won’t being undone do it, but it brings consequences, and that consequence is everyday by that people feel entitled to make remarks about me where doing this job they wouldn’t make remarks about people of colour or people with disability or women. 621 It seems being queer in Australia or being a certain kind of Being queer queer in Australia in academia actually kind of sets you up. 622 Griffin: Never encountered it in England. Researcher: Okay. Being queer Okay. And you performed as queer in England as in Australia? Respondent: Yeah. 623 So it could be the fact that I don’t belong here that I’m not Being other Australian. I mean one, again, a very early staff meeting. The comment was made, well, why did we employ M_____. 624 And I’m thinking yeah, and then somebody out said, well, Being other these people that come to Australia and take our jobs. 625 So it’s not just the gay thing. I think there is a kind of Resentment resentment to people who kind of come in and do the work in such a way that people who are being in for 10 fucking years disappear to the beach in fucking December and don’t come back till early February.
127 626 Researcher: Yeah. Yeah. So that is you being a newcomer in Critical two senses and then also being a challenger on the intellectual level and on the performing level in academic work sense. Respondent: Yeah. Yeah. And also, I mean alongside that is the fact that I’m upfront and center stage about my sexuality. And also I’m critical with it. I’m not kind of a nice fuzzy gay man that comes along and swaps fucking knitting patterns. And I’m political in my articulation of sexuality. And what that means for education and of course that fucking rocks the boat and people don’t like it. 627 It’s – this is where I talk about connecting the dots. I think Outsider it’s being, it’s being an outsider, it’s having a certain critical stance on sexuality is having a certain critical stance on what education is and what education should do. And that comes from being in an education studies department and then going into an initial teacher training department. Those are very, very different fucking beasts. One is, I think, people here are prepared to engage with ideas and understand ideas. And the second one is, people here are now where we do train teachers and it’s like: Luvy, you train fucking dogs. 628 And I think see the glazed look in people’s eyes when Othering everyone matters. Another interesting thing is, people, and this is what I regularly get, is people comment upon my language. We don’t understand what you’re saying; oh you use big words. And I’m really in a fucking university. And what that is doing in many ways is saying, is trying to silence me. 629 And the people here were saying it, and I give them enough Ways of credit to actually kind of realize, well, yeah, this is a form of bullying bullying. You wouldn’t be able to go to someone and say excuse me and shut your fucking mouth, but you can go up to someone and say I don’t understand what you’re saying. You use words that just I’ve never heard of before. So it puts it back on the speaker, and I think that’s what bullying, the experience of my bullying has done. It’s placed it all back on me as a way of saying, do you belong here and the answer that I’ve come to is, no, I don’t actually.
128 630 Researcher: Yeah. I think it’s interesting in your story that Corralling you had to connect the dots to figure out, hey, this is – I’m being bullied and rather. . . Respondent: And one incident where, when it became an institutional event. I got that fucked off. I went to the Dean. And then I went further up, and I sat in a meeting with my Dean. After this letter, that’s not only been sent to the Vice Chancellor, but is being sent to all lecturers on the program that I was coordinating. And all the students, which was about 90 fucking three of them and I said, well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do to stop this? And the Vice Dean or the fucking, whoever is of the hierarchy turned to me and said, well, what would you like me to do. And then at that point, I thought I can’t fucking believe this. I’m being victimized here, and I’m being asked to provide them with a solution. 631 And then, the implicit message was, well, let’s just draw a Cynical line underneath this. And then at that point I thought, fuck you, fuck universities, fuck this job, and it really kind of altered my – the way that I started to do this job. I mean I stopped going in and I became highly fucking cynical of the process. I became suspicious of people and I’m thinking if this is academia and I think it is academia everywhere. Then, oh boy, am I fucked up? Because when I’m doing my Ph.D., there one told me it is like this. 632 Researcher: Yeah. But is that not a very unlucky It is academia circumstance that you got into this university and in this faculty? Respondent: No. No, I don’t think it is, because I speak to colleagues. And I’ve got colleagues at other universities, better universities with better reputations. And they’ve encountered similar, if not, worse situations. I don’t think it’s uniquely my institution. I think it’s uniquely academia. 633 Well, I think, I’m looking for jobs now, but I’m only looking in Training; Not for jobs in education studies. I’m not looking for jobs in provocative schools or colleges of education that do initial teacher pedagogy training, because I think education studies are paradigmatically different. It’s master’s work, it’s people who get ideas and initial teacher training, it’s, I mean, I can go in and I can deliver a fucking lecture with my hands tied behind my back on one leg, it’s not that it is what it is. It is what it says on the bottle, it’s training. And training doesn’t require criticality. Training doesn’t require a pedagogy which is provocative. In fact, it actually dissuades it.
129 634 Yeah, but that is a double-edged sword. I mean I was going to apply for promotion this year. And what stopped me was that if I applied and I got it, then I have to press my bosom closer to the fucking thorn, but it would have been anywhere near. I mean there is a lot to be said. There’s a lot to be said for staying where I am as a Level C, which means that I’m under the radar. If you’re going to an associate professor, there is an increased expectation that you’ll go to meetings that you’ll be involved in all of the stuff. And speaking quite frankly, I can’t bear it. I don’t want to be anywhere near those people. 635 And I started taking from my job, the benefits. I don’t have to Playing the go in everyday, and I don’t. I’m not an associate professor, I game don’t have that institutional expectation that I do anything then do my pubs and teach and it’s kind, and if this is the best that it can be, which I think it is, then fine, I’ll play the fucking game. 636 Researcher: Yeah, but this is a very disturbing and saddening Intellectual life position to be in because it doesn’t appeal to your resides intellectual capacities. Interviewee: Well, my intellectual outside the capacities and my intellectual life resides outside the university university. It resides in the community of scholars, which are dispersed throughout the world. It certainly doesn’t reside within the corridors of my institution. I wouldn’t fucking trust them as far as I can throw them. And having been on Prozac for a good two years, and having been referred to see a psychiatrist because of depression. It’s like fuck, I’m not going back there again. Researcher: And, I have to ask this, all work related? Interviewee: Yeah. 637 Interviewee: I mean I stopped taking my Prozac in Prozac November of this year. Researcher: Man. Interviewee: I was only on it for two years. Researcher: Wow! That’s really very sad isn’t it? Interviewee: And I don’t regard myself as a naturally depressive person. Researcher: Right. Right. Interviewee: I’m pretty up. I’m pretty positive. I’m pretty resilient. 638 Interviewer: Yeah. And the way you have analyzed or Depression connected the dots, shows me that you’re not in the middle of it or that you’re suffering from being a victim in that process. But at the same time, your work or situations around your work made you depressed 639 Look, there were weeks. There was a week where I just Depression stayed in bed and stared at the wall. And I’m thinking I am fucked up there. What can I do? And when one is looking at
130 the future and thinking, I don’t know what I’m going to do. And all one sees is blackness.
640 And on the drive-in to M____, it’s about an hour’s drive, and Depression there is a stretch of the motorway that has got big fucking gum trees. And it got to one point, I thought, I know what I can do. I can boot my foot down on the accelerator and I can drive straight into a fucking gum tree. 641 And I’ve got this for the next fucking 20 years unless I flick Go and do academia. I can go and do something else, but I don’t want to something else go back into school teaching. 642 So what I did, I stayed in bed, I ate Prozac and I didn’t see Prozac anybody. 643 In particular you end up sounding even more crazier than it Depression sounded at the minute. I mean you can’t – because people say, maybe it’s all in your head. And it’s like, yeah, it is all in my fucking head and who put it there. 644 You, you cunt. I’ve come to regard academics as people who Academics constantly fucking are looking for opportunities to get believe they ahead. are their CV 645 Respondent: Look, I’m suspicious now. Researcher: Yeah. Academics But is that not mere competitiveness? Respondent: Yeah, but believe they it’s competitiveness in academia because people actually are their CV believe that they are their fucking CV. 646 People go around and say, well, I’m professor so and so and Academics all they put their email the latest book and it’s like, oh get believe they over your fucking self. Is this why we do the work? The are their CV grandstanding that is going on, this is wank. 647 So I tried to keep out of it as much as possible. I don’t go into Avoiding the university if I can possibly avoid it. I do my teaching and I get out and I certainly don’t go to fucking meetings or end of fucking term Christmas parties. It’s like na-na-na-na. 648 No, it means, yeah, not to kind of get blown off the fucking Avoiding tracks again. 649 I mean it’s been a hell of a learning experience in terms of Most people how to do academia. I started off thinking everyone was are cunts basically decent. I now start off thinking most people are cunts.
131 650 I don’t regard it as leadership. I regard it as man- Man- management. They’re nothing more than making sure that management the university is going to get litigated against then and forcing policy in making sure that the institution is a solvent, it’s not leadership. Leadership implies or involves some kind of vision and direction making sure that the fucking books balance is not a vision or a direction that’s kind of fiscal control. And as universities are now businesses, I see Vice Chancellors are nothing more than kind of CEOs. 651 Look, I’m paradigmatically inscribed. I’m situated and Education now positioned. And as an educator and also as an academic with is a product a set of beliefs and practices which is that education is transformative, yeah? I’m in a system where education now is a product. 652 The customer i.e., the student is king. Now fuck that. Since Students in when, if I’m buying a TV, I’m going into the TV store and I’ve the role of already done a little bit of research whether I want an LCD fucking or a big screen or whatever the fuck I want. Now, I have customer some knowledge, a spotty fucking 18-year-old that’s just out of high school is sitting in my lecture doesn’t fucking know what they need to know. They are not a customer. Yeah. And I’m the lecturer and I have certain responsibilities and they have certain responsibilities. When student – when you put students in the role of fucking customer, then what are we? 653 We’re servicing the customer. There are times that I feel like Students in an old prostitute about to drag down my nickers and get the role of fucked again. They’re not customers, they’re fucking fucking students. customer 654 That might be a very 1970s way of looking at it, but Where is neoliberalism has worked over universities so that they’re education for nothing more than businesses. One only needs to look at the the public marketing. And you do this degree and you can earn this good? much. Where is education for the public good? 655 So I am maybe being anachronistic. When we are told we’re Where is not giving the students what they want, it is no, we are education for giving the students what they need. the public good? 656 What colleagues in other institutions say, only that we have Center of a center of excellence for education. I kind of balk at the excellence rhetoric because it implies then everyone else is a center of shit.
132 657 What does this nomenclature actually mean? And what does Center of the center of excellence look like, but it’s that discursive excellence rhetoric which people are constantly kind of, we are a center of outstanding achievement, we are a center of excellence. I mean they’re going to fucking run out of superlatives. 658 And the implicit narrative is that anyone who is working in Center of this center of excellence then has to constantly prove how excellence fucking excellent they are. Like the doorbell on the fucking ring running around and around and around, get you running faster and faster and faster and faster and you end up either fucking dropping dead with a heart attack or crumbling. 659 I talk about practicing a provocative pedagogy. My pedagogy Provocative is provocative. It’s a narrative pedagogy. I draw on stories. pedagogy And I tell stories purposely to make uncertain and to generate discomfort. 660 And to leave that hanging in the air for the students to make Provocative sense of it themselves. Students don’t want to be provoked. pedagogy Students don’t want to be made uncomfortable. Students want certainties. They want to be told this is how you do it. 661 On a recent trip, a study towards Thailand, it was really Provocative interesting because one of the students said to another pedagogy student all he does is talk about gay stuff. And there was one lecture or there was one tutorial where being in Thailand, I was talking about the non-binary system of gender and sexuality as a way of cult understanding, kind of the everyday practices of culture because in these schools that I was working in, with these pre-service teachers, there were lady boys. There were lady boys who were teachers and there were lady boys who were students. So I address this as a presence. And the retort came, all he does is talk about gay stuff. 662 And I thought long and hard about that, and I felt, well, this is Privileged nothing more than privileged fucking White hetero- white hetero- normativity enacting itself again. Fuck them. And if one normativity lecture discombobulated them so much that they had to make that remark and obviously a provocative pedagogy is also a dangerous pedagogy. 663 And it’s dangerous for the person who is doing it because Privileged sooner or later, you end up being told what’s coming out of white hetero- your mouth actually is not wanted or not needed or not normativity appropriate. And it’s that notion again of appropriacy and pedagogy.
133 664 We’re working in classrooms with life and the stuff of life is Pedagogy, it’s wide ranging in and heterogeneous is not, this notion of that a position pedagogy is a set of things that can be learned and applied, is not something I believe in. Pedagogy, it’s a position. It’s a situation. It’s a landscape, which one becomes placed in and one moves through; it’s not a little fucking talking. 665 And to articulate that and disseminate that to pre-service Pedagogy, it’s teachers, a) it’s political, b) it’s critical, c) it’s dangerous, a position because you’re not giving them what they want and you’re not giving them what the institution wants you to give them. 666 Well, bullying has a link when students turn around and Privileged make comments like that. white hetero- normativity 667 Yeah. When colleagues say, well actually we don’t think this Privileged is relevant. Well of course you wouldn’t, because you’re white hetero- White heterosexual able bodied fucking . . , of course, you normativity don’t even see it. 668 Not every kid in the class is going to grow up to be like you, Privileged love. white hetero- normativity 669 So I don’t think I call myself an academic anymore. I think if I Academic a was to choose a label, I’d probably kind of call myself, I’d go job title back. I would return to when I was 19 or 20, and I was involved in activism. I’m much more comfortable with the notion of an activist scholar than I’m an academic. And academic is a bit like a fucking accountant. It’s just become a job title. It doesn’t actually describe the work that I want to do. 670 An academic is a little cog in the very big machine, I don’t Cog in want to be any fucking one’s cog. machine 671 And if I call myself an academic then I’m interpolated into Academic a that discourse. I’m actually got to buy into it. I don’t buy into job title it. I spend all my life fucking resisting it. So to call myself an academic actually is, it reinforces to me the binary position I’m in. 672 And I speak to former supervisors who are professors and Academic a they’re articulating the same thing. So it’s not just people like job title me, I think, it’s affecting anybody who actually has a different view of what education in universities are about. 673 Recently if one cites the issues that are happening in Academy and America around Fergusson and race politics
134 674 I mean in the Paris uprising, students didn’t give a fuck Academy and about presenting their papers. It was like it was the last politics thing on their fucking mind in the universities. 675 I mean people are dying and we’re talking about presenting Academy and papers. And where is the learning here? politics 676 It’s become a bourgeois old fucking woman that’s worried Academy and about whether the hemline is fucking straight. politics 677 He used to be vibrant. It’s disappointing to say the least. Academy and politics 678 But in terms of bullying I expect nothing from universities Bullying anymore. 679 And to quote Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror, and I receive I receive in abundance. I receive nothing in abundance. nothing in abundance 680 No, not unless people become radicalized. I mean it’s The collective happening, it’s happened in Fergusson with people saying noun for enough is enough. We’re getting killed. Academics don’t get teachers is killed; they just don’t get promoted. Yeah. So they move on. beige And moving on, they perpetrate the same fucking system. And unfortunately, the collective noun for teachers is beige. 681 Education academics are not the most radical bunch of The collective people that you’re going to encounter. And so they won’t noun for rock the fucking boat. They’ll just, they’ll keep tight to the teachers is yolk walking round and round and round doing the same old beige shit and because that’s what universities, because people who’ve got mortgages and they’ve got kids, college funds, and they’ve got all that kind of shyte. And so they don’t rock the boat. 682 And if some colleagues are getting promoted then those The collective colleagues invariably buy in to the system that privileges noun for that kind of discourse. teachers is beige 683 And if it’s individualized, well you’re just grumpy because Personalized you haven’t got promoted or you’re grumpy because you and haven’t been asked to do this. It becomes personalized and individualized individualized, and of course that in itself is also a form of bullying. 684 But as far as gay men in the academy go, I think you get good Good gay men gay men in who wear suits and ties and do all that shit and then you get people like me who don’t. 685 If anyone would’ve told me when I was doing my PhD that Prozac I’d end up on Prozac for two years, because of doing this job,
135 I would not have believed them.
686 I think one is conscious, it’s a bit like Hamlet’s father. One is Hamlet's constantly haunted by the experience. And one is constantly father: looking over the shoulder to see who is going to fucking Haunted by happen again. So therefore, one’s everyday job becomes the contoured and coloured by those experiences. You don’t do experience; the job in the same way. You don’t do the job with the same Panopticon fierce passion or with the joie de vivre, like you should; realize that somebody out there who can take a potshot so you become a hyper vigilant. It’s what Foucault talks about or Bentham talks about as the Panopticon. You start to self- surveil as a form of protection. 687 I mean, now, I kind of I try and live by Oscar Wilde’s Maxim Never explain of never explain and never apologize. If they don’t get it, fuck and never them. apologize
Table 8: Inventory of Themes in the Interview with Griffin
Quote ID Theme Frequency 626, 651 > 655, 669 > 677, 680 > 682, Politics: Cog in the machine 27 633, 652 > 669 Pedagogy, it’s a position 19 625 > 629, 641, 647, 649, 651, 658, 680 > Non-radicalized education 16 685
4.13 Inventory of Inventories
The interviews were all unique, united only in dealing with the same topic. The themes that prevailed are divergent in their details, but major issues are obvious. The interviews were conducted over a period of about a year, so my understanding of the problem evolved, and must have changed the direction the interviews took over that period. In the next chapter, a deeper analysis is given to the convergences, as well as the unique quotes, that do the personal experiences justice.
136 In the following table an overview of frequencies is given to give an insight to the numbers of quotes that were given to groups of themes. Again, in this qualitative interpretive study, frequency has the same weight as any single quote picked from the interviews. The commonality of themes in the 9 interviews does provide an understanding that the issues are not just personal, but reveal a broader existent problem.
The theme group column refers to the subchapter in Chapter 5 where I discuss a deeper understanding of the problems. The table is the collection of the tables of inventory in this Chapter 4 and is sorted on theme groups and on frequency of themes occurring.
Table 9: Inventory of Inventories Quote ID Theme Respondent Freq Theme group 221, 222, Feelings of alienation and Peony 32 1 Bullying 224, 225, aloneness 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 235, 236, 238, 242, 243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 422 > 439 (No) collegiality Heather 18 1 Bullying 341 > 356 Outspokenness Heather 17 1 Bullying 155, 170, Obedience to administration Camellia 16 1 Bullying 171, 172, 173, 174 > 186 369 > 381 Aggression Heather 13 1 Bullying 382 > 390 Neglect and denial (passive Heather 9 1 Bullying aggressiveness)
137 Quote ID Theme Respondent Freq Theme group 126, 128, Obedience to administration as Camellia 8 1 Bullying 142, 144, survival mechanism of faculty 145, 146, members 147, 162, 312, 313, How bullying works Gavin 7 1 Bullying 317, 320, 322, 323, 338 440 > 446 Corralling Heather 7 1 Bullying 516, 520, Environmental Peony 7 1 Bullying 562, 565, 572, 574, 590, 101, 103, Corralling, mobbing Rose 5 1 Bullying 117, 124, 125 101, 109, Bullying tactics Rose 5 1 Bullying 123 > 125 262 > 266 It was a series of things Peony 5 1 Bullying 154, 163, Hypocrisy – orchestrated Camellia 5 1 Bullying 187, 188, approach to ethics 189 129, 134, Denial of bullying Camellia 4 1 Bullying 135, 136 145, 146, The irrational made rational Camellia 3 1 Bullying 147 410 > 421 Strong women (fearlessness) Heather 12 2 Othering 314, 315, Othering, discrimination of Gavin 11 2 Othering 316, 326 > groups 331, 334, 337, 518, 519, Factors race, class, Peony 10 2 Othering 521, 536, 554, 555, 556, 560, 578, 593, 396 > 402 Ethnicity, gender, class, Heather 7 2 Othering education 223, 236, Being African American Peony 6 2 Othering 239 > 241, 592 130, 131, Orchestrated intimidation by Camellia 6 2 Othering 132, 133, group 138, 156
138 Quote ID Theme Respondent Freq Theme group 447 > 451 Being picked on Heather 5 2 Othering 141, 158, Ethnicity, gender, class, racism Camellia 5 2 Othering 159, 160, 161 114, 116, Outcast, Losing friends hurts Rose 4 2 Othering 117, 118 314, 340 Scapegoated Gavin 2 2 Othering 102 Race, ethnicity, gender Rose 1 2 Othering 128 Obedience and racism Camellia 1 2 Othering 127 Denial of racism Camellia 1 2 Othering 517, 522 > Workings of bullying Peony 26 4 Bullying 535, 537, effects 540, 541, 544, 545, 576, 577, 579, 580, 589, 594, 140, 148, Paralyzing impact on victim Camellia 14 4 Bullying 149, 150, effects 151, 152, 157, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170 155, 172 > Social isolation Camellia 14 4 Bullying 184 effects 548, 549, Speaking up – insight Peony 10 4 Bullying 550, 551, effects 552, 558, 569, 586, 596, 597, 539, 561, Effects of bullying Peony 9 4 Bullying 567, 568, effects 569, 589, 594, 600, 601 164 > 170 Took 5 years to come over it Camellia 7 4 Bullying effects 126, 148 > Victimized, powerlessness Camellia 6 4 Bullying 152 effects 405 > 409 Walk away from it Heather 5 4 Bullying effects 233, 234, Actions in response, moved Peony 4 4 Bullying 237, 261, office effects
139 Quote ID Theme Respondent Freq Theme group 120 > 122 Growing from experience Rose 3 4 Bullying effects 191, 192 Having a hard time Camellia 2 4 Bullying effects 626, 651 > Politics: Cog in the machine Griffin 27 5 Politics 655, 669 > 677, 680 > 682, 454, 456, University politics disgraceful Leo 8 5 Politics 469, 485, 493, 499, 501, 515 286 > 289, Neo-liberalism Peony 5 5 Politics 292 101, 104, Power, leadership, politics Rose 3 5 Politics 107 457, 458, Wheelbarrow full of frogs Leo 29 6 Leadership 461 > 465, 468, 469, 470, 475, 481 > 485, 487 > 491, 493, 494, 495, 506, 511, 512, 514, 515 105, 106, Battling incompetence; Rose 8 6 Leadership 107, 110 > leadership quality 113, 114 272 > 275, Bad leadership Peony 7 6 Leadership 277, 278, 281, 137, 139, Leader as orchestrator of Camellia 5 6 Leadership 143, 190, bullying 191 276, 279, Good leadership Peony 3 6 Leadership 280 625 > 629, Non-radicalized education Griffin 16 8 Education 641, 647, 649, 651, 658, 680 > 685 476 > 484, Education is a different Leo 10 8 Education 490 playground
140 Quote ID Theme Respondent Freq Theme group 358 > 368 Solidarity of students Heather 10 8 Education 297 > 306 Faculty of Education Inferiority Peony 10 8 Education complex 145, 146, Obedience to administration; Camellia 3 8 Education 147 consensus to deny facts 633, 652 > Pedagogy, it’s a position Griffin 19 9 Pedagogy 669
141 Chapter 5: Understanding and Discussion
5.1 Bullying and How It Works; Making Meaning
A second level of analysis shows how I made sense of the findings and how I understand them. How does bullying work in faculties of education, according to the respondents? I will begin by providing examples of what the respondents had to say about it: “But within a faculty of education, you can tell when we go to a lot of conferences, we know a lot of people in faculties of education. You hear all kinds of really crazy stuff”
(490).2 I choose to let the respondents speak without my comment for now.
“Colleagues were doing the backstabbing” (238). “It was constant” (262). “Things happened on a daily basis” (263). “It is really hard to pinpoint one thing” (264). “It was environmental” (265). “It was a climate that existed within the school” (266). “Things happened on a daily basis whether I was being ignored in a meeting or whether it was not being- like I knew the mentoring that other faculty were going to help them move towards tenure” (563). “And rather than asking me how many students do you have this semester- and all I have to do is look at the grade roster and see, they would ask someone else” (527).
The gossiping just became really large and it started getting back to me and
once it did, when I went back to the university I confronted the main people
who were saying things, and there was denial or if not outright denial it was
like, no you misunderstood—I didn’t mean it that way. I ended up feeling so
alienated from the department that I moved my office so I could be away
(537).
2 The numbers in brackets refer to the chosen quotes from the interviews, which are listed in the appendix B.
142 “It was never direct but it was indirect micro aggression” (322). “When I would speak up in a meeting, anybody could respond, she would slam me down” (323). “All of a sudden they started being gossipy and sort of whispering behind me about why are the students learning the word deconstruct, why are they talking this way, why are these students doing this” (350). “What this man started to do was to be aggressive toward me”
(369).
So I am standing at the desk and I weighed about 130 pounds and I am
reaching over the desk and it's a large room and this man, this large man
walks up to the desk and physically, physically pushes his entire body weight
against me, throws me across the desk, and secretary sitting there and
basically bruises my hip, walks away. And he assaulted me and I turned
around and I said did you see that and she said, see what? I said did you see
what he just did to me? I didn't see a thing, are you crazy, what did he do, he
is way over there (374). I called the dean to report it. And he called back and
said that there was no proof that it happened and that I obviously made it up,
that the assault never happened (375). He just assaulted me (376).
“And everyday at my office he would leave notes about me being a pig or how disgusting my office was and stuff like that and all of a sudden the faculty stopped talking to me” (377). “And then it got worse just the treatment, this man kept on me and I felt like I couldn’t even breathe, I couldn't even breathe” (380). “Friends that I had I would notice were starting to talk aside from me and when I would come in would stop talking to me”
(382). “And I noticed my mail started to be not being in mailbox, little tiny things” (383). “I was starting to not get invited to faculty meetings” (385). “I started to notice that my
143 partner’s phone messages were starting to be delayed or lost” (388). “So for the rest of the months it got ramped up and it became my entire obsession” (391). “And she called me a couple of weeks later and said the dean had said he had to fire me. I said well you can't fire me, he hired me and he’s going to have to fire me” (413). “And so he fired me” (414). “Why didn't you do the grant? And I said because they threw me out of the room and they wouldn’t do with me. She said that's not what they said. This is my best girlfriend” (432).
“In the past, all our marks on our assessments were ‘good’ and now the people that work as madmen will get ‘great’ and some will get ‘good,’ and some that they think of as we would like to get rid of, get a mark ‘inadequate.’ If you get that mark two times you are being fired” (194). “The sphere is fear; the word is out that there are still too many jobs, people will have to be fired, so it is used as a tactic almost to get rid of people. Because they do not want to openly fire people, but they want to get rid of people, so they have come up with this tactic” (195).
See, you can battle, then you win 3 square centimeters or you go down in the
battle, and that costs a large amount of life energy, or you become apathetic,
there are a number of possible ways to deal. And I sometimes battle,
sometimes laugh about it, I do all kinds of things. And that suits me and
makes me feel free (206).
“I also see a wish to escape by a lot of people, or that some people do remain in the sphere of complaining and whining. And that too ruins your life to remain on that level”
(212). “And I notice that people are so busy that they become more indifferent and colder towards each other. And for sure not interested in the other. Meetings in the breaks are non existent, lunch is at the computer desk” (214).
144 “Well it’s not just one event. I think when bullying happens, it happens in multiple ways” (602). “It’s often left to the person who is being bullied to connect the dots because while it’s happening I certainly didn’t recognize it as bullying” (603).
I thought it was something else and I think that’s why bullying is so insidious,
because I think the immediate impact is that you actually start to question
your ability to do the job; that’s the first materialization of bullying (604).
“It started with colleagues who didn’t agree with me coordinating the Master’s program sending out emails and basically accusing me of not being able to populate the teaching staff with credential lecturers” (605).
I mean initially I thought, well, I don’t go through life thinking people are
homophobic, I don’t. But having –when I initially arrived here, there was a
staff meeting. And one of the—and where all the colleagues were around the
table and one of the staff members made a comment that she was not going
to be anybody’s bum boy. And I’m like, I can’t believed she’s just fucking said
this, and not one person around the table registered that comment is
inappropriate and I went to the head of school and I said, “Did you not hear
what she said?” (615).
Unfortunately, the respondents’ stories speak for themselves. Their painful experiences show how strong bullying impacts their professional and personal lives.
5.2 The Group And The Other
Bullying can turn into mobbing when more people take part in the bullying and aim at one or a few individuals: “I think I became a scapegoat for whatever reason” (340). And another tells how the group worked against her: “The whole faculty, one by one by one, are
145 confronting me about the email, each one” (131). “They mobbed me. It was real clear. They had all prepared” (132).
And then this woman looks at me and she goes, ‘well say something’, I could
not. I was ambushed. I would’ve never, ever even thought something like that
would happen. After sitting there for almost an hour of hearing these people
go on and on about what I did (133).
What I did at that meeting, I was so upset, I just stood up and said, ‘well if this
is the way you all really feel, maybe this isn't the place for me’. And I just
walked out” (140). “So it was essentially a hazing, the closest thing in
academia. It was a mobbing. I call it hazing, other people call it mobbing
(144).
“But it was irrational, that's the bottom line” (145). “This felt very abusive, it rekindles old feelings of abuse you thought you worked through. It re-triggers as an adult”
(149). “That was the feeling, a sense that I was persona non grata” (153). “It was kind of hysterical but that’s what happens, why they it call workplace mobbing because everybody kind of gets on that wavelength” (173). “So from then on, what happened was, nobody would talk to me. I would walk, people would just turn. It was social isolation” (174). “It was like they were questioning everything I had said and done” (175). “I said, ‘I cannot believe this. I have worked with you for 10 years. What has happened?’ there was almost a veil of secrecy” (176). “I was alienated, isolated, and completely marginalized” (182).
Perhaps all of the respondents have a serious form of amnesia, have creative imaginations or they are just plain liars, but if that is not the case, there is something really problematic going on. I should mention here that all respondents shared experiences with
146 bullying, even when they started the communications by stating that they have never felt bullied themselves. Such statements are both dubious and worrisome. Apparently bullying has many manifestations, some of which are hardly recognizable and often ignored. There is a problem with the social acceptance of behaviour that can be perceived as bullying. A group may decide on a way of dealing with work and social constructs in such a manner that other behaviour is plainly declared unacceptable, and in that way, a free-spirited soul may have a hard time living and working within that group. In that way some faculty may be over-reacting in certain cases, which is understandable after being tested and teased for a long time. Bullying works so strongly among the members of a group that they trust bullying to be a truth and a value to live and work by. It works as a sort of hegemony, where people take up the culture of bullying as their own. Simultaneously, it works as a disciplinary regime, to “get people in line.” Consequently, people that behave differently are expelled one way or the other. The mechanisms that are used may be informal, and often lead to bullying; another approach is for the formal leadership to execute expelling tactics.
So who are those who become the object of bullying in faculties of education? One respondent mentioned: “I’ve always been trouble” (324) and that was seconded by another: “I was always the kid to get in trouble” (418). Not complying with the norms and standards is apparently a reason to get in trouble and be bullied.
What I notice is that most of the time even now, women I am around don't
say what's not right, and am I the only one who notices it. No. I just think
people choose not to open their mouth. So, yeah I am crazy to not know how
to keep my mouth shut (355).
147 5.3 Others Who Become Vulnerable
Groups may have trouble with individuals who are other than “the norm” of the group. Being vocal and trouble is not the only reason for becoming an object of bullying.
Any minority may provide a chance for the majority to embark on the expelling process.
One either fits in or one has to move out. For most minorities, this is not possible because they can’t change their being (apart from the outright antisocial and undemocratic idea behind the felt need to expel). Women seem to be targeted. Race is a reason for getting in trouble, even in faculties of education, which apparently are not always the temples where social justice is preached and promoted. Class is a serious issue too:
What I would say is they would probably experience a similar dynamic,
however, perhaps not as deep and not as painful; but I think anybody put in a
situation who is suddenly isolated by all their colleagues not—first hazed
and mobbed and then not spoken to, I think almost anybody is going to feel
something. But I think when something like that happens, particularly to
somebody who has had to struggle every step of the way and had to face
micro-aggressions in institutions that have to do with racism and sexism, and
class, and the ways those elements enforce us and act themselves onto the
environment, relationships, then I would say that it’s not so much that we
wouldn't all experience it (161).
Even when we consider that many professors at faculties of education have been classroom teachers, a class issue may still exist because others in the faculty may have backgrounds of privilege. Because others have been “mere teachers,” there is an inferiority
148 complex at work that over-compensates into feelings of superiority over new faculty or the not so privileged ones. Not having a heterosexual orientation has become more acceptable in recent years, but it still is a hard case, even in education departments where the laws of the land are being taught to the people. In some cases, homosexual persons perform heteronormativity in the hopes that no one will notice, but as two of the respondents shared, as soon as they performed queer or came out, they were in trouble.
I think my performance of queer enabled people to make remarks which they
wouldn’t if I was a little less flamboyant. I get the sense I’m a little bit too
much, and therefore it’s quite legitimate to make comments because I’m too
much (609).
Is it racial? For a seemingly naive respondent it was not clear at first:
It’s not just about the program coordination itself, but there is a lot going on
in relation to ethnicity, your race, your gender. There are some expectations
that some roles they expect you to fulfill. And you are going outside of those
expectations, and you are not fulfilling the role that they basically have
painted about you. You are challenging the system. And I said, very
interesting, because I have not thought about that (102).
Oh yes, others know: “It felt very racial because I don’t think he would've said that if
I was a White male colleague” (158). “So to you it’s clear that your race was involved.
Camellia: My ethnicity, my gender and I believe my class” (160). “I just felt like life is fucked up for Black faculty at P” (236). “Only one of ten faculty of colour had been tenured” (239).
149 “So they had a way of bringing in people of colour and then pushing them out” (240). “An
African American female being in a predominantly White town and predominately White college” (519) is not making things easy. “The other two women (in my team) were White”
(521). “During the time that P had a school of education, there had been like 10 faculty of colour altogether, whether we’re talking African American, native American, Latino, only one person had been tenured” (555).
I like that word environmental because in my particular case, I think one of
these main reasons that I was being mobbed or bullied was based on how in
America—well, in the fucking world, but in America, how African Americans
are perceived, how we’re looked at as not being intelligent, as not being
worthy, as not being smart or being different or being the other (590).
Camellia states:
I've seen women who have gone through being pushed, and they’re just okay,
and the next thing you know, they get with the program in a sense and some
of them go into administration, do different things. I think our choices in the
university as women, especially women of colour, are much more narrow
than people realize (128).
Another respondent commented:
If we were to say that ”there’s no racism, just work harder and stop being a
downer” and neglect that there is, the way I would say it is let’s talk to people
who aren’t White to see if they agree that there is no racism (486).
The effect that bullying has on faculty of colour is well described in this quote: “It’s that our history of abuse, our history of oppression, will make that experience a bit
150 different for us. I do believe that. So maybe somebody under different circumstances within six months or maybe a year, they’d be over it” (166). The transgendered respondent has a story of his own: “I mean mostly when I started my medical transition absolutely, a bunch of things happened. It’s one of the reasons I left my former job.” “So here I am living as a male and they destabilized the environment by calling me a she in front of students” (326,
328). Griffin stated this: “If only I wasn’t so gay or if I didn’t have to speak about it all the time, and I find that in terms of a heteronormative culture and a heteronormative bullying, which is actually seen as legitimate” (610). He admits that fitting in may help someone not become a victim of workplace bullying: “But as far as gay men in the academy go, I think you get good gay men in who wear suits and ties and do all that shit, and then you get people like me who don’t” (684).
5.4 The Effects Of Bullying
After analyzing the respondents’ life stories, it may be concluded that there are deep negative effects, but for some, after the damage is done, some empowering effects may also be recognized; however, before drawing the conclusion that bullying will do the victim good in the end, it needs to be made clear how deep the damage from bullying can be: “At the time, in that moment, I felt very victimized” (148); “I use victim but it’s a sense of powerlessness” (150); “It is a form of victimization, I felt powerless. I felt this was happening to me, I felt it was unfair, unjust and I felt powerless to do anything to change it”
(152). “So it got to the point I would secretly run into an office so that this guy wouldn’t bother me or other people wouldn’t harass me because I just felt so picked on" (409). “A constant belittling of who I was, my talent, my importance to the university" (227) happened. “People in the faculty stopped talking to me and started to make reports about
151 me" (389). “And as soon as he was made assistant department chair he comes blasting in the office one day and screams at me that I need to clean up the office, that it was humiliating and I was a pig" (373). “I knew my voice would not be listened to” (230).
One of them talked to me after that meeting and said well one of the reasons I
never spoke to you was because of what the department head said; I thought
you were real upset about that. And I said I was not upset about that, you
could have talked to me anytime you wanted to, so you basically act like that
(118).
I think it’s a bit like Hamlet’s father. One is constantly haunted by the
experience. And one is constantly looking over the shoulder to see who it is
going to happen to again. So therefore, one’s everyday job becomes
contoured and coloured by those experiences. You don’t do the job in the
same way. You don’t do the job with the same fierce passion or with the joie
de vivre, like you should realize that somebody out there who can take a pot
shot so you become a hyper vigilant. It’s what Bentham talks about as the
Panopticon. You start to self-surveil as a form of protection. (686)
And so wider understanding—that the academia basically is a competitive,
narcissistic place. And if one is seen or perceived to be getting anywhere,
then people will kind of very quickly slice you fucking down, and they’ll slice
you down with whatever they feel is legitimate that they can slice you down
with (618).
152 The effects may become dangerous, unfortunately, as this response demonstrates:
And on the drive into M, it’s about an hour’s drive, and there is a stretch of
the motorway that has got big trees. And it got to one point, I thought, I know
what I can do. I can boot my foot down on the accelerator and I can drive
straight into a tree. (640)
“I felt that my identity had been stolen” (252), claims another respondent. “It was a climate that existed within the school and because it was a climate, then for five years, little pieces of me were taken away” (567). “It really did take four or five years before I could get to the point where I am now, where I could talk about this and I don't cry anymore. There's always a part of us that feels like I still don’t believe it happened, at least for me" (167).
And what hurt the most were the people that actually said they were friends,
people that had come to my house. It was something very, very important.
And I share that the person was special. So these are the people that hurt me
the most, none of them ever phone called, none of them ever stopped by
(116).
“I was totally outcast, I was totally isolated during that time" (117). “It took a year and a half for me to figure out what my faults were, because I was to blame" (255). “They succeeded in pushing me out" (546).
After these hurtful experiences, something positive sometimes emerges for respondents. “So that was, like I said, a very challenging experience but I grew”(120). “So, I have come along. I think I am a better person after what happened to me, to be honest. It had made me better” (121). “Well, I think the winning is in your own morality. I know I
153 didn’t do anything” (318). Nevertheless, a negative experience sometimes works in strange ways:
I remember sitting and there was a window and there was a tree and a bird
on the tree. I almost had to go out of my body, or go somewhere else so I
could withstand how painful that experience was (157).
A similar experience by another respondent: “I stopped taking my Prozac in
November of this year. I was only on it for two years. And I don’t regard myself as a naturally depressive person. I’m pretty up. I’m pretty positive. I’m pretty resilient” (637).
Look, there were weeks. There was a week where I just stayed in bed and
stared at the wall. And I’m thinking I am fucked up there. What can I do? And
when one is looking at the future and thinking, I don’t know what I’m going
to do. And all one sees is blackness (639).
“People say, maybe it’s all in your head. And it’s like, yeah, it is all in my fucking head, and who put it there?” (643). This grim tone may not be the effect for every victim of a bully or mobbing, but the deeply depressed mood the respondent was in apparently does show the severe impact of bullying.
Concluding that bullying exists, that it exists for certain faculty members and that the results are painful and traumatic, leads to a continuation of the study into the causes of the phenomenon. Starting at a macro level, the findings address politics from the global level to national levels, to the university level and faculty level. The next section of this chapter lets the respondents speak to the effects of leadership, in respect to bullying. The respondents are speaking to the effect of the tenure process, which was discussed in the literature review. Next, I put the specific position of education and pedagogy into
154 perspective; finally, the workings of power in connection to bullying in faculties of education are laid bare by the respondents.
5.5 Neo Liberal Politics That Formed The Current
Ever since the Reagan-Thatcher era, a conservative wind has blown in the U.S. and in Europe, Canada, and Australia. Conservatism tends not to care much about education and higher education (Giroux, 2011, 2012, 2014). Faculties of education are therefore in double trouble, as they are the education institutes for educators. As we have seen over the past three or four decades, universities in both North America and Europe have become more dependent on private funding, even though in Europe, government funding is still the main source. Universities are also increasingly being treated as corporations, or forced to operate as such. That is troublesome. As Noam Chomsky said: “Thinking like corporations is harming American universities” (Chomsky, 2014). From an American perspective, it may not be as clear how bad it is, since people in that country have an “allergy” against anything that remotely resembles socialism or communism. For example, the recently introduced
Affordable Care Act has been subject to over 40 conservative attacks in Congress.
Conservatives do not care that a huge percentage of the population lives in poverty.
Krugman (2015) states that that the U.S. is the only developed nation that doesn’t place importance on taking care of its entire population. To make matters worse, they continually find sneaky ways to make cuts to food stamp programs. Getting a job in the U.S. is supposedly easier with a degree, but acquiring a college or university degree is unaffordable for many students, unless they are able to acquire student loans against a usurious interest, which then requires payback that may take many years. Unfortunately, other countries still see the U.S. as the big example and seek to copy their politics. In
155 Western societies, capitalism has become more common and more explicit over the past four decades. A Canadian respondent states:
I think within a Marxist critique, we live in a highly consumerist,
individualist, hyper neoliberal, capitalist society. All of those things mitigate
against having effective decent normal human relations. They are not meant
to bring people together. They are meant to divide people and to ensure
there is competition; threats against men and women, White, Black, different
people in different power, etc. As long as education is structured that way, it’s
not healthy (501).
Canada has a political tradition with some socialist qualities. There is free healthcare for everyone, education is almost free for all, except for higher education, and there still is a social safety net even under the Conservative government. For Americans that is unheard of, as Peony states: “Right, and here the conservatives have taken over. In the States, there’s a very conservative ideology around education” (289). And on the ideology behind it all: “It's probably more of an effort being made where you keep the masses ignorant. Do they know they're being mistreated? And if they don't know they're being mistreated, then they're not going to fight against being mistreated” (269).
It is my observation that our countries are being led top down, that habits “trickle down” into its institutions; in the case of this research, the universities and the faculties of education. Leo: “There are some jokes that nothing is as disgraceful as university politics”
(454). And Leo said on the way faculties of education are led:
These are complicated things. But I think that there is often a mismatch
between rhetoric [and practice]. The rhetoric is often very good. We look at
156 Obama and everything is fantastic: we’re working together, but then you look
at the policy implementation. When you look at the policy in the faculty of
education and what kind of policies are there, I think people can read
through that. There has to be some sort of authenticity (493).
The problem, unfortunately, is that not everyone is able or willing to be authentic enough to criticize the policies or to take actions for the better. Gavin says:
It has to do with people that really seem to want to embody change, and
there’s a real resistance. If you’re a change agent you’re scapegoated, and I
think it has to do something with preserving what some people see as
education that has been a certain way for a long time; and now there are
people that are coming in that are very much fearful of neoliberal reform, and
the people that are against neo-liberal reform are being targeted as
problematizers (314).
In regard to bullying, we may see the pipeline that forms the country’s politics, through provincial or state politics to university politics and faculty politics. As Peony stated:
If people who have a traditional way of looking at pedagogy and they remove
politics and power in their mind from pedagogy, then they're not
understanding the politics and power that are part of pedagogy, so then
bullying is going to happen (290).
Bullying is a direct result of the politics that rule in the faculty. It is either an active policy or a consequence of ignorance and incompetence in leadership. Erica claims:
157 We suffer from huge budget cuts, and that is an alibi for the board to tighten
the control with all kinds of rules and regulations, leading to tasks that you
would get 40 hours for before, then you get 30 and then 20 and so on. And it
is held against us: If you don’t comply, you better leave (202).
Professors in faculties of education are increasingly expected to become obedient and compliant workers who do only the job the dean and her or his administration have required. Camellia got in trouble for this: “I heard you said this at this conference. Because at the conference I said: right now some of the students are protesting” (138). Taking part in social action in the faculty was not meant to happen. It is a hopeful development that in the recent student protests in the U.S., faculties have chosen to give students more time to finish their term assignments, if they attended the protests. It angers me that I chose to write “hopeful development” in the last sentence. Protests by students should be normal and expected. Students are the ones with the intellectual and moral responsibility to change society for the better, like anybody else. That attitude seems to have vanished, and oddly not because the circumstances of their studies or their financial positions or their wellbeing are good, but too often there seem to be a lethargy or acceptance of their position and of the position of the world and of humanity. My view is informed by my experience growing up in the sixties, when I was part of many student protests in The Netherlands. It dismayed me to see those rights and liberties taken away from us, gradually but effectively.
“I mean in the Paris uprising students didn’t give a fuck about presenting their papers. It was like it was the last thing on their mind in the universities” (674). Griffin saw it this way:
“If one cites the issues that are happening in America around Fergusson and race” (673), and continues to conclude:
158 No, not unless people become radicalized. I mean it’s happening, it’s
happened in Ferguson with people saying enough is enough. We’re getting
killed. Academics don’t get killed; they just don’t get promoted. Yeah. So they
move on. And moving on, they perpetrate the same system. And
unfortunately, the collective noun for teachers is beige (680).
In another faculty of education, a program chair threatened a professor this way:
I wanted to go out into the community and do some work with some of the
teachers in the community. He goes: well that's not increasing your
enrolment. So he was threatening me, saying if you don't get the enrolment
up, I can cancel your classes or end your program (287).
This may be seen as a normal measure for any faculty or school: most faculties require a minimum enrolment in order to fund a course. There are costs for classroom rent, heating and for the salary of the professor. That is how the market rules. On the other hand, we have a responsibility to provide needed education for the people, for the students. If they may only take the classes that they have been told to take, or that are economically justifiable, we indeed produce a workforce that those in power want, need and expect. The preceding example also demonstrates the naivety of the program chair. By going into the community, the professor may make teachers enthusiastic for the program the faculty teaches, which may consequently increase the enrolment. The chair was unable to see that long-term effect, which is another aspect of the current politics in many faculties. Had he had any understanding of marketing, he might have known that developing new markets is good for growth, to use capitalist economic science. Instead, the professor felt maltreated, unhappy in her work, and was losing her enthusiasm. This harassment happens too often in
159 our faculties; when we are able to see the mechanisms that create this poisonous work sphere, we can end it and turn it around.
You have an open way of looking at teaching in a more critical way of looking
at teaching, then bullying will not happen because you're understanding
relationships of power and you're listening to your students and you are—I
want to use the word—accepting what your students offer without you
(291).
From a different standpoint, Heather offered the following:
I think my leftist politics bothered a lot of people. I think that was the
problem and I think a lot of the bullying . . . I have not known a lot of centrists
or conservative people who have been bullied, but the people I know that
have been bullied tend to be bullied by people like that (356).
There is yet another change in politics that influences professors in education. The business model that is being quietly introduced brings with it the notion that students have changed, or that the expectations of the students have changed.
We’re servicing the customer. There are times that I feel like an old prostitute about
to drag down my nickers and get fucked again. They’re not customers, they’re
students. When we are told we’re not giving the students what they want, it is no,
we are giving the students what they need” (653, 655).
The next statements sum it all up:
That might be a very 1970s way of looking at it, but neoliberalism has
worked over universities so that they’re nothing more than businesses. One
160 only needs to look at the marketing. And you do this degree and you can earn
this much. Where is education for the public good? (654).
“And to articulate that and disseminate that to pre-service teachers, a) it’s political, b) it’s critical, c) it’s dangerous, because you’re not giving them what they want, and you’re not giving them what the institution wants you to give them” (665).
5.6 Dysfunctional Leadership Creates Bullies
“Well, I haven't been under any good leadership in my career” (281), sighed Peony when I asked if leadership is of influence to the occurrence of bullying in the faculty of education. This stark statement speaks for itself, and is in line with other experiences and conversations I have had. My own start at a faculty of education was delayed a number of times because the interim administrator of the institute did not want to hire new staff and stick the new administrator with his decision. What this indicates is what I’ve seen at several places: there seem to be many interim administrators in faculties of education or in the departments thereof. Is that because it is hard to find a qualified leader? Or are there leaders who choose not to apply for positions to administer a faculty of education? A friend of mine was approached to become the administrator of a department, but politely refused to even apply, and he is a dedicated educator and well equipped for the position. “There are some very good people, but the people going up there also have to be very cut throat”
(515), as Leo says. He continues: “I think that if leadership has a good understanding of the sociology within his team, it should be hardly unheard of that there would be any bullying or harassing occurring” (488). On the other hand, a frustrated Griffin states:
I don’t regard it as leadership. I regard it as man-management. They’re
nothing more than making sure that the university is going to get litigated
161 against, then forcing policy in making sure that the institution is solvent, it’s
not leadership. Leadership implies or involves some kind of vision and
direction; making sure that the fucking books balance is not a vision or a
direction, that’s kind of fiscal control. And as universities are now businesses,
I see Vice Chancellors are nothing more than a kind of CEOs (650).
The position of department chair or faculty dean seems to be a short-lived stepping- stone, a career move, and a phase in individual progress in the rat race. When a dean keeps the position longer than the average, it should be questioned whether that is in the best interest of the faculty. Is that unique to faculties of education? Peony’s answer:
But when I would tell her about things that were happening in education, she
would be like: “in sociology you know, that type of stuff doesn’t happen.”
Well now she teaches in the school of education at V, and some of the things
that I experienced at P she's now experiencing at V (272, 273).
Another respondent sees it this way: “It’s almost like treating the faculty like a school as a principal, and this is the way it is” (483). Another respondent explained:
I think bullying in faculties of education happens too frequently. It’s making
professors rethink their jobs, and is this really where I need to be? I guess it
just stops me personally. What upsets me the most is when I'm so busy
dealing with that stuff, I don't have time to do the things that are really
important. I think that's what really makes me the angriest (271).
Another professor puts it this way: “Education is organized in a very distorted way in my mind” (476). As a sociologist in a faculty of education, he explains: “It is so multi- disciplinary and it hardly ever becomes inter-disciplinary” (481). These issues deal with
162 the nature of faculties of education, but I also believe that the leadership needs to take responsibility in the collaboration of faculty and of disciplines. A Dutch saying that translates as: what is unknown remains unloved applies here. Kees Freriks, the director of a teacher education program for elementary schools in the Netherlands, referred to this phenomenon as handling a wheelbarrow full of frogs. He also revered his team and team members and the diversity in the team, declaring an ode to differences. Working in that team was exceptional because as a former colleague now recalls:
The time with Kees was paramount, a time where you counted, in which
everyone was being seen, it was a time in which you could make a difference,
you were seen, carrying each other. And now nobody carries anybody else
anymore (199).
The leadership changed from one with a pedagogical and sociological transformative vision to one with only numerical goals, focused on acquiring accreditation:
“I noticed when I was in the United States and in Canada, there’s an obsession with getting accreditation and rubrics and numbering, and it’s important, but it shouldn’t overwhelm these other areas and topics” (485). The same goes for Europe. An Australian respondent has given up hope for support from the leadership: “In terms of bullying I expect nothing from universities anymore” (678).
5.7 Tenure: Both A Trap And An Incentive
As described in the literature review, tenure wields a strong influence on the wellbeing of academics; some of the respondents referred to their experiences with tenure during the interviews. They accepted tenure to be of importance and a desired position.
163 One was sure it was out of reach: “I knew I was not getting mentoring towards tenure”
(222):
By the time I quit, I knew that I wasn't going to get tenure based on
everything else that happened. When I was here, being a person of colour it
didn't hurt or it didn't help. But, also after what happened at P, I figured out
how to play the game and I just didn't piss people off (285).
A little later she said this: “I wasn’t going to get tenure because I wasn't worthy or I hadn’t published enough. I wasn’t a good teacher. I mean it was like being in high school again” (536). She also discussed her friend, and explained why the friend didn’t get tenure:
She didn't get tenure. M's research is qualitative and it’s arts based, so you
know - poetry, whatever. Her university—she was the only black female at
her university, and I don't think her university had ever tenured a person of
colour. And they did not understand M's research nor respect it, even though
she had more publications than anyone else there. I mean, she's had many
articles published and she's had, I don't know, three or four books. So it's
kind of like - if I don't understand the research you're doing, I'm not going to
take the time to understand it. Since I don't understand it, I don't respect it;
therefore, you don't deserve tenure (284).
This is one interpretation. It may have been the politics of the faculty or university to aim for a certain type of researcher, or maybe there were no job openings. The understanding of the respondent, however, relates the way she understands her experience. The fact is that M did not get tenure as an African American and an arts-based researcher.
164 At least five professors who recently were awarded tenure, none of whom took part in this research, have told me that they had strong feelings of disbelief. They had been in so much distress during the process of getting tenure, that they suffered nervous breakdowns after achieving it.
It must be noted that tenure has an aura of being the desired fortress of security; however, one respondent remarked, “I am tenured but I still felt intimidated” (313), when referring to an argument with his mentor. Another had an issue with an administrator who
“attempted to get her to look into the legal possibilities of having my tenure revoked”
(137). The safe place which tenure should provide does not feel particularly safe for many professors.
Tenure appears to have a huge impact on academics because they desire job security, making them feel that they have to work extremely hard to obtain tenure. Possibly the academics in education have an extra propensity to feel vulnerable in the process, given the underdog status of education in society. (Giroux, 2015) The competition for the desired tenure may cause academics in education to become unfriendly, edgy and occasionally hostile. The micro aggressions that are committed during this competition can easily turn into experiences of being bullied, being harassed or being mobbed, or as one respondent bluntly stated: “I’ve come to regard academics as people who constantly are looking for opportunities to get ahead” (644).
5.8 Education As Stepchild
“Bullying seems to happen more—and this is amongst my friends so this isn't empirical research—but it seems to happen more in education” (296), as one respondent phrases it, when asked if bullying was part of working at faculties of education. That aligns
165 with the findings in the literature: faculties of education, faculties of nursing, and faculties of librarians seem to worry about it more than other disciplines, given the amount of studies located. Is this because these are all humanities studies? The sociologists don’t seem to be hurting from it as much, as one of the respondents mentioned. By looking into the characteristics of education, one notes that it is a multidisciplinary field and often regarded as of lesser importance than other disciplines in academia (Giroux, 2014a, 2014b,
2012, Jansen, 2008). It is also a vulnerable field. Everybody has experience with education and has an opinion on education, and is eager to share it, whereas not many people have an opinion on the research conducted in biochemistry or nuclear medicine. This position makes education the underdog in academia, and that works in two directions: there is disdain from the other fields towards education and that disdain is felt in the faculty, making the faculty members and leaders act more submissively. One respondent explains this way:
Because you know, education is one of the professions. We're not looked at
as a profession. You know in states throughout the United States—I don't
know about up in Canada—but you know they're getting rid of pedagogy
classes. You got a degree in math, you can teach. You don't need to have a
pedagogy class. So, education is just looked down upon (302).
Also there is a threatening shift going on due to the conservative and neo-liberal winds that are blowing, as stated by this European respondent:
In my field, which is drama, I have always been able to work the way I think
is important for students. Now we have to change that and students have to
take a test and learn form the book. And there is a lot in it I disagree with and
166 a lot that I think is badly written. They now have to learn the textbook by
heart and word it at the test. It has become very instrumental. I find it so
terrible (204).
Another states: “there's a ranking and teacher education is all the way at the bottom” (108). To make it worse: “I just think education faculty are screwed up. Maybe part of it is education is kind of the step child of all disciplines, and proving its worth maybe is a real issue - proving that they are real scholars” (297). This sad position is named as such by the scholars in education that I interviewed, thus leading to an inferiority complex among educators. This is a serious problem with a negative influence on the status of faculties of education and of the professors. One respondent provided an example of the problem of the quality of faculty in education. Even though she was a program coordinator, she got in trouble because she thought a new colleague might not be the right one.
The main issue was about competence. Because I asked questions she didn't
know how to answer, basic questions like how do you keep updated; she had
no idea about journals, about associations, nothing like that. What kind of
journals did you read? She didn't have anything to report. The committee
started telling me that I had offended the candidate, and I offended the
candidate because during the interview time I asked some questions she
could not answer (110, 111, 114).
Perhaps this attitude may be explained by history. In the Netherlands and Canada before World War II, teachers were trained at Normal Schools, and over time these normal schools evolved into semi-academic or academic institutions. Similar processes occurred in other European countries and Australia. In the U.S., some community colleges award
167 associate degrees that sometime provide a teaching permit for certain levels. It is understandable that from this historic perspective, teachers who wanted to move ahead chose to become teacher educators. Quite often they managed to teach in the teacher education program with a degree no higher than a bachelor’s. Ever since the choice to include teacher education in the academy, it became necessary to have teacher education professors become academics, rather than teachers. This implies that there is a constant sense of under-educatedness in faculties of education, until, of course, the teaching staff upgrades itself into real academics. Even after that happens, a truly safe space is still not secured. One respondent was impressed with a fine scholar and chose to start to work with her. When he figured out that she was not a nice person, his view of her changed and that led to a problem. She behaved like an untouchable: “She’s endowed. She walks on water.
Everyone thinks to respect her but I think its feigned respect. I think people are scared of her because the way she snaps” (320). Why would an endowed chair snap at an adjunct, not-tenured professor, since there should be no fear for competition for her job? Could it be that the urge to excel turns into competition with others, and that this competitiveness turns into nastiness, harassment, and bullying?
I think faculty of education can be kind of full of themselves and think that
they are more important than what they really are. And the only way to do
that is to build yourself up beyond what you really are and what you really
do. And the only way you can build yourself up is by tearing other people
down (305).
In my understanding, this is a good description of the inferiority complex that I see as one of the causes for bullying in faculties of education. Once faculty have climbed to an
168 academic level, the common problems with academics show up: “Academia is very unusual because I think that there is the sense that all of these very smart people must have really split the atom together” (453). They become people with big egos: “In academia, what is interesting is this propensity sometimes to carve out the larger egos and arrogance and who’s done more” (455).
There is one more aspect of faculties of education to shed light upon—not every faculty of education is the same.
It’s – this is where I talk about connecting the dots. I think it’s being, it’s being
an outsider, it’s having a certain critical stance on sexuality, is having a
certain critical stance on what education is and what education should do.
And that comes from being in an education studies department and then
going into initial teacher training department. That’s very, very different
fucking beasts. One is, I think, people here are prepared to engage with ideas
and understand ideas. And the second one is, people here are now where we
do train teachers and it’s like: Luvy, you train fucking dogs (627).
I suggest that this is reason to rethink education.
And I think see the glaze look on people’s eyes when everyone matters.
Another interesting thing is, people, and this is what I regularly get, is people
comment upon my language. We don’t understand what you’re saying—oh,
you use big words. And I’m really in a fucking university. And what that is
doing in many ways is saying, is trying to silence me (628).
This last bit is an example of bullying once more:
169 And the people here were saying it and I give them enough credit to actually
kind of realize, well, yeah, this is a form of bullying. You wouldn’t go to
someone and say excuse me and shut your fucking mouth, but you can go up
to someone and say I don’t understand what you’re saying. You use words
that just I’ve never heard of before. So it puts it back on the speaker and I
think that’s what bullying, the experience of my bullying has done. It’s placed
it all back on me as a way of saying, do you belong here and the answer that
I’ve come to is, no, I don’t actually (629).
This also demonstrates the inferiority complex with which professors in faculties of education may unfortunately struggle.
5.9 Pedagogy That Is Not Always Critical
As I stated in the introduction of Chapter 1, I found bullying and pedagogy to be linked. My personal understanding of pedagogy has always been an ideological pedagogy, a critical pedagogy, and a transformative pedagogy, because pedagogy in my life is strongly entangled with my own schooling: Maria Montessori and Helen Parkhurst designed the schools I attended. I’ve had the greatest teachers, and there was no nastiness going around when I was in school. My first understanding of bad pedagogy came with my first job. Not only were some of my colleagues mean to the high school kids, the parents were quite strange sometimes, too. “If Wim doesn’t do as you tell him, you just have to smack him,” his bricklaying father told me. He didn’t know any better, and Wim had few academic skills but was the dearest kid in the class. This incident informed me as a pedagogue, and I became more interested in my occupation and study. My interest was alerted a few years later when a boy brought a box of candy bars to class and started to give bars to all the boys. I
170 wondered: Why does he do this? Where did he get the box? At the time I was not able to think of answers to these questions, and still today I feel badly that I was not able to pedagogically act on that situation. My analysis was that he was being bullied and was trying to buy his way back into the group or at least into “friendship” with the leaders or the bullies. I could feel that this whole thing was problematic. He was not popular in the group. His social behaviour and his understanding of social relations were troubled. His need for a social life made him steal a box of candy from the store where he worked, or perhaps he spent all of his pocket money buying the box. But in those days, boxes like that were not easily obtainable by consumers, and he might have felt that being a thief would impress the leaders more than spending his pocket money. It saddened me to see that his endeavours did not improve his position in the class. Incidents like this made me take up more studies in education and consequently this doctoral research. A sense of responsibility for kids for whom growing up is not easy, an urge to want to better understand how life plays out sometimes, a hope to be better able to interfere, guide or advise, motivated me to be a pedagogue for the past thirty years.
During my midlife crisis, my therapist made me read the works of Alice Miller, and a similar sense of disbelief and shock came over me. Parents and teachers can be mean and horrible people. And I learned that every bad action could be understood or explained from their experiences. In my studies of spiritualty and South and East Asian philosophies, I came to understand that sometimes people are burdened by karmic lessons. It is from these experiences and studies that my thoughts formed around the notion of pedagogy.
What do the respondents in this research have to say about pedagogy and bullying?
“If somebody operates under a real traditional way of pedagogy, like they're the great
171 knowledge giver and students have nothing to add or say that's important, then that is bullying or can lead to bullying” (293). This relates to classroom relations that seem to be limited to teacher–student interactions, but setting this social way of interacting creates bullying between students and bullying between colleagues. As shown in the leadership and the politics sections, setting bad examples encourages people to follow, with all the negative effects. Masuro Emoto (1998) demonstrated that positive examples and positive thoughts have harmonizing effects on water crystals. Because the human body consists primarily of water, a harmonizing effect similarly occurs in humans. One respondent has a different approach: “I talk about practicing a provocative pedagogy. My pedagogy is provocative. It’s a narrative pedagogy. I draw on stories. And I tell stories purposely to make people uncertain and to generate discomfort” (659). The next quotes illustrate how this becomes a source for bullying:
On a recent trip, a study in Thailand, it was really interesting because one of
the students said to another student, all he does is talk about gay stuff. And
there was one lecture or there was one tutorial where being in Thailand, I
was talking about the non-binary system of gender and sexuality as a way of
cultural understanding, kind of the everyday practices of culture because in
these schools that I was working in, with these pre-service teachers, there
were lady boys. There were lady boys who were teachers and there were
lady boys who were students. So I address this as a presence. And the retort
came; all he does is talk about gay stuff (661).
And I thought long and hard about that and I felt: well this is nothing
more than privileged fucking White hetero-normativity enacting itself again.
172 Fuck them. And if one lecture discombobulated them so much that they had
to make that remark and obviously a provocative pedagogy is also a
dangerous pedagogy (662) because
It’s dangerous for the person who is doing it because sooner or later, you
end up being told what’s coming out of your mouth actually is not wanted or
not needed or not appropriate. And it’s that notion again of appropriacy and
pedagogy (663).
We’re working in classrooms with life and the stuff of life is wide
ranging in and heterogeneous is not, this notion of that pedagogy is a set of
things that can be learned and applied, is not something I believe in.
Pedagogy, it’s a position. It’s a situation. It’s a landscape, which one becomes
placed in and one moves through, it’s not a little fucking talking (664).
These examples refer to students making bullying remarks to their professor, but when the matter was brought to the attention of the faculty:
Colleagues say, well actually we don’t think this is relevant. Well of course
you wouldn’t, because you’re White heterosexual able-bodied fucking . . . of
course, you don’t even see it. Not every kid in the class is going to grow up to
be like you love (667, 668).
Another participant responded:
If people who have a traditional way of looking at pedagogy and they remove
politics and power in their mind from pedagogy, then they're not
understanding the politics and power that are part of pedagogy, so then
bullying is going to happen (290).
173 This particular professor is a Freirean pedagogue. Paulo Freire has formulated pedagogy as a way of empowering people. In that respect, one professor who was bullied by his senior experienced support from two doctoral students (neither dared to testify for fear of negative influence on their positions) and from other students: “The one thing that's been constant, students have been fantastic across the board. They couldn’t care less. It’s the adults that seem to have a harder time” (319).
5.10 Right Use Of Power?
Power works complexly in this research. It works at several levels and influences both the process of bullying, the origins of the bullying, the bully, and the victim of the bullying. I discussed power relations in the politics section of this chapter, as well as the workings of power in the leadership section. There is a strong power element in the interpersonal that now will be explored.
One respondent discussed a period of harassment and decided: “I spoke up, I feel I had nothing to lose. I started being real vocal about things because I figured they don’t like me already” (233), thus taking the situation into her own hands. That is not always easy.
Another professor tells about a very grim situation where one or two individuals corralled the team to mob her: “She said, ‘I know all your colleagues up there and they're all very respectable, and they’ve told me about what happened.’ And I'm saying, ‘well, what have they told you?’ she stonewalled me” (142). She goes on to explain what may cause bullying:
In X there were different issues, not that kind of intense mobbing situation
but there were professors, in this case male professors, senior professors; I
came in as a distinguished senior professor and the treatment, I think that—
but that’s another story. That has to do with what happens to women at the
174 academy and how it’s implicated in this case, because even if I had been a
male Latino, that kind of hazing could’ve happened to me (141).
Opposing the powers that be may become a result of following your own beliefs about good education:
We’re not given a great many roles. Either you get with the program, what
the administration wants, what your colleagues decide is appropriate, the
way you speak, the way you research, engage, all these things, right? And
when you don't do that, you walk this line. To try to be yourself, if yourself
doesn't fit into their criteria of what you ought to be then you're walking a
fine line. Why maybe it’s hard for me to say; yes, I think it was a moment of
being victimized, but maybe why I never thought of myself as a victim, I felt
powerless in the moment, is because I always had this sense that I had to find
a way to survive, but I don’t know what it'd be like for others (126).
The power game may be played in many disturbing ways. The most effective are those who surprise everyone. For example, a White human rights activist, antiracism professor argued with a Black professor. Shortly thereafter, the first received “an email from the office of equal opportunity. This is a year from when I started cataloguing things, that E has filed against me for race-based sabotage” (316). He was devastated. This move represents a typical power play—an attack from an unexpected angle, taking the victim by surprise.
On the other hand, many professors of colour have claimed that their race was indeed a reason for being bullied. A good example comes from another respondent, a
Latino professor:
175 He said, “this isn't racism.” I said, “oh yea, well, you would know. I'm the one
that's going through this. I'm the one that is experiencing the impact of your
discrimination and you're telling me this is not racism.” I said, “this is my
area of study but my area of study isn’t just an abstraction.” I said, “this is
what I've been struggling against, these kinds of things within communities
and schools, and now I'm in the middle of it and you're essentially trying to
make me feel that somehow I don't know what I'm going through.” It was so
paternalistic (127).
The denial of racism is a sensitive issue. One can never deny it when the other feels racism. A similar sensitivity plays when bullying occurs. We can say, I feel bullied. We cannot say: I did not bully you, but way too often this does happen, and then the irrational is forcefully made rational: “When this thing kicks in, a case is made, but it’s irrational—but because everyone going into the consensus to make the irrational rational, and academics are smart people, so they never want to feel they're irrational” (146). Power plays can manifest in the subtlest ways. A male dean told a professor who wanted to bring students into a public meeting in the faculty that she could do that, “but leave your Uzi” (130) (an Uzi is a gun), referring to the lethal weapon as a metaphor for her voice. I wish to reiterate the situation: a male dean told a female professor of colour that she should not speak up during a meeting, a public meeting. This exemplifies a not so subtle power display.
Power may also be played out in this way: when a professor wanted to claim personal harassment, the claim was basically denied:
The personal harassment complaint, the university obviously was not
interested in having personal harassment complaints. There was no outside
176 mediator who came in, but she interviewed the Chair twice and me only once
and interviewed the Dean. So, everything was put together to make it seem
like it wasn’t a bona fide complaint, though she did write that the
complainant, myself, was of good faith. So, we were dropping the case and
there was no real harassment. But, in my mind, there was harassment and I
documented it (469).
Only after another colleague made a complaint about something else, the chair stepped down. Thus the original complaint had an effect on the power balance, even though the first complaint was not filed, so that the administration did not have to report the misbehaviour. The same professor sees some options for improvement of the power balance as well. “Every university has stuff, but I think that the key really is to, as best as possible, reach out and to be open, and it’s not easy” (491).
Power displays and bullying are perceived in the following way by another gay professor, who explained how subtly and simultaneously bluntly they work:
The thing is, in academia it’s done very cleverly. People don’t come up to me
and say, you fucking queer, but they certainly kind of make insidious
comments, you know: colourful, flamboyant, and it’s like, yeah, because I’m
performing queer as a way of disrupting, the normative discourses that exist
in institutions. And if you don’t fucking get that, you’re even more stupid than
I thought you were to begin with (619).
Another abuse of power is illustrated in the experiences of a respondent:
I had two doctoral students come up to me and say, “I’m so sorry E is being so
rude to you,” and I asked them if they would be willing to be witnesses, and
177 both said no because of her power and because they're doctoral students. So
my witness pool shrank by two (317).
The mechanisms of bullying are similar to those of other behaviours found in society; why should its occurrence in a faculty of education make a difference? Faculties of education are both a part of society and representative of society at large. “These things are so circumstantial. I think bullying in general relates to many factors: personality, predisposition, institutional culture, societal culture” (452).
Bullying in faculties of education often happens towards professors who are part of a minority in the faculty. We have seen that women, African Americans, Latinos, homosexuals, and Jews were all subjected to bullying, and these respondents suggested that being a minority was in part the reason for the bullying. Is that different than anywhere else in society? Not really; but one would expect a faculty of education to exemplify a high standard of socially just life, to be a model for society. Yet as the cases brought forward in this study suggest, this is a misconception. I approached the position of faculties of education through the stories of the respondents and found that issues exist around the identity of education. To me this is interesting, because ideally the demonstrated inferiority complex would not exist in a healthy and socially just community.
De Winter (Pesten als spiegel van de beschaving, 2015) claims that bullying mirrors civilization. When civilization becomes over-competitive and no adequate pedagogy enables people to cope with that, negative reactions pop up at the margins and in the weaker members of that society.
Educators should be the best trained and highest educated members of society, and they should receive good wages and have reasonable working conditions. Educators are
178 capable of bringing together every field of study, every respected aspect of society, and are responsible for helping educate our children in order to create a better society and a healthy and socially just world. “I think you have to really work through the institutional culture, power relations” (489). Unfortunately, educators and education are often treated as if they are a menace and a burden. Wages are not good, schools are constantly subjected to critique from every angle conceivable, and teachers and faculties of education are painted as troublemakers (Giroux, 2012; Jansen, 2008). Through an ongoing series of budget cuts, education is marginalized. This works both ways: the present faculty becomes demotivated, and the new faculty that is recruited is of a lesser quality due to the poor working conditions and pay. The leadership of universities and the faculties of education choose to “manage” the faculties in the best way possible, given the financial position, and consequently choose a business model, rather than taking responsibility for a better future for humanity. They are forced and choose to become business managers, rather than leaders. Arts classes, pedagogy classes, and physical education classes are being stricken from the offerings or marginalized, and teachers are being trained as if they were dogs
(627), instead of being taught to be wise and broadly-informed educators and pedagogues.
“Where is the education for the public good?” (654) one respondent asked. This loss of educational values aiming for the public good has an effect on faculty. Their position is constantly endangered, whether it is in the content of their courses or in the philosophy that a faculty member wishes to carry out, the latter usually by reducing the amount of time with students or by increasing group size, leading to even more industrially modeled education. Measures like these are usually wrapped in labels such as educational improvement or technical innovation, but are always financial in nature.
179 Education academics are not the most radical bunch of people that you’re
going to encounter. And so they won’t rock the fucking boat. They’ll just,
they’ll keep tight to the yoke walking round and round and round doing the
same old shit and because that’s what universities, because people who’ve
got mortgages and they’ve got kids, college funds, and they’ve got all that
kind of shyte. And so they don’t rock the boat (681).
These findings were selected, combined, organized and compiled after many readings of the transcripts of the interviews and an extensive analysis of the list of quotes.
In order to obtain an overview of the similarities and differences of each of the respondents’ experiences, I took a thematic approach to organize this findings chapter. I opted for a manner of writing that would optimize the chances for the reader to understand the meaning of what the respondents have shared. Sometimes I found it necessary to explain or interpret the isolated quotes, which may be read as the beginning of a discussion. In the following chapter, I will go deeper into the discussion, understanding, and analysis of the findings from this study.
180 Chapter 6 Concluding Analyses And Synthesis
6.1 Who Is Responsible?
One may wonder whether a faculty member who has been bullied may have invited harsh criticism, or perhaps is philosophically in conflict with colleagues or leadership, rather than being bullied. It is possible that a person does not fit in and becomes ostracized.
Has the bullied person contributed to the bullying in some way? Does the victim perceive the bullying or is the bully executing the bullying wilfully? This study does not provide a clear answer to these questions; however, the life stories of each of the respondents contain painful descriptions of the situations where bullying occurred. As a result, I must look at the possible contributing factors: that the bullied person in a faculty of education may be insecure and vulnerable because he or she is new, inexperienced, or feels subaltern in some way (Gramsci, 1971; Spivak, 1988). From that position, every criticism may be read and felt like bullying. This does not imply that a person who feels he or she is being bullied is not being bullied. The receiving end makes the claim. To compare bullying with racism, one participant relayed the following story: “He said, ‘this isn't racism.’ I said, ‘oh yea, well, you would know. I'm the one that's going through this. I'm the one that is experiencing the impact of your discrimination and you're telling me this is not racism?’ ”
(127).
Another problematic aspect of the subaltern position is that in the urge to climb out of the den, some individuals will step on the shoulders of their peers: “The woman who orchestrated this, when she came in, she was the only woman and she had talked to me about how hard that was many years before” (191).
181 Another possibility is that bullying is deliberate. The workings of nasty individuals can be very harmful, as the respondents and the literature show. The bullying becomes worse as soon as it turns into hazing and mobbing. In those situations, the bully attracts more colleagues in the bullying, in order to isolate and expel the bullied one.
I think that we have to constantly strive to build a decent society. That might
sound a bit romantic, but be open. If you tell me that I’m bullying you or that
you’re not feeling comfortable or that things are not working out, I should be
open as a leader or Dean to kind of review these things. It takes a lot of
courage to kind of open up and have these conversations and look for change
(487).
I have made an effort to always refer to the phenomenon as “a faculty member is being bullied” rather than pointing out bullies. This is because quite often so-called bullies have been bullied themselves and thus understand the behaviour to which they were subjected as normal behaviour, or the only behaviour they have encountered. I see people who bully as victims of the cycle of bullying, rather than as bullies. To quote Yehuda Berg:
“Hurt people hurt people. That’s how pain patterns get passed on, generation after generation” (Berg, ND). He continues with a plea to break that cycle: “Break the chain today. Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion, cruelty with kindness. Greet grimaces with smiles. Forgive and forget about finding fault. Love is the weapon of the future” (Berg, ND).
This turn-around of understanding the phenomenon may be expressed by the phrase: The bullied person is safe for the bully who is unconfident. This understanding shows the dependency of bullied and bully, albeit in one direction, placing the bully in the
182 victimized place. To put it differently: “Unconfident people usually hang around with outgoing people, bullies and narcissistic people” (No Bullying, 2014, par. 5) to show that the bond is co-dependent.
An interesting factor that did not come forward in the interviews is the ways to deal with bullying. The literature review has revealed quite a bit on that topic (Brouillette, 2013;
Caponecchia & Wyatt, 2011; Cavaiola & Lavender, 2000; Cipriano, 2011; Cornett, 2011;
Duffy & Sperry, 2007; Field, 2011; Hollis, 2012; Kohut, 2008; Kusy & Holloway, 2009; Lubit,
2004; Namie & Namie, 2009; Namie & Namie, 2011; Sutton, 2007), but I did not find any specifics on dealing with bullying on a meta-level. Conflicts may be stirred up and so can bullying. By responding in an agitated manner, the bully feels stimulated to continue, and things will get worse. When bullying happens to a person who does not feel deeply hurt and can respond accordingly, the bullying will stop quite quickly, as I have seen from my own experience and several situations around me. The rules of the game have thus changed, and then the game is off. A de-escalating tactic works best to make bullying go away. This is true for the bullied person, and also for the group, the team. If the atmosphere in the faculty is unpleasant, hostile, divisive, or polarizing, the slightest misdemeanour can be the cause of huge conflicts, bullying, hazing and mobbing. It is the responsibility of the team members and of the leaders in the faculty, whether they are formal or informal leaders, to wind things down instead of encouraging the negativities.
A wholly different issue is the fact that this bullying happens not only at the faculties where the respondents have worked, but also at quite a number of other faculties, according to the responses of colleagues in the field that have spoken to me in conferences and through personal communications and social media. I trust, however, that there are
183 faculties where bullying does not happen. After hearing this litany of misconduct and suffering, those faculties need to be studied, because bullying brings about suffering and unproductivity and in the end costs a lot of money. This study has found a few indications that it is possible to have a healthy and safe working environment in faculties of education.
A strong social cohesion in the faculty and leadership with an educational and pedagogical vision aimed at inclusion and transformation can bring this about. As Michael Fullan (2015) has stated: “It takes a group to change a group” (p. 10).
Fullan’s wisdom leads to another issue addressed briefly in the interviews, related to the character of the social structure in which the faculty of education finds itself.
So I learned to ignore everything. Sit in my office every day, have my door
cracked, do my work, enjoy myself with the students. Going back, my main
fear was that somehow the program would collapse because the students
would have a manifestation, a question or something like that (115).
Too many things are changing, that is why I am starting to retire, and I have
to reduce. And you know, today I have been to the sauna and then I can get
rid of it all too. Earlier I was a ringleader, and battled for everything and at a
certain point, now I think let it be, others don’t do it, but I am not doing it
anymore. It is done (208).
How I feel about it is variable; yesterday night I drove back from H and it was
dark and it takes more of me. I notice: my head is full. And it is partly age, but
not totally. I am not able to lose it completely. It happens to me too; it grabs
me; I cannot prevent that. Also because I see my colleagues collapse, or being
184 treated unjustly. And what I think is interesting is the cognitive dissonance.
We have to sell things that we do not support. And that is increasing (210).
I believe and again, it’s not that this is what I think is true, we have beliefs
that help us in life, but I believe that I or anyone could be that way. We all
have the potential to be that way, but part of our work is to be self-vigilant in
terms of what are the mechanisms in ourselves? What are the values, what
are the ways that we behave and how do we deal that? By being vigilant we
can stay true to a more humanizing path so that doesn’t happen. I'm not
saying that we will all be that way. I'm saying that we all have the capacity to
be cruel, and we all have the capacity to be mean spirited. We all have the
capacity to be arrogant. It’s the reason why we have a responsibility to be
vigilant and be perfective about our practices (163).
Some respondents had clear visions of the role that good leadership could play in preventing bullying in faculties of education. “Bad leadership I think makes the problem. It can be like a small problem, but with bad leadership what is very small and minute can grow 10 times in a short period” (275).
I think good leadership is being able to listen and really hear what people are
saying. I think that good leadership is going into a situation—I think that
leadership is not having the answer to every situation you go into, you've got
to be open - open minded and listen to what the people you're leading are
saying. What they need (276).
Honestly, I've never had a good leader. To me that is not good leadership
because it's leading by command rather than by consensus. I feel that's a
185 problem. I think a good leader has a sense of humour. I think a good
leader—what is that form of leadership called—servant leadership? Which
to me, that seems like that would be a good form of leadership. I can tell you
more what bad leadership is. [Laughing] (277).
“I know that bad leadership, whether we're talking about you know in a faculty or at
McDonald's, it creates this really negative climate amongst the employees, a climate where you don't really want to do the work” (278). “I mean you can say well let's sit down and discuss how to increase enrolment” (279). “You know good leadership is mentoring the person or giving the person suggestions and ideas about how to do better at whatever, rather than threatening” (280).
For me, authenticity, being open, developing plans but being flexible,
providing feedback, checking-in, cultivating, etc. There are a few people that I
can think of who are very decent and open-minded. They are not problem
people. They are there to assist you. It’s not necessarily a leadership quality
per se. How do we do it with these types of people (514).
6.2 Revisiting Themes That Emerged From The Literature
The themes described in Chapter 2 now may be compared with the findings of the interviews.
• Bully, bullying, workplace mobbing, harassment, and victim. All eight respondents have
suffered from each of the varieties the literature described, unfortunately.
• Power imbalance, either perceived or formal, eventually leading to a bullying culture. The
respondents clearly experienced power imbalances.
186 • Bullying has only negative effects, loss, cost, pain and suffering. No doubt. Several
respondents have alluded to that as the section The Effects of Bullying (Chapter 5.4) has
shown.
• Resistance to bullying works. Some respondents reported that standing up at least made
them feel more self-respect. Also, some mentioned that after years, they have become
empowered by the struggles they endured.
• Bullying is most often viewed and defined in terms of symptoms and consequent solutions.
This point led me into the research, because it shows how limited most approaches and
understanding leaves the issue in place. The respondents clarified that understanding
the deeper layers of the phenomenon leads to better options for solutions. The
symptom treatment may be soothing in the short term, but provides no guarantee that
the problem will be resolved.
• Solving the problem asks for an integrated or transactional approach or both and
requires time. Although this may be understood to be true, the interviews did not really
cover this theme. The sections on leadership, however, suggest a transformational
leadership. By creating a faculty that is inclusive and empowering through openness
and social justness, aiming for every faculty member to grow and perform optimally,
the problem does need not to exist, nor require a solution.
• The effects of tenure: both a motivator and a dissatisfier. Tenure is mixed up with
competence, and not necessarily a good model to protect academics. The section on
tenure shows how demotivating the process can be.
187 • A tendency to ignore and deny the existence of bullying in the academy. I have not found
specific affirmation for this, but there have been some interesting expressions on the
pettiness of the culture in the academy.
• The avoidance to relate bullying to faculties of education. I still have not found any
specific literature. This assumption from the start of this research appears to be hard to
prove. I have not found specific literature on the bullying between faculty in faculties of
education, up to now, but that does not mean that the research has been avoided. This
study changes that.
• A need for safe space in order to keep victims in. But how about the bully? Does he or she
always have to be cast out? I have omitted the word bully because I think bullying
behaviour is descriptive of most cases. The person who bullies is trapped in a negative
model of behaviour and may have been subjected to bullying him or herself.
• An alleged connection between incivility and bullies. Respondents have talked about
some really nasty behaviour that was projected onto them.
Most of the findings in the literature correspond with the experiences of the respondents.
6.3 Relationship Between Theory and Findings
The theory of the rhizomatic workings that DeLeuze & Guattari (1980) have formulated allows for non-hierarchic understanding of complex situations, and for multiplicity and mutuality (1980), is strongly recognizable in how faculty members are connected and feed each other; when in a positive manner no bullying will exist, when in a negative manner a bullying culture will develop and flourish. A Thousand Plateaus, which gives their publication its title, can be seen in the complexity of the problem of bullying in
188 faculties of education. The way this research has addressed the many factors that can explain the causes of bullying in faculties of education demonstrates exactly why the issue is not an issue, but a dangerous game that plays on many plateaus.
Hegemony, as first formulated by Gramsci (1971), and the works of Adorno (1950) and Arendt (1956), support the views that are brought forward in the sections on politics and leadership and power.
Paulo Freire’s (1972, 1987) concientization is the vessel for the research as a whole.
By making the deep and sharp analyses in this dissertation, the complex problem of bullying in faculties of education between faculty members becomes clearer and is brought into the awareness of the faculty and administrators, or at least can be found while reading this study. The writings of Giroux (2011, 2012, 2014), Macedo (1987, 1994), Kincheloe
(2004, 2011), Darder (2012) and Steinberg (2010, 2011, 2012) have formed most of my thinking around how society and neo-liberal and conservative politics have poisoned the academic climate.
189 Chapter 7 Conclusions and Recommendations: Leadership as a Solution
The findings indicate that respondents have experienced bullying in their workplaces—faculties of education in Canada, the U.S, Europe, and Australia. The participants in this study shared how bullying has affected them. They gave explanations about why they think the bullying occurred, including minority issues: gender, race, sexual preference, class, and their politics. The expectancy to fit in apparently rules in these faculties. There appears to be a sphere of exclusion rather than inclusion for the “other.”
That relates to my ontological understanding of education and pedagogy. It is my position that education and pedagogy should be carriers of culture and should in that quality propagate an inclusive and transformative culture because the “others” have every right to be part of the whole of human culture. Griffin clarifies:
And to articulate that and disseminate that to pre-service teachers, a) it’s
political, b) it’s critical, c) it’s dangerous, because you’re not giving them what
they want, and you’re not giving them what the institution wants you to give
them (665).
This position collides with defenders of heteronormative, White, middle-aged and middle-class men, Anglo Saxon protestant. So rather than being forbearers of the society of the future, embracing every intercultural aspect, faculties of education often function as keepers of the culture of a dominant class.
I mean alongside that is the fact that I’m upfront and center stage about my
sexuality. And also I’m critical with it. I’m not kind of a nice fuzzy gay man
that comes along and swaps knitting patterns. And I’m political in my
190 articulation of sexuality. And what that means for education and of course
that rocks the boat and people don’t like it (626).
The findings need to be matched with the research questions; insofar as that was not done in the previous chapters, I will summarize here. In the introductory chapter, I stated that I wanted to understand bullying, the culture, the structure, and the societal influences that keep bullying in faculties of education in place. Before addressing the research questions, I want to stress that in my understanding of doing research, change may happen in the process. Some research questions have proven to be not eligible anymore, and new questions have risen.
The research questions and their conclusions are:
1. What are reasons for the lack of research on bullying in faculties of education? This
seemed to be an adequate question before the research started, because there was
hardly any literature to be found that aimed at bullying in faculties of education
between faculty. I did not discover a reason for it, and acknowledge that perhaps it is
not a good research question. I must admit that I have come to find this in an early stage
and that I did not focus the interviews towards answering it. Other than that, I must
assume that faculty that is at the beginning or mid career may not feel at ease
addressing a phenomenon like this.
2. How has bullying been experienced by interviewed faculty? This turned out to be a strong
focus of the research. The findings chapter is full of responses to this and to summarize
them here as: They have painful memories of the bullying they underwent. Some are
still in the process of getting over it, and some have even said that it is impossible to
191 ever get over it. It does have an empowering effect as well, although not always and not
for everyone.
3. How does power work in bullying in faculties of education? In the section on power, many
of the effects have been laid out. Power works complexly in this case. There is political
power and policy power that push faculty into positions that make it hard for them to
perform optimally. The power mace that educational leadership wields is quite often
fed by economic restrictions. It seems there were few well-formulated transformative
visions found in faculties where the respondents worked. The lack of vision leads too
often to man-management instead of leadership. There is also power in the bullying
relations that have been mentioned. To put it another way: bullying can happen when
an imbalance of power exists, is created, or is felt.
4. How is pedagogy related to bullying in faculties of education? This turned out to be quite
a strong relationship; even worse, it appeared to be inherent. The section on pedagogy
shows this clearly. Bad pedagogy has a tendency to be continued by every next
generation of pedagogues. Most of the time, bad pedagogy the result of a pedagogical
relationship that is full of fear and power issues. In these cases, an empowering
pedagogy was not seen. Fortunately, there are examples of good pedagogy around, but
such discussion is not within the scope of this research.
5. What is the position of leadership on bullying in faculties of education? The leadership
sections in both the literature review and in the findings chapters point to the
shortcomings of leadership and the reasons for it, and also plead for a change of
leadership style. Nothing needs to be invented, it is already well in place in many places,
192 and it is called transformative leadership. (Shields: Transformative Leadership, A
Reader, 2011).
6. What are the relevant cultural and societal aspects in relation to bullying in faculties of
education? At a few places these aspects have been mentioned. Maybe the contribution
by my fellow Dutchman, Micha De Winter (2014), states it the most clearly when he
claims that bullying occurs as a mirror of civilization. Whatever is wrong in society
ignites an unhealthy competition, which too often leads to bullying, also in faculties of
education.
In this study I have shown that bullying between faculty members in faculties of education is a negative and costly phenomenon, which in large part is induced by the neo- liberal climate in which western countries are living. Neo-liberalism has no interest in change for the better and hence has a negative attitude towards emancipatory education.
By masking budget cuts as innovation, the hegemonic powers keep faculty in place; by making resources scarce, faculty are forced to struggle for their basic needs and rights. This enables negativity and a structural bullying climate in the faculty.
Once faculty are aware of this process, we can start to make the change that is needed. Understanding that the problem is political, and understanding that we as educators have the tools in our hands to make a change for the better, we can go ahead.
Leadership is needed, both formal leadership and personal leadership. When leadership works toward transformation of the faculty and itself, bullying in faculties of education will vanish.
193 6.1 Recommendations
Having found the causes and explanations for bullying in faculties of education between faculty members, it is now time for the “So What?”
When a faculty member or administrator is confronted with the occurrence of bullying in a faculty of education, I recommend looking for the possible causes in order to understand in what ways the situation could be altered in a positive direction. Freire’s
(1970) conscientization is a way to become conscious about the situation a faculty
(member) is in. Also, understanding of the rhizomatic (Deleuze & Guatarri, 1987) workings at play will help to get a deeper sense of the problems at hand.
From the understandings—that may alter and develop throughout the next few steps—one may want to study the capacities of transformative leadership. This is a task for both the administrator, as the formal leadership, and faculty members who have to take responsibility respectively for the process of changing the organization into a healthier one for all.
Here two main qualities need to be improved upon: safe space and trust. Although easier said than done, it needs to be understood that safe space is not something that can be hierarchically instituted. Safe space must be worked on carefully and rhizomatically over a considerable amount of time. Also, it is for the last person that feels unsafe to decide whether safe space has been accomplished. Safe space is a process rather than a result, and faculty members ought to continually engage, both reflexively and dialogically, the space to work towards safety.
194 Building trust is equally sensitive in nature. Honesty and openness are prerequisites, and that goes for a very large range of issues. It helps to openly ask of the person who is distrustful, how by investigating together, trust can be regained.
In my work as a team advisor for professors, teachers and faculties, I will work towards the realisation of the above principles, always understanding that working with people is complex and dynamic, and that most of the work will be done by the people who want change. Only then will change for the better happen.
Afterword This dissertation is an example of combined research methodologies, often referred to as bricolage (Steinberg 2012; Kincheloe & Steinberg 2010; Kincheloe & Berry, 2004; Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, 2000, 2002; Levi Strauss, 1966). Each of the consequent methodological steps taken in this research and described in chapter 3 have been carefully and deliberately taken. In this chapter a bricolage has been employed, but has not been named as such.
The steps in the research not employed as one methodology, but as natural and logical follow-ups of the outcomes of each previous step. In this research the data have led the methodologies rather than methodology directing the research. In contemporary research it is quite common to combine research methods.
This decision was driven by the resourceful ability of the researcher to apply diverse research methods thoughtfully, organically, and wisely.
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213 Appendix A: List of Quotes
Quotes # 101 – 125 are from respondent with the pseudonym Rose Quotes # 126 – 192 are from respondent with the pseudonym Camellia Quotes # 193 – 220 are from respondent with the pseudonym Erica Quotes # 221 – 311 are from respondent with the pseudonym Peony Quotes # 312 – 340 are from respondent with the pseudonym Gavin Quotes # 341 – 451 are from respondent with the pseudonym Heather Quotes # 452 – 515 are from respondent with the pseudonym Leo Quotes # 526 – 601 are from respondent with the pseudonym Peony Quotes # 602 – 687 are from respondent with the pseudonym Griffin
101 Most of these people who retired, who were in high power positions before they retired, they were program coordinators, they were department chairs. So, they also had a name a reputation to preserve. When they saw that this person was starting to be let go, they would have some of these people writing in letters, even though they were not in the environment anymore. They have some of these people writing letters to the administration to support that individual just because. You see the politics. 102 It’s not just about the program coordination itself but there is a lot going on in relation to ethnicity, your race, your gender. There are some expectations that some roles they expect you to fulfill. And you are going outside of those expectations and you are not fulfilling the role that they basically have painted about you. You are challenging the system. And I said very interesting because I have not thought about that 103 he was a union representative and he was contacting all the EDU students and he was setting up a meeting with the EDU students behind everybody's back to have them basically raising questions and turning against the program coordinator. 104 They want to basically portray that their expertise should not be questioned. 105 combination of ignorance and arrogance 106 So if the person is somebody they like from the beginning, they find all ways to view this person up. If they have doubt, or do not know the person, they leave that person alone. And that was what happened to this individual. She was alone and again, she was teacher ed., “whatever she had probably was enough.” So there is that idea too, behind expectations of the department. Should she have been perhaps in another field: Let’s try to bring her here. She was teacher ed. and she probably was considered enough for that. To some extent, to answer your question, would that have been different? I would say perhaps it probably would if you had had more people pushing for that person. But I do not know to what expense she would have accommodated. 107 I should have, if everything made sense, they should have listened to me, they didn't.
214 108 there's a ranking and teacher Ed is all the way at the bottom 109 But then, things became even worse, like the no talking, the kind of reports coming a little late, and things that I asked to be done immediately by the secretaries and stuff like that. I went to her and I said forget about the meeting, people have made their minds about whether they want to leave or not 110 The main issue was about competence. 111 Because I asked questions she didn't know how to answer, basic questions, like how do you keep updated, she had no idea about journals, about associations, nothing like that. What kind of journals did you read? She didn't have anything to report 112 And she added that I think you should call and apologize. I think you should call the candidate and apologize. And I basically said, "Miss. Such-and-such. I’m sorry, but I will not call anyone." 113 I was not fully convinced that she was the candidate that we're looking for. Again, nothing personal. 114 committee start telling me that I had offended the candidate. And I offend the candidate because during the interview time I asked some questions she could not answer 115 So I learned to ignore everything. Sit in my office every day, have my door cracked, do my work, enjoy myself with the students. Going back, my main fear was that somehow the program would collapse because the students would have a manifestation, a question or something like that. 116 And what hurt the most were the people that actually said they were friends, people that had come to my house. It was something very, very important. And I share that the person was special. So these are the people that hurt me the most, none of them ever phone called, none of them ever stopped by 117 I was totally outcast, I was totally isolated during that time. 118 One of them talked to me after that meeting and said well one of the reasons I never spoke to you was because of what the department head said I thought you were real upset about that. And I said I was not upset about that, you could have talked to me anytime you wanted to, so you basically act like that. 119 The whole situation, but I have a sense of freedom that perhaps I did not enjoy fully before that happened. And that sense of freedom comes to me because I was able to see all this problems that have now come up. 120 So that was like I said a very challenging experience but I grew. 121 So, I have come along I think I am a better person after what happened to me, to be honest. It had made me better. 122 So what was so terrible for me about five years ago, actually became something that empowered me now. 123 That was when my life became a hell because I was accountable for everything supposedly. 124 After the time she was let go, she suddenly became everybody’s best friend.
215 125 So, I would come to the office, say good morning to people, people would ignore me or not reply my greetings. I would then, I was totally outcast, and I was totally isolated during that time. 126 we’re not given a great many roles. Either you get with the program, what the administration wants, what your colleagues decide is appropriate, the way you speak, the way you research, engage, all these things, right? And when you don't do that, you walk this line. To try to be yourself if yourself doesn't fit into their criteria of what you ought to be then you're walking a fine line. Why maybe it’s hard for me to say, yes, I think it was a moment of being victimized but maybe why I never thought of myself as a victim, I felt powerless in the moment, is because I always had this sense that I had to find a way to survive but I don’t know what it'd be like for others 127 He said, ‘this isn't racism.’ I said, ‘oh yea, well, you would know. I'm the one that's going through this. I'm the one that is experiencing the impact of your discrimination and you're telling me this is not racism.’ I said, ‘this is my area of study but my area of study isn’t just an abstraction. ‘ I said, ‘this is what I've been struggling against, these kinds of things within communities and schools and now I'm in the middle of it and you're essentially trying to make me feel that somehow I don't know what I'm going through.’ It was so paternalistic. 128 I've seen women who have gone through being pushed, and they just okay and the next thing you know, they get with the program in a sense and some of them go into administration, do different things. I think our choices in the university as women, especially women of colour, is much more narrow than people realize. 129 So she didn’t even hear your side of the story? Respondent: No, so I went to the president. 130 but leave your Uzi, Uzi being a gun. 131 the whole faculty, one by one by one, confronting me about the email, each one 132 They mobbed me. It was real clear. They had all prepared. 133 And then this woman looks at me and she goes, ‘well say something’, I could not. I was ambushed. I would’ve never, ever even thought something like that would happen. After sitting there for almost an hour of hearing these people go on and on about what I did 134 Now, I come to her and tell her this is happening, and she's stonewalling. 135 How can it be that you don't see what's going on right in front of your face? What do you think is happening to me? 136 ‘if you can't stand up for me, then what does your work mean?’ 137 attempted to get her to look into the legal possibilities of having my tenure revoked. 138 then another person said, well I heard you said this at this conference. Because at the conference I said right now some of the students are protesting. 139 she went into action and made this hysterical case that I was trying to
216 destroy the department and bring the department down 140 What I did at that meeting, I was so upset, I just stood up and said, ‘well if this is the way you all really feel, maybe this isn't the place for me’. And I just walked out 141 In Illinois there were different issues, not that kind of intense mobbing situation but there were professors, in this case male professors, seniors professors, I came in as a distinguished senior professor and the treatment, I think that- but that’s another story. That has to do with what happens to women at the academy and how it’s implicated in this case because even if I had been a male Latino, that kind of hazing could’ve happened to me 142 She said, ‘I know all your colleagues up there and they're all very respectable and they’ve told me about what happened.’ And I'm saying, ‘well, what have they told you?’ she stonewalled me. 143 Obviously, I went to talk to my dean, he just blocked me 144 So it was essentially a hazing, the closest thing in academia. It was a mobbing. I call it hazing, other people call it mobbing 145 But it was irrational, that's the bottom line 146 When this thing kicks in, a case is made, but it’s irrational but because everyone going into the consensus to make the irrational rational, and academics are smart people, so they never want to feel they're irrational 147 So they're going to support each other and they were going to back each other up. 148 At the time, in that moment, I felt very victimized 149 this felt very abusive, it rekindles old feelings of abuse you thought you worked through. It re-triggers as an adult. 150 I use victim but it’s a sense of powerlessness 151 I never thought of myself as a victim, victim. 152 It is a form of victimization, if I think of it but what if let, I felt powerless. I felt this was happening to me, I felt it was unfair, unjust and I felt powerless to do anything to change it, which are the ways that victims feel. 153 That was the feeling, a sense that I was persona non grata 154 This is part of that very same dynamic that supposedly you write about and then you go and educate millions of dollars for foundations so that you can go out and do training on diversity.’ 155 An incredible, tense, kind of mean spirited conversation ensued and I was – I wouldn’t understand what was going on but all of a sudden there was a way in which they were critiquing the proposal and saying that I was going to take students away from other programs. 156 So not only did I write this email, then that came up and I couldn’t say anything because I got so incredibly- I'm done, really 157 I remember sitting and there was a window and there was a tree and a bird on the tree. I almost had to go out of my body, or go somewhere else so I could withstand how painful that experience was 158 It felt very racial because I don’t think he would've said that if I was a white
217 male colleague 159 I said to him, ‘answer me one thing, do you believe that racism exists in the academy?’ he said, ‘yes’ I said, ‘well, what do you think this looks like? 160 So to you it’s clear that your race was involved. Respondent: My ethnicity, my gender and I believe my class 161 What I would say is they would probably experience a similar dynamic, however perhaps not as deep and not as painful but I think anybody put in a situation who is suddenly isolated by all their colleagues not- first hazed and mobbed and then not spoken to, I think almost anybody is going to feel something but I think when something like that happens particularly to somebody who has had to struggle every step of the way and had to face micro-aggressions in institutions, that have to do with racism and sexism, and class and the ways those elements enforce us and act themselves onto the environment, relationships, then I would say that it’s not so much that we wouldn't all experience it 162 she said to me, ‘as far as I'm concerned, this is an individual thing. This is not the issue. I'm not going to go down on this issue’ in other words, I'm not going to stand up for you 163 I believe and again, it’s not that this is what I think is true, we have beliefs that help us in life but I believe that I or anyone could be that way. We all have the potential to be that way but part of our work is to be self-vigilant in terms of what are the mechanisms in ourselves? What are the values, what are the ways that we behave and how do we deal that by being vigilant we can stay true to a more humanizing path so that doesn’t happen. I'm not saying that we will all be that way. I'm saying that we all have the capacity to be cruel and we all have the capacity to be mean spirited. We all have the capacity to be arrogant. It’s the reason why we have a responsibility to be vigilant and be perfective about our practices. 164 It just continued 165 Thank goodness it was the end of the year. 166 It’s that our history of abuse, our history of oppression, will make that experience a bit different for us. I do believe that. So maybe somebody under different circumstances within six months or maybe a year, they’d be over it 167 It really did take four or five years before I could get to the point where I am now, where I could talk about this and I don't cry anymore. There's always a part of us that feels like I still don’t believe it happened, at least for me. 168 can you see a pattern? Is being mobbed the story of your life? Respondent: Well, I don’t know. I have struggled with this 169 You start doubting yourself? Respondent: Many times but I think because I’ve gone through so much in my life that I have this way of kind of just picking myself up. 170 Interviewer: Survival energy? Respondent: I have a very strong survival mechanism. I will survive. The problem with surviving doesn't mean you don’t go through enormous pain. 171 It just felt very, very negative and insulting.
218 172 I knew there was some tension, things that would get said, kind of little comments would be said here and there but I would try to not pay too much attention to that 173 It was kind of hysterical but that’s what happens, why they call a workplace mobbing because everybody kind of gets on that wavelength. 174 So from then on, what happened was, nobody would talk to me. I would walk, people would just turn. It was social isolation. 175 it was like they were questioning everything I had said and done 176 I said, ‘I cannot believe this. I have worked with you for 10 years. What has happened?’ there was almost a veil of secrecy 177 they would not tell me exactly how they came to this information but instead they came asking me questions 178 the feeling that I had was like persona non grata. 179 It didn’t matter what I said, what I did, it was just… 180 I felt- I think the experience and I felt alienated 181 It wasn't just a feeling 182 I was alienated, isolated, and completely marginalized 183 I had suffered- it wasn’t like there weren’t elements of marginalization 184 it left me completely isolated 185 It was really obvious to me something was going on. 186 I didn’t realize it was at the level that it was 187 they would say things like as far as I'm concerned you're not trustworthy. 188 that I had acted completely non collegial, 189 that I tried to destroy them, destroy the department, and try to bring down the school of education 190 I can have no faith in you, in your work. You cannot be trusted.’ It just went on. 191 Was that the woman who orchestrated this, when she came in, she was the only woman and she had talked to me about how hard that was many years before. 192 So it was crazy to me that she would be the person orchestrating and she had now been in a position of power 193 It not bullying among each other, but there is a kind of chill in the greater group of colleagues. And with our smaller groups we have a kind of solidarity, we shut the door and start chatting, you know. Almost like an underground resistance atmosphere. 194 in the past, all our marks on our assessments were ‘good’ and now de people that work as madmen will get ‘great’ and some will get ‘good’, and some that they think of as we would like to get rid of, get a mark ‘inadequate’. If you get that mark two times you are being fired. 195 The sphere is fear, the word is out that there are still too many jobs; people will have to be fired, so it is used as a tactic almost to get rid of people. Because they do not want to openly fire people, but they want to get rid of people, so they have come up with this tactic.
219 196 And now they also have something called ‘unbraiding’, so administrative staff like secretaries and such, now have a different boss as the department boss. So our team leader can’t give assignments to these people anymore. There too divide and rule is in play. 197 EB: do you think this is due to the leadership of the director? PM: No it is due to the board, it is a board policy and the board determines more and more and they give assignments to the deans and also, we have become a colossus. We are not a small school anymore. 198 Nanda and Hein had a huge clash because the musical was not good anymore, all of a sudden. Students learn too little from it. EB: that is an example of things that are being learned that are not is the list or in the test. PM: totally 199 The times with Kees, was paramount, a time where you counted, in which everyone was being seen --- and of course K had personal preferences, positive and negative and his emotions that were strongly present, but it was a time in which you could make a difference, you were seen, carrying each other, and now nobody carries someone else. 200 And the funny thing is, we have made it through accreditation now, and you would expect a sphere of relief, well that happened for ten minutes, and after that a lot of people collapsed that have worked very hard to make it successful. And from those only three are mentioned by the director and the others not, although they worked very hard too. 201 it feels like we have to change everything continually, and probably it is less, but that is how it feels. Everything has to be renewed all the time and in all different directions and nobody has the overview anymore. When you are in the building, you feel it in your head. 202 we suffer from an enormous shortage of money, and that is an alibi of the board, to tighten the control with all kinds of rules and regulations, leading to tasks that you got 40 hours for before, now you get 30 and then 20 and so on. And it is held against us: If you don’t comply, you better leave. 203 EB: true, a teacher must have something of an artist, being able to express oneself. And when we become production staff you are of less importance. PM: precisely, and a teacher is of less importance, everything has to now be blended into the Huble, the electronic learning environment 204 In my field, which is drama, I have always been able to work the way I think is important for students. Now we have to change that and students have to take a test and learn form the book. And there is a lot in it I disagree with and a lot that I think is badly written. They now have to learn the textbook by heart and word it at the test. Has become very instrumental. I find it so terrible. 205 Who you are as a teacher is not important anymore, you get an order of who you have to be. That is how you have to be. And that is totally different from the time with Kees, ‘ode to differences’, and to subjectivity. Now you get a kind of blueprint, you all have to fit in the format and there is hardly any scope left.
220 206 See, you can battle, than you win 3 square centimeters or you go down in the battle, and that costs a large amount of life energy, or you become apathetic, there are a number of possible ways to deal. And I sometimes battle, sometimes laugh about it, I do all kinds of things. And that suits me and makes me feel free. 207 You know it all has to be sold in a certain way. The uniqueness gets lost. 208 Too many things are changing, that is why I am starting to retire, and I have to reduce. And you know, today I have been to sauna and then I can get rid of it all too. Earlier I was a ringleader, and battled for everything and at a certain point, now I think let it be, others don’t do it, but I am not doing it anymore. It is done. 209 EB: that is due to your way of coping. What I see around me is that many people are taking antidepressants. 210 PM: how I feel about it is variable, yesterday night I drove back from Hillegom and it was dark and it takes more of me. I notice: my head is full. And it is partly age, but not totally. I am not able to loose it completely. It happens to me too, it grabs me, I cannot prevent that. Also because I see my colleagues collapse, or being treated unjustly. And what I think is interesting is the cognitive dissonance. We have to sell things that we do not support. And that is increasing 211 our team leaders have to do that too. Hein is team leader now and he has to promote something that he cannot support, and I think that that is so bad for your soul, or so bad for your self, you get cut in half. You are not faithful to your self anymore. 212 yes, but I also see a wish to escape by a lot of people, or that some people do remain in the sphere of complaining and whining. And that too ruins your life to remain on that level. 213 EB: Do you see that colleagues among each other are becoming irritated? PM: yes it is more. Before we were more in touch with the whole community and that is getting lost. And as clusters we were very strong and we stepped up to the forefront as clusters. And that too is all gone. So we have lost the sense that we can be strong together. 214 And I notice that people are so busy that they become more indifferent and colder towards each other. And for sure not interested in the other. Meetings in the breaks are non existent, lunch is at the computer desk. 215 De kerstborrel is bij ons op het werk verschoven naar het voorjaar, vanwege bezuinigingen....als ze de vakanties maar niet gaan verschuiven.... 216 That is the sphere, and then there is complaining. But we got sick of that too, so now we chat mutually, and now the sphere arose, oh well, we mention it, and we try to maneuver through it, but stopped taking things too seriously. 217 On the other side, the funny thing is the human nature will not be restricted. You will find it in short encounters with others. At one point when the system failed and the students would all get ‘1’ (F) scores, we have said: we will not do that, sometimes you must go against it. 218 Laatst kregen we 1 bonbon van de Aldi omdat we door de accreditatie
221 waren 219 en als je gratis 160 uur overwerkt in een jaar krijg je een ' uitstekend 'op je beoordeling 220 je krijgt 1 uur per student voor stage bezoek, reistijd, beoordelingsgesprek, invoeren en scannen in het systeem, en mailcontact, pech als ze het niet goed doen, binnen dat uur dan nog een keer naar de school 221 it happened form the department chair to the dean to other faculty members to the secretaries 222 I knew I was not getting mentoring towards tenure 223 you grow up black in America, you're going to have insecurities because everything tells you, the media, to the newspaper, other people that you're full of shit. So you're going to have insecurities and I think going into a place like Perdue that was toxic 224 Ignore me 225 be completely left out of the situation 226 I was to be ignored in the process 227 constant belittling of who I was, my talent, my importance to the university 228 it was a constant being ignored 229 I knew I would be ignored in meetings 230 I knew my voice would not be listened to 231 telling me about gossip: that I did not develop the art-program, I was not going to get tenure because I wasn’t worthy or hadn’t published enough, I wasn’t a good teacher; there was denial 232 being ignored in a meeting 233 Started being real vocal about things because I figured they don’t like me already 234 and I spoke up, I feel I had nothing to loose 235 (memories on high school): gossiping and cliques, popular and not popular, cattiness, for children, immaturity; 236 I just felt like life is fucked up for black faculty at P 237 Friends at foreign language and sociology, that is where I got my support and when I told them () they were shocked because () there was more of a community and they tried to help young faculty 238 colleagues who were doing the backstabbing 239 Only one of ten faculty of colour had been tenured 240 so they had a way of bringing in people of colour and then pushing them out 241 how African Americans are perceived, how we’re looked at as not being intelligent, as not being worthy, as not being smart or being different or being the other 242 ask the professor in the next office; ask someone else 243 colleagues never came to (my artproject) 244 one insinuated that it was plagiarism 245 I wasn’t asked to write a grant 246 I ended up feeling so alienated from the department
222 247 respect wasn’t there 248 they succeeded in pushing me out 249 I was not part of the in crowd 250 I think I was being victimized 251 I never felt like a victim 252 I felt that my identity had been stolen 253 I became really unsure of myself and my own intelligences 254 for five years little pieces of me were taken away 255 it took a year and a half for me to figure out what my faults were, because I was to blame 256 it was the climate 257 two colleagues made the childish behavior a lot worse 258 I think the door was constantly closed for me to make it 259 those two like a united front, working against me 260 they weren’t about developing community. It was about what can I do to make myself better 261 Choosing my battles and not trying to fight everything 262 It was constant 263 things happened on a daily basis 264 it is really hard to pinpoint one thing 265 it was environmental 266 it was a climate that existed within the school 267 environmental 268 I was young in academia 269 I believe in conspiracies. It's probably more of an effort being made where you keep the masses ignorant. Do they know they're being mistreated? And if they don't know they're being mistreated then they're not going to fight against being mistreated. 270 So he was threatening me saying if you don't get the enrolment up I can cancel your classes or end your program. I'm like that's not the way to motivate me to do better. Threats don't motivate me to do more 271 I think bullying in faculties of education happens too frequently. it’s making professors rethink their jobs and is this really where I need to be. I guess it's just it stops me personally. It inhibits me from doing what I really need to be doing as a concerned educator because you're so busy dealing with the bullying or the shit that happens. It takes away the time from you really going out and doing social justice in the community and making a difference, and sometimes even doing the extra things that you need to do with your students because you're fighting whatever ridiculous thing you're fighting within the actual faculty. It takes you away from your true purpose in doing all of this. I think that's the biggest thing with bullying that bothers me 'cause you know people will be assholes and you know if you're above the age of you know 15 you're used to people being assholes and if you're especially above the age of 30 you know that that's part of what you have to
223 deal with in life. What upsets me the most is when I'm so busy dealing with that stuff, I don't have time to do the things that are really important. I think that's what really makes me the angriest 272 But when I would tell her about things that were happening in education, she would be like in sociology you know that type of stuff doesn’t happen 273 Well now she teaches in the school of education at Vt and some of the things that I experienced at P she's now experiencing at V. 274 In my experience, unfortunately, I've never been at a place that's had good leadership. The leadership when I was at P and the leadership here at I has been really problematic. I think because it hasn't been strong leadership it creates the climate for bullying to take place, because it creates this competitive climate or this climate where there is this lack of respect and people already have very fragile egos. So because there's not good leadership going on, they feel justified in doing certain things. 275 Bad leadership I think makes the problem. It can be like a small problem, but with bad leadership what is very small and minute can grow 10 times in a short period. 276 I think good leadership is being able to listen and really hear what people are saying. I think that good leadership is going into a situation - I think that leadership is not having the answer to every situation you go into, you've got to be open - open minded and listen to what the people you're leading are saying. What they need 277 Honestly, I've never had a good leader. To me that's not good leadership because it's leading by command rather than by consensus. I feel that's a problem. I think a good leader has a sense of humor. I think a good leader - what is that form of leadership called - servant leadership? Which to me, that seems like that would be a good form of leadership. I can tell you more what bad leadership is. [Laughing] 278 I know that bad leadership whether we're talking about you know in a faculty or at McDonald's, it creates this really negative climate amongst the employees - a climate where you don't really want to do the work 279 I mean you can say well let's sit down and discuss how to increase enrolment 280 you know good leadership is mentoring the person or giving the person suggestions and ideas about how to do better at whatever rather than threatening 281 Well, I haven't been under any good leadership in my career 282 have been in the other departments of the programs of the universities, and it seems like they have good leadership. But, of course, that's from the outside looking in. 283 They supported me in this particular way.
224 284 Yeah, well M didn't get tenure. She was at JCU in C, O she didn't get tenure. M's research is qualitative and its arts based so you know - poetry, whatever. Her university - she was the only black female at her university and I don't think her university had ever tenured a person of colour. And they did not understand Mary's research nor respect it, even though she had more publications than anyone else there. I mean she's had many articles published and she's had, I don't know, three or four books. So it's kind of like - if I don't understand the research you're doing I'm not going to take the time to understand it. Since I don't understand it I don't respect it, therefore, you don't deserve tenure. 285 When I was at Purdue, definitely, which didn't so much relate to tenure because I was at the beginning - I was far away from tenure. By the time I quit, I knew that I wasn't going to get tenure based on everything else that happened. When I was here, being a person of colour it didn't hurt or it didn't help. But, I also after what happened at Purdue, I figured out how to play the game and I just didn't piss people off. 286 thinking like corporations is harming American Universities 287 I wanted to go out into the community and do some work with some of the teachers in the community. He's well that's not increasing your enrolment 288 Unable to see the long term effect 289 Right and here the conservatives have taken over. In the states, there’s a very conservative ideology around education - not schools of education - but just universities. 290 if people who have a traditional way of looking at pedagogy and they remove politics and power in their mind from pedagogy, then they're not understanding the politics and power that are part of pedagogy so then bullying is going to happen 291 you have an open way of looking at teaching in a more critical way of looking at teaching then I'm going to truly critical way of looking at it, then bullying will not happen because you're understanding relationships of power and you're listening to your students and you are - I want to use the word - accepting what your students offer without you. 292 I think tenure is just so subjective and it's so political 293 if somebody operates under a real traditional way of pedagogy like they're the great knowledge giver and students have nothing to add or say that's important, then that is bullying or can lead to bullying 294 I think that it happens all over in all disciplines 295 it is a place, it's a space where there can be a lot of bullying taking place because it's about personality. 296 it seems to happen more and this is amongst my friends so this isn't empirical research, but it seems to happen more in education 297 I just think education faculty are screwed up. I think they just have so many issues with you know? Maybe part of it is education’s kind of the step child of all disciplines, and proving their worth maybe is a real - proving that they're real scholars
225 298 happens it seems to happen more in education 299 And is that a position that was put upon education do you think, or is that a position that education loves to take on? 300 there are students that could not necessarily make it in premed so they might - well I'll become a math teacher 301 I think we dumb down education quite a bit 302 Because you know education is one of the professions. We're not looked at as a profession. You know states throughout the United States - I don't know about up in Canada - but you know they're getting rid of pedagogy classes. You got a degree in math you can teach. You don't need to have a pedagogy class. So, education’s just looked down upon 303 So again, I think some things are particular to education. 304 that inferiority complex that seems to be hanging over education? 305 I think faculty of education can be kind of full of themselves and think that they are more important than what they really are. And the only way to do that is to build yourself up beyond what you really are and what you really do. And the only way you can build yourself up is by tearing other people down 306 Like there's more of a value if you're going into say business vs. Liberal Arts. So, I think they place the disciplines in a hierarchy. I mean I guess overall there also is (under at least in the states) they're calling it dumbing down of the population and we all see that as a big deal. 307 She speaks her mind - right. So I think that was another issue that - I don't want to be colleagues with this person that speaks their mind. 308 So, you were ... because of your experience, you were smarter in dealing with matters of that could have turned out to become bullying? 309 I believe so. Some things I just stayed away from. And it's kind of like I was wiser in choosing my battles. 310 I don't remember what specific instance of bullying I had then because shit happens every day. 311 Now, it's personality, it's collegiality - whether I like you, it's about you know - do I respect your work even if I don't understand your work 312 I told them. I said she is a bully. There are other people in my department who can tell you she’s a bully. I’m on what’s called the campus and climate team in my school of education which is about creating a neutral and safe productive work environment for everybody and I was asked to be on that team. She wasn’t and there’s a reason, they pulled me on to that team and I was elected was the next president of our department for unionizing or coming together as a faculty. If I were that much of a racist I would have never been elected so yea I mentioned that too. 313 I am tenured but I still felt intimidated 314 it has to do with people that really seem to want to embody change and there’s a real resistance. If you’re a change agent you’re scapegoated and I think it has to do something with preserving what some people see as education that has been a certain way for a long time and now there are
226 people that are coming in that are very much fearful of neo liberal reform and the people that are against neo liberal reform are being targeted as problematizers.
315 because she’s black. I didn’t want people to perceive me- I knew she was going to pull the race card with me. I don’t want other black scholars that I’m close with to take sides with her. They may side with her, who knows. 316 I get an email from the office of equal opportunity, this is a year from when I started cataloging things that EH has filed against me for race based sabotage. 317 I had two doctoral students come up to me and say, ‘I’m so sorry E is being so rude to you’ and I asked them if they would be willing to be witnesses and both said no because of her power and because they're doctoral students. So my witness pool shrank by two 318 Well, I think the winning is in your own morality. I know I didn’t do anything. 319 and the one thing that's been constant, students have been fantastic across the board. They couldn’t care less. It’s the adults that seem to have a harder time. 320 She’s endowed. She walks on water. Everyone thinks to respect her but I think its feigned respect. I think people are scared of her because the way she snaps. 321 One thing that I noticed and it’s not just me but the more people that I’ve actually talked to about this recently, the more stories I’m hearing and I’m hearing it from either assistant or associate professors who are being bullied by full professors. 322 it was never direct but it was indirect micro aggression 323 when I would speak up in a meeting, anybody could respond, she would slam me down. 324 I’ve always been trouble. 325 This person realizes you're trouble. 326 I mean mostly when I started my medical transition absolutely, a bunch of things happened. It’s one of the reasons I left my former job 327 micro aggression but they weren’t doing it intentionally but I would walk into a bathroom after I’m living as a male, I would have other math faculty look at me kind of rudely and walk out. I had people continually call me she to my face and say I’m really a guy. 328 they would introduce me as Doctor Miller whose done work on blah, blah, blah and then start to pronoun me as she. So here I am living as a male and they stabilized the environment by calling me a she in front of other students. 329 When I’m talking to any black female right now, it’s never hit me this way before. How am I being appreciated, by being racist? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to talk to a black woman the same way again without- I mean it changes your psyche.
227 330 Especially like I’ve had black lovers. Two of my best friends are black women but it’s like- it’s like someone punched you in the chest. 331 if you're going to find that people who file do so from a - under a - the discrimination policy that’s in place at the university like are they filing as a protected class? 332 this woman is really not that nice and I started to have some of my own questions about how she got to her rank. 333 I did become a lot more out since this because fuck it. I’m not going through what I went through again. 334 I’m not going to work in an environment that half the people now are reading me as a racist where if you look at everything I’ve ever done in my life, it’s fighting racism. It just boils down to she doesn’t like me and is calling it racism. 335 the middle school syndrome 336 The middle school syndrome is this, new kid comes to the school and the first person that reaches out is usually because they're lonely and they don’t have allies and they want a friend. 337 I have two prominent black female scholars who say if you need anything, we will be there. They’ve laughed at the charge. 338 I believe her bullying towards me began at that point because I pulled away and I think she was uncomfortable. None of that could be proven but that’s what I believe happened. I have purposely not gone to her. I don't ask her questions. I separated myself from her and I think she resented that. So what happened is I started noticing these micro aggressives from her towards me from that point forward like in meetings I would raise my hand, she wouldn’t call on me. 339 people started to come up to me and saying things like , ‘why is E being so rude to you?’ 340 I think I became a scapegoat for whatever reason 341 a couple of girls came in one day and their hair was cut, very short 342 they wanted to speak and they stood up and said that they had decided to cut their hair because as Cuban girls it was expected by their father not so much their boyfriends that they would always have their hair long and they wanted to defy that. 343 he was bothered by because he felt like Joe was not right 344 he felt that as a Cuban male that empowerment and gender to look at women was important 345 he liked what we were learning in our class 346 other kids in the class started to say yeah we agree. We are very uncomfortable. 347 I said this is really inappropriate. I can't help you about this 348 you need to know that we do have different political points of view and I feel that what I am teaching here is appropriate and that it is a university and we are able to say whatever we want because of academic freedom 349 the faculty was uncomfortable
228 350 all of a sudden they started being gossiping and sort of whispering behind me about why are the students learning the word deconstruct, why are they talking this way, why are these students doing this. 351 And I said I am not saying that suicide is a healthy thing obviously Ozzie was disturbed he shouldn’t have done this but I am saying that a professor has no right to write something like that on a piece of paper that is sick, that you don't say something like that to kids about dying. You just don't. 352 I knew I was being fucked then I also knew that I would always be fucked. It's like I just not I guess I realized that my craziness wasn't my inability to be told in an authoritative way what I had to be 353 And it's very hard in my philosophic way of seeing the world to not name when things are not right 354 that absence thing was not right. How my students were being treated was not right. Humiliating my student to make her sing a song was not right 355 what I notice is that most of the time even now women I am around don't say what's not right and am I the only one who notices it. No. I just think people choose not to open their mouth. So, yeah I am crazy not know how to keep my mouth shut. 356 I think I leftist politics bothered a lot of people. I think that was the problem and I think a lot of the bullying I have not known a lot of centrists or conservative people who have been bullied but the people I know that have been bullied tend to be bullied by people like that. 357 And I still to this day and I still have a paper of Ozzie’s. And this topic sounds insane and whoever reads this is just going to think I am crazy. I just feel like had he not have that man in class I don't think he would have killed himself. I just think he had other things in his life, maybe family, wife, something but I think something that man did to him and basically telling him you've missed three classes you need to die. I just think was I mean it reminds me of Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society when he worked did all this empowerment stuff with his boys but then the one kid couldn't fit his life into empowerment and ended up killing himself and I just feel I don't think I was the player in this but I think sort of what he learned from me and what he discovered on his own, his own empowerment was against what he saw was happening. I'll never know why he phoned right before he died. 358 my students were very upset and they would come in and they would say we need to talk to you and Ozzie was very upset. 359 he just said this is wrong, you can't keep having this happen to you. You have to do something, he said 360 and the students vented and it's hard, it's hard when you are being beaten down like I had to not let them and I have to admit that was probably not a good thing. I should have been a professional but they really were unhappy. 361 Well because they were taking about my colleague and even though the colleague kept physically assaulted me I just felt like I shouldn’t have encouraged it but I didn't discouraged it. 362 So I basically let them talk and that's what I do. I've always done that as a teacher. If I knew it was a touchy subject I would just be quiet and let my
229 students talk and that's what happened. 363 And my kids said a few times, a student keeps calling and I didn't know who was. Student keeps calling him on because students keeps calling him and about two days later I get a phone call from one of my students and he said Shirley, Ozzie killed himself. 364 And just as I was getting ready to go to the funeral I found two notes on my desk at the house and I asked – on the calendar, scribbled on the calendar and it said mom Ozzie called and I asked my kids and they said, oh he called a couple of days ago we forgot to tell you. 365 it wasn't about me but he had felt, he had gotten personally entrapped in this battle between this man and what he thought was the battle with me and he was very angry. 366 His attitude was what he had written was how can this man be a teacher and treat people the way he does and now he tells me basically if I miss three classes I better be dead. 367 And students who knew him really well said that you know they just nobody knew why he killed himself but the fact of the last conversation we all had with him was about missing and him having to be dead. 368 if you ask the two students I still after all these years have contact with will tell you with great anger and fury how awful those times were. I mean so I think those two are actually the most evidence I have that it was I am just not an idiot that there were bad things going on 369 what this man started to do was to be aggressive toward me 370 he says: what's wrong with you? And she said I am not going to sing, this is stupid. And he said you are S’s student aren’t you and she said yes but what is that have to do with it, I am not going to sing a stupid song. 371 he said you are just scared because you wear braces 372 he said: stand up and she said no. And he said: stand up and she said no. And then he said: stand up and so she stood up by now she lost it and he said stand up and turn to the class and sing the song. And he just humiliated her in fact so badly that she called me and came to my house in just tears to tell me what this man had done 373 And as soon as he was made assistant department chair he comes blasting in the office one day and screams at me that I need to clean up the office that it was humiliating and I was a pig. 374 so I am standing at the desk and I weighed about 130 pounds and I am reaching over the desk and it's a large room and this Joe man, this large man walks up to the desk and physically, physically pushes his entire body weight against me, throws me across the desk and secretary sitting there and basically bruises my hip, walks away. And he assaulted me and I turned around and I said did you see that and she said, see what? I said did you see what he just did to me? I didn't see a thing, are you crazy, what did he do, he is way over there. 375 I called the dean to report it. And he called back and said that there was no proof that it happened and that I obviously made it up, that the assault never
230 happened
376 He just assaulted me 377 And everyday at my office he would leave notes about me being a pig or how disgusting my office was and stuff like that and all of a sudden the faculty stopped talking to me. 378 he would give them marks if they were critique my work and my teaching 379 he also got obsessed about absences and he had an absence chart that was like if you miss one day, you get a minus; two days, you get two minuses; three days and no excuse: wedding, death in the family nothing and the third one said if you are absent three dot for the third time and still – I kept this for years if you are absent three times it better be because you are dead and that's what it said. 380 And then it got worse just the treatment, this man kept on me and I felt like I couldn’t even breathe, I couldn't even breathe 381 but there is no man alive that would have taken that man hitting me and drawing me against the desk, no man would have done that. I mean I have seen most men are conditioned to turn and to be physical back. I was so shocked and had never been struck before like that not as an adult maybe as a kid but it just wasn't even my comprehension that I could be treated that way. 382 friends that I had I would notice were starting to talk aside form me and when I would come in would stop talking to me. 383 And I noticed my mail started to be not being in mailbox, little tiny things. 384 I just wanted him to leave me alone but there was this kind of feeling that if his students started to like my class then they started to get punished 385 I was starting to not get invited to faculty meetings. 386 that wasn't it at all and they had all lied and I called him and he didn't believe me, didn't believe me 387 at the secretary’s desk I was standing, asking her yet once again about phone messages 388 I started to notice that my partner’s phone messages were starting to be delayed or lost. 389 People in the faculty stopped talking to me and started to make reports about me. 390 And then all of a sudden pick people and it was like a fungus or a disease that spread, it was really weird. And that was all this plausible deniability like: I didn't see that. What do you mean? You didn't have any mail today. You didn't do this, it was all like, are you crazy 391 So for the rest of the months it got rammed up and it became my entire obsession 392 And there were just so many stupid things that I kept thinking there is I am imagining I kept thinking I was imagining, it became a constant conversation in the home and to the point that it was apparent that there was no way this could continue. It was getting worse and worse and worse.
231 393 And so I tried to tell my students just let's keep what happens in class to ourselves, let's keep it our safe space because I have found that if students celebrate my teaching and that sounds really egocentric and I don't want to make it sound like I am so important but I can't deny what happened to me 394 I was most vulnerable and most able to be hurt 395 And I left astounded of everything. Just astounded and I kept thinking what, what did I do in the first place 396 Mostly about gender 397 he treated women very badly not in the misogynist way but that they were little girls and he would have these little Cuban girls running around sort of doing work for him 398 And I watched kids on the playground and if a boy gets punched or pushed immediately he'll turn around. Usually when a girl gets punched or pushed she sits down and cries and so I think gender allowed me to get pushed. I think size because I was small and he was enormous that allowed me to be touched. 399 I think because I didn't have a doctorate my class position was lower. So that allowed gossiping and conversation 400 I think my differentness because what I did wasn’t like a lot of the other people 401 I think that's ethnic and education 402 I also was even though I didn't have my doctorate I had written books and articles and most of the colleagues hadn’t and I think that there was sort of like who did she think she is, kind of stuff but I honestly I think the biggest, I think one of the biggest problems is how much my students liked me. I really do. 403 I just didn't even expect that this could actually happen 404 he said no, I don't believe you, I don't believe you, this is crazy. He said you are talking crazy and I had, seems so clear to me, and so I realized that I was done for him. 405 I decided to move in and share an office with someone and that got turned down. 406 So I decided to share an office with my spouse and so I moved on my stuff in and started to live out of that office and at the same time this horrible man who became horrible at this time to me 407 we started to see that two of us were getting pushed about it, but he was a professor so it wouldn't hurt him and as much as it would hurt me. 408 I kept hiding 409 So it got to the point I would secretly run into an office so that this guy wouldn’t bother me or other people wouldn’t harass me because I just felt so picked on. 410 strong women have this happen a lot 411 So my life professionally was wonderful. My students adored me. Everything was wonderful 412 I had issues with men usually who didn't like that I would talk directly to
232 them 413 And she called me a couple of weeks later and said the dean had said he had to fire me. I said well you can't fire me, he hired me and he’s going to have to fire me. 414 And so he fired me 415 he said but it's aggressive and I said in what way is this. Maybe it's just because you are so such a New Yorker and I looked at him and I said do you mean I am too Jewish and he said yeah that's what I mean and I thought that was real interesting 416 I wasn't a victim, no I wasn't because had I been a victim I think I could have done a little girly thing and said poor me but I didn't I stood up. And so no, no I wasn't a victim, now I realize that I was not a victim. 417 that was one thing I was told just let the system take care of it. Sort of that idea that bad things never happen if you just let the grown ups take care of it. Well bad things do happen. 418 I was always the kid to get in trouble 419 I never smoked, never smoked a cigarette yet if I was around kids smoking I was the one who just picked to be the smoker and I didn't smoke, stuff like that. 420 I don't think that's about being a victim I think it's because I had never hid myself. 421 it's easier to pick a target of an aggressive female or an assertive female than it is of a girl especially at my age who should have been quiet because we were not supposed to be talkative in the sixties you know. 422 was eventually fired through workplace mobbing 423 When I first got there I was the darling of everybody and they couldn't love me enough. 424 he taught this course before and he’d love to help me 425 I just thanked him profusely and went away and of course never used the kit. 426 he was saying things that were contradictory to what I was saying 427 I could see starting to not like me ended up coming to the next campus. So it first started by people writing notes to me and forgetting to give them to me so that there was a phone call: I wouldn’t get it. And then someone would say but I called you, called you and the secretary said well I told you, I told you they called and they didn't. So it was things like this but I couldn't prove it. 428 And one day all of a sudden they were really nice to me and called me up and asked me to come over. And so I am just like this pleased, like coming racing over down he said we need you to help us to put together the most important grant we’ll ever do. 429 then all of a sudden people started saying you’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong, no, no, no and by the second day they said you need to leave, you can't do this
233 430 started to tell me about all the trouble I caused. How I had upset all these people, all these people, all these people, all these people, all these people and then all of a sudden that there was a pattern and that I was basically ruining the life of the department and he basically threatened me if I didn't straighten up and I didn't know how to straighten up because I haven't done anything. 431 I told him everything that this man had done to me and how my students felt and how somehow all these people came from different ends and started out him and then another person, then another person, then the secretary and all of a sudden gathered and things were being stolen from my box and just all the stories I am sort of written them now and I tell him the story about Ozzie and he said well what you are saying. And I said I am not saying anything but I am saying that one of our student has killed himself and that student was told he was going to fail the class by the professor who said if he missed three times, he needed to be dead. 432 why didn't you do the grant. And I said because they threw me out of the room and they wouldn’t do with me. She said that's not what they said. This is my best girlfriend. 433 And I just realized that well all I did was do what I did. And I have seen it a lot in the last 20 years that when my students too loud and enjoy my class too much, like you enjoy a class you talk about it. My colleagues don't like that. 434 Respondent: But with those people were around she couldn't possibly have the same friendship. Interviewer: Yeah. She had to be part of that system. 435 I had no one else believe me or saw it because except my students would tell me what they thought 436 that people don't think for themselves. They very often let other people think for them. And I think I saw that very much play this stuff out at the school with the secretary and with the colleagues that they just let people run their lives. 437 I think that's interesting in class sense because it's not any different than people, in a factory or in a bank or anywhere turning their head and just saying it's not my problem. I am going to go with the pop, I am going to get with the popular crowd, I am going to go with the majority. No way am I going to get dirty on this one. 438 He said that I was poison and that I crossed the line. And I said well you don't have to tell anybody 439 He didn't have to ever tell anybody the story but he did. Think that I was poisonous. And I was thought if he went to the top he would be left alone because the top didn't have anyone to be threatened by. 440 I started getting memos about my teaching and my manner of teaching. 441 then there started to be a buzz why are her students always in her office, why are they so noisy and so this fat man keeps coming through and say: be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, you are too noisy, you shouldn’t be here 442 I was starting to get, things were starting to be stolen off my desk
234 443 People that I didn't even know but they would report that my curriculum is wrong. That I was teaching the class wrong. And the department chair called me and said I was teaching it wrong and I said well how can you teach it wrong, it's a course on multiculturalism and hardly anybody’s ever taught this class. 444 you are causing trouble. So that entire semester I was causing trouble. 445 At the same time this man and then a colleague who had been a friend of mine started to talk about me outwardly in class that I didn't know what I was talking about, that this was crap, that this is not teaching, that nobody can teach this way, that this is not acceptable teaching 446 What amazed me is that this big sort of weird guy with sweat pants could corral people and act like he was the victim of me. 447 I felt picked on. I guess yeah I did. I don't like that word but I felt like I couldn't get out. 448 maybe a victim is powerless 449 I didn't have my PhD. I didn't have a career really so I was very vulnerable 450 I also noticed that my spouse was treated much worse than he should have been 451 and eventually we left the city right after that, got another job. I mean we couldn't stay. 452 These things are so circumstantial. I think bullying in general relates to many factors: personality, predisposition, institutional culture, societal culture 453 Academia is very unusual because I think that there is the sense that all of these very smart people must have really split the atom together 454 They are very advanced and it seems to me, there are some jokes that nothing is as disgraceful as university politics 455 but in academia what is interesting is this propensity sometimes to carve out the larger egos and arrogance and “who’s done more.” 456 I think what I’ve noticed and observed is that sometimes in an academic situation for various reasons, because there is this internal competition, you’re constantly evaluated 457 And, there are awards and tenure and promotion and the culture itself 458 You’re autonomous and you are almost anonymous in the way that you do things, but everything you do is somehow reported. 459 I found it very interesting that I was not appreciated in two different universities in the departments that I was in 460 Outside of that, in other milieus, at conferences, associations in the broader community, out there in the academic world people were contacting me, people were giving me awards, people were congratulating me, people were asking me to be on doctoral committees 461 the Chair seemed to really disregard everything that I had done, even though I was contributing and producing. Also trying to single me out to identify me saying that I wasn’t doing committee work, I was always away travelling
235 462 I was given a course load teaching 5 days a week. It could have been condensed to 2 days but the chair insisted that there was no way to change it 463 My wife was very ill and I had to be there with her. Also, why should I teach 90 minutes a day for 5 days. Just the way I think and work and it could have been done like that and she pushed it and wouldn’t allow me that it couldn’t be done 464 a few things like that that I thought were not only unfair, but quite stupid. 465 reasonable is why don’t I make you happy cause if you’re happy, you will be more effective 466 “personal harassment complaint” against the Chair 467 One of my colleagues went to the Chair and asked, “should we announce this to the whole department?” because I had a few colleagues who were very close to me. She wrote back and said, “well he hasn’t given approval to announce this so I won’t announce it” 468 yet; if Eelco gave a talk at the rotary club today she would announce that. In the beginning, I was a little paranoid thinking, “is this odd?” but after a while I documented everything. 469 the personal harassment complaint, the university obviously was not interested in having personal harassment complaints. There was no outside mediator who came in, but she interviewed the Chair twice and only me once and interviewed the Dean. So, everything was put together to make it seem like it wasn’t a bonafide complaint, though she did write that the complainant, myself, was of good faith. So, we were dropping the case and there was no real harassment. But, in my mind, there was harassment and I documented it. 470 These are small things, but these are things that can be used to ostracize and I’m not sure why 471 and I’m not an egregious person. I’m not looking for conflict. But, it went to such a point that I had to make a formal complaint. Actually, after making a complaint, there was another person who complained about something too, and then the Chair stepped down. 472 that my complaint helped make it a better situation 473 But I had to push it to that extent. It was stressful for me, but I was extremely focused on my research, like a laser, that I tried not to get sidetracked 474 Really, some of this pettiness can really eat up someone’s whole day. 475 In this other department, there were all sorts of acrimony. Not just with me, but with other people and it was a poisoned environment. 476 Education is organized in a very distorted way in my mind. 477 People like us are almost distinctively put into the margins within the faculty education. You’ve got pedagogy, curriculum, methods, ed psyche, and then you’ve got this foundations group. Often this foundations group is seen as this “add on.” They don’t have as much power, authority, or resources
236 478 curriculum groups and teacher ed groups are sort of kind of rigorously, extraneously methodical; this is the way the meeting starts, and this is what we need, we need this rubric. Then they have people, who think outside of that, and these people are either seen as a sort of threat or I’m not sure 479 What happens in these faculties of education is they lump these foundations people into departments with leadership, or ed technology, or counseling 480 Here you’ve got educationists, but some people are studying mathematic or subjunctive and it’s like this, and other people are looking at it at a very large sense 481 It is so multi-disciplinary and it is hardly ever becomes any inter- disciplinary 482 I’ve noticed in faculty meetings, often you’ve got this preachy schoolteacher vernacular that comes out 483 It’s almost like treating the faculty like a school or principal and this is the way it is. I’ve seen it so often that I could say it’s a bit of a generalization where it’s not considered to be as a broad academic venture 484 the way I would condense it is the context is where it’s at 485 But what we do in education is we focus on the content and the content is really nebulous. “This is the policy, this is the curriculum,” but that’s not going to lead to a better sociology. Understand the context like in Ferguson, or whatever we do around the world. I noticed when I was in the United States and in Canada, there’s an obsession with getting accreditation and rubrics and numbering, and it’s important, but it shouldn’t overwhelm these other areas and topics 486 If we were to say that “there’s no racism, just work harder and stop being a downer” and neglect that there is, the way I would say it is let’s talk to people who aren’t white to see if they agree that there is no racism 487 There is some power and people who don’t want to challenge. I think that we have to constantly strive to build a decent society. That might sound a bit romantic, but be open. If you tell me that I’m bullying you or that you’re not feeling comfortable or that things are not working out, I should be open as a leader or Dean to kind of review these things. It takes a lot of courage to kind of open up and have these conversations and look for change. 488 I think that if leadership has a good understanding of the sociology within his team, it should be hardly unheard of that there would be any bullying or harassing occurring. There would probably be conflicts, but then they would probably be sorted out and life would continue. 489 I think you have to really work through the institutional culture, power relations 490 But within faculty of education, you can tell when we go to a lot of conferences, we know a lot of people in faculty of education. You hear all kinds of really crazy stuff 491 Every university has stuff but I think that the key really is to, as best as possible, reach out and to be open, and it’s not easy 492 Even with being a man, there is a lot of pressure for men to try to be open to
237 kind of challenging all sorts of stuff; violence against women and violence in general 493 These are complicated things. But I think that there is often a mismatch between rhetoric. The rhetoric is often very good. We look at Obama and everything is fantastic, we’re working together, but then you look at the policy implementation. When you look at the policy in faculty of ed and what kind of policies are there, I think people can read through that. There has to be some sort of authenticity 494 In fact, all of the cases that I have referred to involved women whom have done odious and hideous things toward other men and women. Race, sexual orientation, all of these other things weren’t really one of the issues 495 The issue was more of jealous or wanting to control 496 in my case, I’m not a difficult person, but I also have my own values of my own, so I’m not going to be a doormat, so I might say some things. I think that maybe that might be a threat, I don’t know, but I think Antonia and some others have written some very nice things about this problematic 497 I wouldn’t look at this as strictly an identity issue. I think that there are personalities 498 you could have 10 Dutch people, all white male or female, and you may have very similar things. 499 I think that culture is another issue 500 But I think there are other things that are happening at the same time and it’s difficult sometimes to put your finger on it. That’s why it’s easier just to say it doesn’t exist, “suck it up,” “be a man.” 501 I think within a Marxist critique, we live in a highly consumerist, individualist, hyper, new liberal, capitalist society. All of those things mitigate against having effective decent normal human relations. They are not meant to bring people together. They are meant to divide people and to ensure there is competition; threats against men and women, white/black, different people in different power, etc. As long as education is structured that way, it’s not healthy. 502 at the last university I went up for a promotion for full professor. This was part of my complaint about the Chair. I had published, someone told me, more than the entire committee. I had something like 8 books, and 75 articles and it was just very productive, but I had just put it there on paper. I also had a number of other things in the university and in the community. But the Chair mobilized a campaign and people within my department voted against me. I had support in the sociology department and elsewhere. This is something that is wrong. Just looking at it objectively, it’s not what you think and the reason that was given was “well, you’re not in the department that often, and you should wait and you haven’t participated” but when you look at what I had done, I was doing all of these things. I’m not crying. When I went to the new university, they immediately gave me a full promotion to professor and that made me feel better, but it also made me feel that I was given a raw deal at the other place.
238 503 It could be my politics, and it could also be just the fact that I was a bit different 504 To be honest with you, and I don’t want to make light of it, it affected me but not so much that I was unable to work. It affected me in the fact that it motivated me to leave the place. 505 if I hadn’t published so much and I was in that situation, I probably would have been in for a pretty serious depression 506 it was actually a woman of colour as Chair who was disingenuous and I actually thought when I made my complaint that she might say that I’m making a complaint because of race. I thought about that even though I have been working on anti-racism for a good 3 decades at least because I thought she would play any card there is 507 I’m not of the opinion that because someone is white that they could absolutely be garbage. I think that these things are complex. 508 I think that it’s the personality. Sometimes people are very easy going, but I think that in academia people are so strongly entrenched and specialized in their area that it makes them vulnerable to engage in a broader range of issues and that sometimes is a bit of a problem because you have people who are very specialized that are in leadership positions. 509 I think that in academia you’ve got a lot of smart people and, in my case, effort was placed on trying to vote me down, and it was just foolish. 510 It’s not like in a school yard “he called me this, and I’m going to…,” it’s very sophisticated. In talking to you, that’s what I would end up with as a conclusion. That it's very sophisticated and psychological. You’re dealing with smart people, but there’s also a lot of rewards and competition and that’s why people try to ostracize or isolate people. 511 It would be interesting to gather different colleagues who work on this because it seems there are some very functioning things. I think you have to build something together. It has to be organic. 512 I think that you bring together good people 513 I know almost every place you think of has got these issues, the question is how intense are they? 514 For me, authenticity, being open, developing plans but being flexible, providing feedback, checking-in, cultivating, etc. There are a few people that I can think of who are very decent and open-minded. They are not problem people. They are there to assist you. It’s not necessarily a leadership quality per se. How do we do it: with these types of people 515 There are some very good people, but the people going up there also have to be very cut throat 516 It wasn't one particular thing that happened. It was kind of like a series of things. It’s really hard to say what happened because it wasn’t one specific thing 517 P as a research one institution and so there wasn’t a lot of collegiality at the institution 518 the only black professor out of a faculty of about 140 people
239 519 African American female being in a predominantly white town and predominately white college 520 feelings of alienation and aloneness 521 The other two women were white 522 I would be completely left out of the situation 523 rather than ask me, the coordinator of the class, they would ask the professor in the office next to me 524 She didn’t teach the class, she wasn’t the coordinator, but they would ask her 525 It was kind of like silencing or usurping a power 526 It was really weird 527 And rather than asking me how many students do you have this semester- and all I have to do is look at the grade roster and see, they would ask someone else 528 Or, it could be something highly theoretical like, ‘what is the theoretical foundation for your syllabus?’ or something like that. So it didn’t matter if it was the most superficial question or a really deep question. I was to be ignored in the process 529 My colleagues never came to- it was called Culturepalooza. One of my colleagues actually insinuated that she developed it even though I had been doing it since Penn state 530 So it was just constant belittling of being who I was and not just my talent but my importance to the university 531 If someone was writing a paper, a senior professor, I wasn’t one they asked to be part of or if they were working on a grant, I wasn’t asked: be part of this grant I know it’s important to your professionalism, your getting tenure 532 For five years it was a constant being ignored. It was a series of little things 533 prior to a specific time, I just didn’t accept things as they were. It was almost like it was common place, like I knew I would be ignored in meetings. I knew my voice wouldn’t be listened to but whatever 534 But it was in June 2005 and I was actually living with friends for six months finishing my book and F called me on my phone and started telling me about things they were hearing that were being said about me and my work. 535 A friend from the university correct, called me to tell me some gossip going around campus or going around the department that I didn’t develop this art program 536 I wasn’t going to get tenure because I wasn't worthy or I hadn’t published enough. I wasn’t a good teacher. I mean it was like being in high school again 537 the gossiping just became really large and it started getting back to me and once it did, when I went back to the university I confronted the main people who were saying things and there was denial or if not outright denial it was like no you misunderstood. I didn’t mean it that way but I ended up feeling so alienated from the department that I moved my office so I could be away. 538 So I moved my office to a lower floor because it was such an uneasy feeling being there.
240 539 getting on the elevator and just saying to myself I hate my job I hate my job, as the elevator went from the first to the fourth floor. 540 It was really hard just even going into the office. So I thought well if I move my office, then at least I don’t have to see these people that I know don’t have my best interest at heart. 541 I mean in the context of high school, 18, 17 and 16, gossiping and the cliques. Cliques meaning like groups of people. There's the popular clique and the unpopular clique. There's a lot of cattiness, for children, immaturity. 542 people who are supposedly educated and supposedly educated 543 you think they're mature and you would think that if you have a problem with me let’s talk about it or even if you have a problem with me, that’s okay. 544 We don’t have to like each other, we’re colleagues, we have to respect each other and the fact that that respect wasn’t there 545 Kind of like the he said, she said childish behaviour. 546 They succeeded in pushing me out. 547 I moved my office and that helped the situation for a little bit but because I had always been- the five years I was there I was not part of the in crowd. 548 Once I realized what was being said and how I was being constructed, I'm like well fuck, I don’t have anything to lose. 549 I started being really vocal about things because I figured they don’t like me already. They don’t respect me already, I might as well- if there's a problem rather than not saying anything let me talk about it. 550 for example we were at a faculty meeting with about 140 faculty members and they were talking about diversity and they were talking about it in a really superficial way and I spoke up and I said the fact that they were talking about it in a superficial way and the fact they were identifying African Americans and what African American students needed to succeed because again, I feel like I had nothing to lose. 551 The more vocal I became, the more difficult of a time they had accepting me. 552 I knew I was already not being accepted, so what the fuck. Does that make sense? 553 I think I was being victimized. 554 I think that I was already- from the time I accepted that job, I was set up for failure. 555 During the time that P had a school of education, there had been like 10 faculty of colour altogether, whether we’re talking African American, native American, Latino, only one person had been tenured. 556 So they had a way of bringing coloured people in and then pushing them out. 557 but I was still like oh I could be different. 558 I can do what I need to do and I don’t need to fall into this whatever 559 but once things started happening I was like hmm I guess I'm not special. 560 I never felt like a victim I just felt like life is fucked up for black faculty at P 561 but once I left the university, it probably took me a year. I was mentally drained. I felt that my identity had been stolen and I became really unsure of myself and my own intelligences and who was I really and what did I have to
241 offer. It took probably a good year and a half to get past it.
562 it was really difficult for me to think about one particular instance for me where I was bullied. It was constant 563 Things happened on a daily basis whether it was being ignored in a meeting or whether it was not being- like I knew the mentoring that other faculty were going to help them move towards tenure. 564 I knew that I wasn't getting that 565 It was on a daily basis. 566 It’s really hard to pinpoint one thing and because it was on a daily basis, it was environmental. 567 It was a climate that existed within the school and because it was a climate, then for five years, little pieces of me were taken away. 568 So at the end of the five years there's this little piece of me left 569 It took that year and a half for me to figure out what my faults were because I was to blame- well, not completely, not the biggest part. 570 I think I made some wrong decisions like instead of changing my offices I should've stayed there and fought or I should’ve just left the job all together 571 I was young in academia 572 Ninety percent was, again, the environment that I existed in 573 it was the climate 574 environmental. Specifically there were two colleagues, both of them are still there, who were the instigators of everything or if not the instigators, they pushed it along and made it worse, I believe. It was almost like – 575 My mother had a saying, egging something on, pushing it on, making it worse and I think I had two colleagues that just made the childish behavior a lot worse. 576 Other faculty were like: write this with me. She was getting the mentorship that I said I never received. 577 So I don't want to say it was easier for her because it’s all hard work but people opened the way for her to make it whereas I think the door was constantly closed for me to make it. 578 a white male and he was new to the faculty but she grabbed hold of him as someone who would look up to her. He wasn't her equal. He would look up to her in order to advance and so it ended up being those two like a united front. 579 It was only working against me and helping each other. They weren’t about developing community 580 It was about what can I do to make myself better. To hell with anyone else and I don’t even think it was about the students. 581 So that's why things got so bad that eventually it ended up that I knew I wasn’t going to get tenure and the last thing you want to go is go up for tenure and not get it. 582 So that’s why I just left before I even went up for tenure.
242 583 Before I do things, I really try to think about what it is I'm doing. I think to think about the long-term effect. I try to think about the repercussions and then decide are those repercussions that I'm willing to take. 584 choose your battles 585 You can’t fight everything 586 also understanding that if I'm being silenced, how to speak up, how to make that voice heard 587 So while I was in it- actually going back, while I was in it, I did feel like a victim as I think about it. They don't like me, they won't help me, they won’t help me publish. Nobody wants to write a grant. So I really did feel like a victim. While I was in it I did feel like a victim but once I got out of it and I reflected back on it, I decided I didn’t like that word because victim is helpless. I did feel helpless but looking back on it, I really wasn’t helpless. I could’ve done things differently. I could’ve gotten out of there much sooner rather than spending five years. I could have left sooner. 588 And that actually ended up hurting me because the less I did, the less I was able to write, to really do the things you need to do as a professor. So as I was trying to please them I was doing things that weren’t helping me 589 If I had made different decisions, well yea, that’s true. If I had made different decisions it still would’ve probably ended up the same way. 590 I like that word environmental because in my particular case I think one of these main reasons that I was being mobbed or bullied was based on how in America- well, in the fucking world, but in America, how African Americans are perceived, how we’re looked at as not being intelligent, as not being worthy, as not being smart or being different or being the other. 591 I guess it couldn’t have been different. I don’t think different things could’ve happened. 592 you grow up black in America, you're going to have insecurities because everything tells you, the media, to the newspaper, other people that you're full of shit. So you're going to have insecurities and I think going into a place like Perdue that was toxic. 593 I think that I didn’t have the foundation to bear the assault because there was already stuff going on up here from childhood that I hadn’t built up the reservoir of strength to deal with that kind of stuff. 594 You have to believe in yourself to deal with it but when you grow up in a home that there are already problems, mental abuses that you never really learn how to believe in yourself so the little bit that you do believe in yourself when someone attacks it, it’s easier for them to tear it down. 595 They talked about, they were scared of me to say anything because of retaliation. 596 It just got really crazy and what I learned from P and handling this new situation was I fought it 597 I made sure people understood my side of the story. I also spoke to the people in charge to let them know that the school of education wasn't following process and giving me my due process and letting me know
243 exactly what the complaints were against me or reading these letters that were going around. 598 So I made sure my voice was heard. 599 Then when I realized- then I told my current students what was going on because it also affected what they were doing in my program. 600 Then when I realized that things weren’t going to change, that my school wasn’t going to follow due process, that they were going to allow these students to get away with certain things, I decided fuck it. 601 I'm not going to go through the hassles. 602 Well it’s not just one event. I think when bullying happens, it happens in multiple ways 603 it’s often left to the person who is being bullied to connect the fucking dots because while it’s happening I certainly didn’t recognize it as bullying 604 I thought it was something else and I think that’s why bullying is so insidious because I think the immediate impact is that you actually start to question your ability to do the fucking job that fucking that’s the first materialization of bullying 605 it started with colleagues who didn’t agree with me coordinating the Master’s program. Sending out emails and basically accusing me of not being able to populate the teaching staff with credential lecturers. 606 just dragging people off the street to staff this 607 And then it kind of – it was insidious. It kind of got – there was little kind of drip things that were happening. And then it all kind of blew up when an email was sent to the Vice Chancellor accusing me of numerous things under my coordination role. And basically escalating what initially had been kind of bitchy remarks into an institutional incident. 608 And while that was kind of happening, I kind of put it down basically to the disgruntlement of the previous coordinator and his requirement and need for revenge. But thinking about why the context in which I work, there are kind of a casual remarks that are made, which I do think on reflection have a lot to do with a) me being British in an Australian University; me being a critical scholar in a context where criticality or any kind of intellectualism is regarded as suspicious; and also me being a very out and a certain type of gay male. 609 I think my performance of queer ehm enabled people to make remarks which they wouldn’t make remarks about if I was a little less flamboyant. I get the sense I’m a little bit too much and therefore it’s quite legitimate to make comments because I’m too much 610 If only if I wasn’t so gay or if I didn’t have to speak about it all the time, and I find that in terms of kind of a heteronormative culture and a heteronormative bullying, which is actually seen as legitimate. 611 It’s all right to make those remarks because there’s the distinction between being an academic on what that supposed to look like and then one's personal life. And it goes back to kind of the critical paradigm where the personal informs the political.
244 612 And in my university, I’m surrounded by the majority of people who are former teachers, it’s not an education studies department, it’s initial teacher training department. And they still behave like they are in the fucking classroom. And anything which slightly deviates from the norm is suspect, suspicious and/or is kind of slapped down. 613 Interviewer: But is it, now you say that, is it not also that they feel endangered by an intellectual? Respondent: I think that’s certainly that’s part of it. That’s part of it. 614 I think that it’s the British thing. I mean this is where I say kind of joining up the dots. 615 I mean initially I thought, well, I don’t go through life thinking people are homophobic, I don’t. But having – when I initially arrived here, there was a staff meeting. And one of the – and were all the colleagues were around the table and one of the staff members made a comment that she was not going to be anybody’s bum boy. And I’m like, I then believed she’s just fucking said this, and not one person around the table registered that comment is inappropriate and I went to the Head of school and I said, “Did you not hear what she said?” 616 I said, if she had said she wasn’t going to be anyone’s nigger, what do you think would have happened? And the look on his face, when I said the ‘N’ word. I said, you didn’t even register it. Did you, T? 617 I said, well, unless something is done I’m going to make a formal complaint. And at that point I realized that I was in a kind of an intellectual fucking desert or I was in a critical consciousness desert, because in a faculty of education which is predicated on the principles of social justice that comment was unheard except by me. 618 Interviewer: Yeah. Unbelievable. Respondent: And it is not unbelievable. I mean I’ve kind of come to realize that you sell – there are very few places where one can be, where one can be where one feels supported by one’s colleagues as allies. And so wider understanding in the academia basically is a competitive narcissistic place. And if one is seen or perceived to be getting anywhere, then people will kind of very quickly slice you fucking down, and they’ll slice you down with whatever they feel is legitimate that they can slice you down with. 619 The thing is in academia it’s done very cleverly. People don’t come up to and say, you fucking queer but they certainly kind of make insidious comments, you know: colourful, flamboyant and it’s like, yeah, because I’m performing queer as a way of disrupting, the normative discourses that exist in institutions. And if you don’t fucking get that, you’re even more stupid than I thought you were to begin with. 620 But if you got to explain, people don’t fucking get it. And I refuse to behave in a way that puts me in a space where I feel that I’m being undone everyday by doing this job. I won’t do it, but it brings consequences and that consequence is that people feel entitled to make remarks about me where they wouldn’t make remarks about people of colour or people with disability or women.
245 621 It seems being queer in Australia or being a certain kind of queer in Australia in academia actually kind of sets you up. 622 Respondent: Never encountered it in England. Interviewer: Okay. Okay. And you performed as queer in England as in Australia? Respondent: Yeah. 623 So it could be the fact that I don’t belong here that I’m not Australian. I mean one, again, a very early staff meeting. The comment was made, well, why did we employ M. 624 And I’m thinking yeah, and then somebody out said, well, these people that come to Australia and take our jobs. 625 So it’s not just the gay thing. I think there is a kind of resentment to people who kind of come in and do the work in such a way that people who are being in for 10 fucking years disappear to the beach in fucking December and don’t come back till early February. 626 Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah. So that is you being a newcomer in two senses and then also being a challenger on the intellectual level and on the performing level in academic work sense. Respondent: Yeah. Yeah. And also, I mean alongside that is the fact that I’m upfront and center stage about my sexuality. And also I’m critical with it. I’m not kind of a nice fuzzy gay man that comes along and swaps fucking knitting patterns. And I’m political in my articulation of sexuality. And what that means for education and of course that fucking rocks the boat and people don’t like it. 627 It’s – this is where I talk about connecting the dots. I think it’s being, it’s being an outsider, it’s having a certain critical stance on sexuality is having a certain critical stance on what education is and what education should do. And that comes from being in an education studies department and then going into initial teacher training department. That’s very, very different fucking beasts. One is, I think, people here are prepared to engage with ideas and understand ideas. And the second one is, people here are now where we do train teachers and it’s like: Luvy, you train fucking dogs. 628 And I think see the glaze look on people’s eyes when everyone matters. Another interesting thing is, people, and this is what I regularly get, is people comment upon my language. We don’t understand what you’re saying, oh you use big words. And I’m really in a fucking university. And what that is doing in many ways is saying, is trying to silence me. 629 And the people here were saying it and I give them enough credit to actually kind of realize, well, yeah, this is a form of bullying. You wouldn’t able to someone and say excuse me and shut your fucking mouth, but you can go up to someone and say I don’t understand what you’re saying. You use words that just I’ve never heard of before. So it puts it back on the speaker and I think that’s what bullying, the experience of my bullying has done. It’s placed it all back on me as a way of saying, do you belong here and the answer that I’ve come to is, no, I don’t actually.
246 630 Interviewer: Yeah. I think it’s interesting in your story is that you had to connect the dots to figure out, hey, this is – I’m being bullied and rather… Respondent: And one incident where, when it became an institutional event. I got that fucked off. I went to the Dean. And then I went further up, and I sat in a meeting with my Dean. After this letter, that’s not only been sent to the Vice Chancellor, but is being sent to all lecturers on the program that I was coordinating. And all the students, which was about 90 fucking three of them and I said, well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do to stop this? And the Vice Dean or the fucking, whoever is of the hierarchy turned to me and said, well, what would you like me to do. And then at that point, I thought I can’t fucking believe this. I’m being victimized here that I’m being asked to provide them with a solution. 631 And then, the implicit message was, well, let’s just draw a line underneath this. And then at that point I thought, fuck you, fuck universities, fuck this job and it really kind of altered my – the way that I started to do this job. I mean I stopped going in and I became highly fucking cynical of the process. I became suspicious of people and I’m thinking if this is academia and I think it is academia everywhere. Then, oh boy, am I fucked up? Because when I’m doing my PhD, there one told me it is like this. 632 Interviewer: Yeah. But is that not a very unlucky circumstance that you got into this university and in this faculty? Respondent: No. No, I don’t think it is, because I speak to colleagues. And I’ve got colleagues at other universities, better universities with better reputations. And they’ve encountered similar, if not, worse situations. I don’t think it’s uniquely my institution. I think it’s uniquely academia. 633 Well, I think, I’m looking for jobs now, but I’m only looking in for jobs in education studies. I’m not looking for jobs in schools or colleges of education that do initial teacher training, because I think education studies is paradigmatically different. It’s master’s work, it’s people who get ideas and initial teacher training, it’s, I mean, I can go in and I can deliver a fucking lecture with my hands tied behind my back on one leg, it’s not that it is what it is. It is what it says on the bottle, it’s training. And training doesn’t require criticality. Training doesn’t require a pedagogy which is provocative. In fact, it actually dissuades it. 634 Yeah, but that is a double-edged sword. I mean I was going to apply for promotion this year. And what stopped me was that if I applied and I got it, then I have to press my bosom closer to the fucking thorn but it would have been anywhere near. I mean there is a lot to be said. There’s a lot to be said for staying where I am as a Level C, which means that I’m under the radar. If you’re going to an associate professor, there is an increased expectation that you’ll go to meetings that you’ll be involved in all of the stuff. And speak quite frankly. I can’t bear it. I don’t want to be anywhere near those people. 635 And I started taking from my job, the benefits. I don’t have to go in everyday, and I don’t. I’m not an associate professor, I don’t have that institutional expectation that I do anything then do my pubs and teach and it’s kind, and if this is the best that it can be which I think it is, then fine, I’ll play the
247 fucking game.
636 Interviewer: Yeah, but this is a very disturbing and saddening position to be in because it doesn’t appeal to your intellectual capacities. Respondent: Well, my intellectual capacities and my intellectual life resides outside the university. It resides in the community of scholars which are dispersed throughout the world. It certainly doesn’t reside within the corridors of my institution. I wouldn’t fucking trust them as far as I can throw them. And having being on Prozac for a good two years, I’m having been referred to see a psychiatrist because of depression. It’s like fuck, I’m not going back there again. Interviewer: And, I have to ask this, all work related? Respondent: Yeah. 637 Respondent: I mean I stopped taking my Prozac in November of this year. Interviewer: Man. Respondent: I was only on it for two years. Interviewer: Wow! That’s really very sad isn’t it? Respondent: And I don’t regard myself as a naturally depressive person. Interviewer: Right. Right. Respondent: I’m pretty up. I’m pretty positive. I’m pretty resilient. 638 Interviewer: Yeah. And the way you have analyzed or connected to dots, shows me that you’re not in the middle of it or that you’re suffering from being a victim in that process. But at the same time, your work or situations around your work made you depressed. 639 Look, there were weeks. There was a week where I just stayed in bed and stared at the wall. And I’m thinking I am fucked up there. What can I do? And when one is looking at the future and thinking, I don’t know what I’m going to do. And all one sees is blackness. 640 And on the drive-in to M, it’s about an hour’s drive, and there is a stretch of the motorway that has got big fucking gum trees. And it got to one point, I thought, I know what I can do. I can boot my foot down on the accelerator and I can drive straight into a fucking gum tree. 641 And I’ve got this for the next fucking 20 years unless I flick academia. I can go and do something else, but I don’t want to go back into school teaching. 642 So what I did, I stayed in bed, I ate Prozac and I didn’t see anybody. 643 In particular you end up sound even more crazier than it sounded at the minute. I mean you can’t – because people say, maybe it’s all in your head. And it’s like, yeah, it is all in my fucking head and who put it there. 644 You, you cunt. I’ve come to regard academics as people who constantly fucking are looking for opportunities to get ahead. 645 Respondent: Look, I’m suspicious now. Interviewer: Yeah. But is that not mere competitiveness? Respondent: Yeah, but it’s competitiveness in academia because people actually believe that they are their fucking CV. 646 People go around and say, well, I’m professor so and so and all they put their email the latest book and it’s like, oh get over your fucking self. Is this why we do the work? The grandstanding that is going on, this is wank.
248 647 So I tried to keep out of it as much as possible. I don’t go into the university if I can possibly avoid it. I do my teaching and I get out and I certainly don’t go to fucking meetings or end of fucking turn Christmas parties. It’s like na- na-na-na. 648 No, it means, yeah, not to kind of get blown off the fucking tracks again. 649 I mean it’s been a hell of a learning experience in terms of how to do academia. I started off thinking everyone was basically decent. I now start off thinking most people are cunts. 650 I don’t regard it as leadership. I regard it as man-management. They’re nothing more than making sure that the university is going to get litigated against then and forcing policy in making sure that the institution is a solvent, it’s not leadership. Leadership implies or involves some kind of vision and direction making sure that the fucking books balance is not a vision or a direction that’s kind of fiscal control. And as universities are now businesses, I see Vice Chancellors are nothing more than kind of CEOs. 651 Look, I’m paradigmatically inscribed. I’m situated and positioned. And as an educator and also as an academic with a set of beliefs and practices which is the education is transformative, yeah? I’m in a system where education now is a product. 652 The customer i.e. the student is king. Now fuck that. Since when, if I’m buying a TV, I’m going into the TV store and I’ve already done a little bit of research whether I want an LCD or a big screen or whatever the fuck I want. Now, I have some knowledge, a spotty fucking 18-year-old that’s just out of high school is sitting in my lecture doesn’t fucking know what they need to know. They are not a customer. Yeah. And I’m the lecturer and I have certain responsibilities and they have certain responsibilities. When student – when you put students in the role of fucking customer, then what are we? 653 We’re servicing the customer. There are times that I feel like an old prostitute about to drag down my nickers and get fucked again. They’re not customers, they’re fucking students. 654 That might be a very 1970s way of looking at it, but neoliberalism has worked over universities so that they’re nothing more than businesses. One only needs to look at the marketing. And you do this degree and you can earn this much. Where is education for the public good? 655 So I maybe an anachronistic. When we are told we’re not giving the students what they want, it is no, we are giving the students what they need. 656 What colleagues in other institutions say, only that we have a center of excellence for education. I kind of balk at the rhetoric because it implies then everyone else is a center of shit. 657 What does this nomenclature actually mean? And what does the center of excellence look like, but it’s that discursive rhetoric which people are constantly kind of we are a center of outstanding achievement, we are a center of excellence. I mean they’re going to fucking run out superlatives.
249 658 And the implicit narrative is that anyone who is working in this center of excellence then has to constantly prove how fucking excellent they are. Like the doorbell on the fucking ring running around and around and around, get you running faster and faster and faster and faster and you end up either fucking dropping dead with a heart attack or crumbling. 659 I talk about practicing a provocative pedagogy. My pedagogy is provocative. It’s a narrative pedagogy. I draw on stories. And I tell stories purposely to make uncertain and to generate discomfort. 660 And to leave that hanging in the air for the students to make sense of it themselves. Students don’t want to be provoked. Students don’t want to be made uncomfortable. Students want certainties. . They want to be told this is how you do it. 661 On a recent trip, a study towards Thailand, it was really interesting because one of the student said to another student all he does is talk about gay stuff. And there was one lecture or there was one tutorial where being in Thailand, I was talking about the non-binary system of gender and sexuality as a way of cult understanding kind of the everyday practices of culture because in these schools that I was working in, with these pre-service teachers, there were lady boys. There were lady boys who were teachers and there were lady boys who were students. So I address this as a presence. And the retort came, all he does is talk about gay stuff. 662 And I thought long and hard about that and I felt well this is nothing more than privileged fucking white heteronormativity enacting itself again. Fuck them. And if one lecture discombobulated them so much that they had to make that remark and obviously a provocative pedagogy is also a dangerous pedagogy. 663 And it’s dangerous for the person who is doing it because sooner or later, you end up being told what’s coming out of your mouth actually is not wanted or not needed or not appropriate. And it’s that notion again of appropriacy and pedagogy. 664 We’re working in classrooms with life and the stuff of life is wide ranging in and heterogeneous is not, this notion of that pedagogy is a set of things that can be learned and applied, is not something I believe in. Pedagogy, it’s a position. It’s a situation. It’s a landscape, which one becomes placed in and one moves through, it’s not a little fucking talking. 665 And to articulate that and disseminate that to pre-service teachers, a) it’s political, b) it’s critical, c) it’s dangerous, because you’re not giving them what they want and you’re not giving them what the institution wants you to give them. 666 Well, bullying has a link when students turn around and make comments like that. 667 Yeah. When colleagues say, well actually we don’t think this is relevant. Well of course you wouldn’t, because you’re white heterosexual able bodied fucking … , of course, you don’t even see it. 668 Not every kid in the class is going to grow up to be like you love.
250 669 So I don’t think I call myself an academic anymore. I think if I was to choose a label, I’d probably kind of call myself, I’d go back. I would return to when I was 19 or 20, and I was involved in activism. I’m much more comfortable with the notion of an activist scholar than I’m an academic. And academic is a bit like a fucking accountant. It’s just become a job title. It doesn’t actually describe the work that I want to do. 670 An academic is a little cog in the very big machine, I don’t want to be any fucking one’s cog. 671 And if I call myself an academic then I’m interpolated into that discourse. I’m actually got to buy into it. I don’t buy into it. I spend all my life fucking resisting it. So to call myself an academic actually is, it reinforces to me the binary position I’m in. 672 And I speak to former supervisors who are professors and they’re articulating the same thing. So it’s not just people like me, I think, it’s affecting anybody who actually has a different view of what education in universities are about. 673 Recently if one cites the issues that are happening in America around Fergusson and race. 674 I mean in the Paris uprising students didn’t give a fuck about presenting their papers. It was like it was the last thing on their fucking mind in the universities. 675 I mean people are dying and we’re talking about presenting papers. And where is the learning here? 676 It’s become a bourgeois old fucking woman that’s worried about whether the hemline is fucking straight. 677 He used to be vibrant. It’s disappointing to say the least. 678 But in terms of bullying I expect nothing from universities anymore. 679 And to quote Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror and I receive in abundance. I receive nothing in abundance. 680 No, not unless people become radicalized. I mean it’s happening, it’s happened in Fergusson with people saying enough is enough. We’re getting killed. Academics don’t get killed, they just don’t get promoted. Yeah. So they move on. And moving on, they perpetrate the same fucking system. And unfortunately, the collective noun for teachers is beige. 681 Education academics are not the most radical bunch of people that you’re going to encounter. And so they won’t rock the fucking boat. They’ll just, they’ll keep tight to the yolk walking round and round and round doing the same old shit and because that’s what universities, because people who’ve got mortgages and they’ve got kids, college funds, and they’ve got all that kind of shyte. And so they don’t rock the boat. 682 And if some colleagues are getting promoted then those colleagues invariably buy in to the system that privileges that kind of discourse. 683 And if it’s individualized, well you’re just grumpy because you haven’t got promoted or you’re grumpy because you haven’t been asked to do this. It comes personalized and individualized and of course that in itself is also a
251 form of bullying.
684 But as far as gay men in the academy go, I think you get good gay men in who wears suits and ties and do all that shit and then you get people like me who don’t. 685 If anyone would’ve told me when I was doing my PhD that I’d end up on Prozac for two years, because of doing this job, I would not have believed them. 686 I think one is conscious, it’s a bit like Hamlet’s father. One is constantly haunted by the experience. And one is constantly looking over the shoulder to see who is going to fucking happen again. So therefore, ones everyday job becomes contoured and coloured by those experiences. You don’t do the job in the same way. You don’t do the job with the same fierce passion or with the joie de vivre, like you should realize that somebody out there who can take a potshot so you become a hyper vigilant. It’s what Foucault talks about or Bentham talks about as the Panopticon. You start to self-surveil as a form of protection. 687 I mean, now, I kind of I try and live by Oscar Wilde’s Maxim of never explain and never apologize. If they don’t get it, fuck them.
252 Appendix B: List of Interview Questions
1 Have you had experience with bullying while working at a faculty of education? Tell me your experience of bullying in a faculty of education, providing as much context as possible. What roles have you been involved in with regard to bullying? (i.e., the bully, the victim, the observer) What effect did it have on you at that time? How did you understand it at that time? At what time did you recognize that you were mobbed or bullied? Were you a victim? Are you still a victim? How do you read your story now? Did the bullying affect you on the long run? Have you learned anything about yourself from the story? What emotions has bullying created within you? Has the bullying experience changed you? What impact, if any, has it had on your professional life?
2 Does it strike you that this bullying happened at a faculty of education? And if so, how do you understand that? Do you think tenure has an influence? What is the role of leadership, do you think? Chomsky has recently said, “Thinking like corporations is harming American universities.” Does the neo-liberal climate that has invaded the universities have an influence on the occurrence of bullying in faculties of education? How do you link pedagogy and bullying?
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