A recently conducted poll, commissioned by BBC News paints a startling picture. Over a third of secondary school teachers in the UK experienced misogynistic abuse from students only in the past week. The survey consulted nearly 6,000 secondary teachers through the Teacher Tapp platform. It uncovered that 39% of these teachers witnessed or experienced multiple incidents of this nature occurring within their school.
These national findings point to a scary trend. As many as one in ten teachers said they knew of more than three incidents. 61% of those teachers with more than five years in the classroom have seen a rise in misogynist behavior. This trend has been clear since they first began their professional careers. These numbers reveal at least some of the realities around this all-too-common and damaging phenomenon that most educators agree is underreported and understudied.
And when asked, teachers overwhelmingly called for more protection from the federal government in facing down this kind of behavior. Almost half (45%) of those surveyed said they were looking for stronger direction on how to take action against misogyny. Even more alarmingly, four in ten respondents confessed that they did not know government guidelines on this subject. Additionally, nearly 4 in 10 said they were unprepared to address this behavior in their classroom.
Beacon Hill Academy, admittedly rather optimistic and quickly catching on to using classroom data to catch safeguarding concerns before they become landing issues. Head teacher Sukhjot Dhami said the spike in awareness brought about by mainstream media, including the Netflix drama “Adolescence,” has helped. As she put it, anti-feminist viewpoints are nothing new to the inside of schools.
“They did do an assembly about how to treat women and not to objectify them.” – Theresa, a 15-year-old pupil
Theresa discussed her experience with the everyday sexism that teenage girls face, particularly outside of the school environment. “Outside of school some boys will be like, ‘Oh it’s the chuzz group, it’s the ugly girls,’” she remarked. The most difficult part her experiences illustrate is how we combat these attitudes at the peer-to-peer level.
PE teacher Mr Quiney said the effects of online misogyny on teenage boys was corrosive, particularly in such formative years. Access to celebrity culture, he argued, can flood boys with harmful signals about what masculinity means.
“If they’re shown celebrity status with lots of money and fast cars, that’s a really powerful message for young men who look around them and haven’t got those material things,” – Mr. Quiney
And even though Beacon Hill Academy has a “zero tolerance” policy for such derogatory language, battles still persist. In England, the government is in the midst of a review of its Relationships, Health and Sex Education (RHSE) curriculum. Their priority is to ensure that youth know what healthy relationships, boundaries, and consent look like at a young age.
A new national study by researchers at University College London (UCL) sheds light on the increasing school safety anxiety. It’s an indication that, since the pandemic has started, teenage girls in England are seriously concerned about their safety compared with boys.
Another student, Adam, reflected on the pressure society exerts on men to conform to a narrow view of masculinity. Through this portrayal, he explained that boys are often forced to hide their emotions because of society’s harmful gender-related norms.
“You’ll see videos saying, ‘You have to be a man’, and that if you talk about how you feel then you’re not a man at all,” – Adam
He emphasized how manipulative these messages can be, stating, “That’s how manipulative it is – it indoctrinates you.” These sentiments all express an urgent need for deeper emotional health education and instruction on positive relationship skills to our students.
