Ei-iE

The Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) has published a guide designed to help education staff to prevent and intervene against violence in their workplace.

Violence in the workplace in general, the publication states, constitutes a serious impediment to workers’ quality of life and job performance.

Teachers are especially at risk of experiencing violence during their working time, as a study by researchers Georges Steffgen and Norbert Ewen has shown (Steffgen, G., Ewen, N., [2007], Teacher as victims of school violence – the influence of strain and school culture; International Journal on Violence and Schools, 3, 81-93. [ www.ijvs.org]).

Basing their guide on Steffgen’s and Ewen’s research and findings, the guide’s authors aim to identify individual, organisational and collective factors that can influence the probability of teachers being abused in the school environment.

The guide suggests concrete ways for detection, prevention and intervention of violence both individually and collectively. The publication has been warmly welcomed by Communications colleagues in other EI member organisations who received it via ComNet, the electronic Communicators’ Network facilitating exchange and sharing between teacher unions’ communication professionals.

"This guide will be of great use in the workshops against violence in schools that we organise regularly," wrote Mariama Chipkaou, General Secretary of Syndicat National des Enseignants du Niger (SNEN).

The publication, in French, is available for download from the CSQ website (See resources).