Peer bullying within the educational context is a complex phenomenon, that has a negative effect on pupils', learning progress, teachers' efficiency and negatively affects broader community. Various guidelines at a national level have been set for effective recognition and prevention of bullying and they are mainly executed by educators. To deal with bullying, educators need the competence they acquire in the process of life-long learning and professional development. Besides the knowledge for dealing with bullying, an important role in intervention also represent individual and contextual factors, that are unique to every educator. Raising awareness about factors that affect recognition and response of educators, contributes to fulfilling the principle of prevention, which takes into consideration the actual status and the needs in various educational establishments. Working with students with special needs or learning disabilities demands additional professional support. Based on research already conducted, these students are identified as more vulnerable to peer bullying due to specific features and consequent differences compared to their peers. The objective of the master's thesis is to do a research on teachers' and special education teachers' dealing with peer bullying in case of students with special needs and learning disabilities compared to pupils without these characteristics. The aim was also to study individual and situational factors of educators which have an effect on recognition and dealing with peer bullying within the educational context and which allow resilient response. The data have been acquired by a survey questionnaire, which was adapted from the questionnaire of the author Bilić. A descriptive and causal non-experimental method following a quantative research approach was used in the research. The questionnaire was distributed among primary teachers and special education teachers (N = 255) which are employed in standard programs of primary schools. Data was processed at the level of descriptive and inferential statistics. Considering individual factors, that influence confronting peer bullying, we investigated the impact of experience, gender, years of service, attitudes and beliefs, competence, self-efficacy and empathy. Results have shown, that educators experienced bullying in their childhood and also at their workplace. Most of the participants actively intervened in bullying and were committed to stopping it. Regarding gender, age or occupation of the participants, there were no statistically significant differences in the perceived ability to deal with bullying. Research results have shown that participants rated their competence highest in knowledge of the different roles in peer bullying, and feel least competent in the forms and characteristics of cyberbullying. In preventing cyberbullying, educators also assess themselves the lowest in self-efficacy, and highest self-efficacy in working with parents. Special education teachers felt more competent in terms of knowledge on peer bullying, while teachers in most cases evaluated themselves as more efficient in dealing with bullying. Educators see their biggest contribution in achieving competence when dealing or solving actual cases of bullying and least from the education gained from their studies. Regarding the individual factor of empathy, educators on the four-point scale mostly expressed important or pronounced sympathy for students involved in bullying. Statistically significant differences are indicated according to the presence of students with special needs or learning disabilities, as in the presence of the latter educators rate their empathy higher. There are also statistically significant differences in the empathy of educators with regard to the types of peer bullying, with empathy ranking lowest in relational bullying and the highest in cyberbullying. Educators perceive relational bullying as the least serious and cyberbullying as most serious. Among the situational factors, that influence coping with peer violence, the participants assessed satisfaction with working conditions and cooperation with other colleagues and institutions. Research has shown that educators are proud of their profession and that they enjoy doing it. The highest satisfaction, educators evaluated in understanding and helping colleagues. According to educators, the resilient response and overcoming stress is most promoted by collegiality.
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