The Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS) is a provincial collective bargaining and professional development organization representing 15,000 public school teachers. To support our work and funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant, MTS partnered with the University of Winnipeg to develop an innovative, research-practice collaborative focused on the prevention of workplace bullying and mistreatment and the promotion of safe and inclusive schools. The project involved collaboration with Canadian and international scholars to jointly shape the research approach tailored to our context for evidence-informed practices and policies toward effective prevention and intervention. With legislative changes spurring organizations to provide psychologically and physically safe workplaces, we used dual practical/regulatory—research/scientific perspectives to implement the partnership. We will use the results for bargaining and advocacy toward improved well-being and worklife quality for educators.
The paper will:
- Describe the innovative, partnered approach used to generate evidence about workplace bullying and mistreatment in Manitoba to support prevention policies, practices and initiatives.
- Place the study within a broader context to highlight how this issue is a serious organizational and social problem noting that the scope and impact in Canada are unclear because most studies are cross-sectional with small datasets. Consequently, the work of this research collaborative represents a significant contribution to better understanding issues of bullying and mistreatment within Canada.
- Explore the role of school leaders within the school setting as recipients of bullying and key actors within policy development and prevention.
- Whether certain employees or groups of employees run greater risks of exposure to bullying and mistreatment along with factors related to seeking help.
- Describe the methodology and research around the use of educator-focussed surveys and focus group interviews to learn about MTS members’ experiences from multiple perspectives: target, observer, and perpetrator.
- Describe how results can guide decision and policy support as well as practice change where needed through collective bargaining and collaboration where possible with Superintendent groups and School Boards