PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE OF A TEACHER TO DEAL WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF BULLYING IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT (RESULTS OF AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN NABEREZHNYE CHELNY)

Background. Teachers are often the first to encounter bullying among school learners, and their intervention can contribute in many ways to stopping and overcoming bullying. The teacher’s identification, attribution and reaction to bullying depending on its type contribute to the effectiveness of addressing the bullying situation. Purpose. The article aims to identify the level of school teachers’ professional competence (in terms of “know” and “be able to” levels), as regards prevention and avoidance of bullying by its main types within the system “pupil – pupil (group of pupils)” at school. Materials and methods. The authors carried out diagnostics of anti-bullying competence decomposed into levels by means of testing and case solving by types of bullying, involving 86 teachers representing all schools in Naberezhnye Chelny chosen from the cumulative body of teachers, evenly distributed by age, length of service and category. Results. The teachers’ anti-bullying competence was diagnosed to be at low and average levels, not exceeding 60% of the formed competence. The teachers’ knowledge of bullying and how to respond to it was better formed than the corresponding skills. The success of anti-bullying actions was directly proportional to the levels of maturity of the cognitive and activity components of anti-bullying competence. Teachers proved to be most knowledgeable and efficient in the prevention and prophylaxis of physical and economic bullying in the school environment and least knowledgeable and effective when it concerned factual psychological- and cyber-bullying.