Supporting teachers who witness student bullying: (Re)shaping perceptions through peer coaching in action learning

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how peer coaching in action learning meetings stimulates teachers to experience transformational learning through critically reflecting on the perceptions that shape their beliefs about student bullying.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors used interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand how participating teachers were using peer coaching in the action learning meetings to make sense of their subjective experiences with student bullying.

Findings
The authors report three themes (power, categories/labels and diversity/differences) explaining the perceptions that guided participants’ understanding of student bullying, and for each theme, describe how peer coaching enabled the participants to re-shape their interpretation of experiences with student bullying.

Research limitations/implications
This study showed how peer coaching has the potential to empower teachers to devise meaningful action plans to address bullying. Future research using longitudinal quantitative research design could shed more light on the sustainability of those action plans.

Practical implications
Knowledge of teacher perceptions identified in the study can enrich anti-bullying interventions in schools. Furthermore, building a peer coaching action learning community can provide a form of systemic support to help teachers gain resilience in acting against student bullying in schools.

Originality/value
The study reveals the potential of peer coaching as a transformational learning tool to support teachers when dealing with student bullying.