Teachers’ knowledge and intervention strategies to handle hate-postings

Hate-postings are an example of cyberhate that can happen among students in a school. However, no study to date has ever investigated this phenomenon from the perspectives of teachers and almost nothing is known about it in the school setting. Teachers (N= 130, 83% female) reported their knowledge, attitudes, and likely responses to a hypothetical hate-posting incident in which a student was devaluated, insulted and verbally harassed online because of his country of origin and religious affiliation, in addition to giving information about several school level variables. Based on answers to the 22 items of the newly developed handling hate-posting questionnaire (HHPQ), six teacher responses were identified with exploratory factor analysis. Teachers would most often alert other colleagues, followed by using victim-oriented rehabilitating strategies, working with the perpetrators’ parents, applying authority-based sanctions, seeking help from external professionals, and they would rather not ignore the incident. Different individual and school level variables predicted these responses. Teachers who had higher levels of moral disengagement and who reported that there were no school-wide guidelines were more likely to ignore the incident. Implications for the prevention of cyberhate are discussed.