Harassment in Educational Environments

how are Brazilian Universities Dealing with it?

Abstract

Harassment has become a topic of recognized importance every day for different organizations, although it is rarely studied outside the business context. In a scenario of rising numbers of higher education students in the country, this study aimed to understand how episodes of harassment occur within universities. The topic was approached using a digital questionnaire, with 2,525 responses, analyzed qualitatively using the Content Analysis method. It was possible to conclude that harassment is very present in the daily lives of students, teachers and workers at Higher Education Institutions, and that the lack of knowledge about the topic, combined with the unpreparedness of universities to deal with it, ends up contributing to the alarming numbers of violence within of the campuses. It is more common among female students, where few incidents are reported, sometimes due to lack of knowledge of institutional reporting mechanisms or fear of reprisals. When reported, cases of harassment rarely generate consequences for the attackers. This highlights the importance of studying topics related to harassment within universities, so that situations of this type do not compromise the quality of teaching, results, learning and health of students and workers.