Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of workplace bullying behaviors of: (a) threatening a coworker's professional status, (b) threatening a coworker's personal standing, (c) isolating a coworker, (d) demanding excessive overwork from a coworker, (e) creating destabilization of a coworker, as perceived by teachers in California Central Valley K-6 schools. Further, this study sought to determine if there was a difference in the perceptions of bullying by gender and positions of tenured and nontenured teachers.

Methodology. The participants in this study were thirty-three randomly selected California Central Valley K-6 teachers. Participants responded to an eleven-question research interview protocol assessing their perceptions of observing and/or experiencing the workplace bullying behaviors in their workplace and determining the perceptual differences between genders and tenured and nontenured staff for the same workplace bullying behaviors.

Findings. Examination of quantitative and qualitative data from thirty-three K-6 teachers indicated that all five workplace bullying behaviors were perceived to be both observed and experienced by the study sample K-6 teachers at moderate to higher levels with the perception of those behaviors occurring at moderate levels in the K-6 workplace with no significant statistical differences found between genders or tenured and nontenured teachers for the perceptions of the bullying behaviors with the exception of a significant statistical difference for observing “Isolating a Coworker” between genders.

Conclusions. The study data support the conclusion that the workplace bullying behaviors explored were perceived as observed and experienced in the California Central Valley K-6 workplace as a moderate and higher concern and the bullying behaviors are a persistent concern among these educators.

Recommendations. Replicate the study with all educational stakeholders. Study new employee workload and resources available to school personnel to deal with workplace bullying. Determine why educators fail to act when faced with or witnessing workplace bullying, and explore the situations that preempt the original conflicts prior to aggression and/or workplace bullying in the educational setting. Study schools and determine the frequency of workplace bullying in those schools that have been identified and have implemented successful programs that address character education and adult civility policies and/or programs.