This article reports on the findings of a small-scale, extant, qualitative social media research study on commenters’ understanding of the antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. Comments on an article posted by Sarah Sorge (2013) on The Educator’s Room were used as data source. Guided by an ecological model and the attribution theory, the study identified victim and perpetrator attributes, colleagues’ indifference and unprofessionalism, school management’s lack of leadership and failure to address the problem, as well as socio-cultural factors and policy changes as antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. It is argued that conventional teacher-learner power relations are flawed due to the unsupportive, even antagonistic attitudes of parents, colleagues, society at large, people in leadership positions and policy makers towards the victims of teacher-targeted bullying. It is concluded that, despite ethical dilemmas, the advent of the Internet and social media has created opportunities for researchers to use comments posted on the Internet as a data source to investigate teacher-targeted bullying. Keywords: attribution theory; ecological model; educator-targeted bullying; qualitative research

中文翻译：

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社交媒体评论者对针对教师的欺凌行为前因的理解

本文报告了一项关于评论者对针对教师的欺凌的前因的理解的小规模、现存、定性社交媒体研究的结果。Sarah Sorge (2013) 在 The Educator's Room 上发表的一篇文章的评论被用作数据源。在生态模型和归因理论的指导下，该研究确定了受害者和肇事者的属性、同事的冷漠和不专业、学校管理层缺乏领导力和未能解决问题，以及社会文化因素和政策变化作为教师的前因-有针对性的欺凌。有人认为，由于父母、同事、整个社会的不支持甚至敌对态度，传统的师生权力关系存在缺陷，领导职位的人和政策制定者针对教师欺凌的受害者。结论是，尽管存在道德困境，但互联网和社交媒体的出现为研究人员创造了机会，可以使用互联网上发布的评论作为数据源来调查针对教师的欺凌行为。关键词：归因理论；生态模型；以教育者为目标的欺凌；定性研究