Conceptualizing of bullying from the perspective of the faculty members of Tehran`s comprehensive universities: a Grounded Theory study

The purpose of this research was to conceptualize the phenomenon of bullying from the perspective of the faculty members of Tehran's comprehensive universities. Using Charm's constructivists approach, this research was carried out in the interpretative paradigm with a qualitative approach based on the research method of the grounded theory. In-depth unstructured informants and interviews were used to collect data. The research informants were selected by purposeful sampling strategies with maximum diversity and theoretical sampling. The research informants included 32 faculty members (assistant professors, associate professors and professors) of comprehensive universities in Tehran. The data were analyzed in three stages: initial, focal and theoretical coding. The research findings showed that the phenomenon of bullying in Iran's higher education has verbal and social dimensions. This phenomenon has emerged due to organizational and individual circumstances and has led to reactions such as avoidance, confrontation and acceptance. These reactions have been affected by the response of authorities, the resilience of individuals in the context of academic structure and culture, and have led to occupational, personal, social and economic vulnerabilities. The root of this phenomenon can be traced back to family, education, and general culture of the society. One of the policy solution is to turn bullying into a macro socio-structural discourse, to pay attention to administrators as the most important barriers to occurrence and exposure to the phenomenon, and to launch an appeal mechanism with structural power.