‘It Wasn’t the Pupils—It Was the Teachers’: How Pupils Perceive Teachers’ Involvement in (Cyber-)Bullying in Austria

While school bullying has received substantial academic attention, the specific roles of teachers as (co-)perpetrators or bystanders in (cyber-)bullying dynamics remain markedly underexplored—particularly in the Austrian context. This article foregrounds pupils’ perception of teachers’ involvement in (cyber-)bullying. Drawing on feminist perspectives and insights from digital and gender(-queer) geographies, as well as interdisciplinary (cyber-)bullying research, it explores how pupils perceive teachers’ involvement in bullying dynamics and how they believe it shapes the perceived severity, trajectories, and outcomes of (cyber-)bullying. In doing so, the article contributes a specific but underexplored perspective on power and violence in schools. The analysis is based on 41 written narratives produced by young people attending upper secondary vocational colleges in Austria. The findings reveal that pupils subjectively perceive teachers as taking on various roles in (cyber-)bullying dynamics, including preventers, (silent) accomplices, defenders, outsiders, and (co-)perpetrators. In these accounts, teacher involvement in bullying reinforces power hierarchies, intensifies victimisation, and intersects with peer bullying dynamics, creating a complex system of interrelated influences. The study highlights the intersectional nature of discrimination and bullying, showing how pupils’ identities are entangled with their embodied experiences of both teacher- and peer-perpetrated bullying. These findings suggest an urgent need for spatially and structurally informed reforms in school policies and teacher training programmes to address teacher-perpetrated bullying, raise awareness of teachers’ responsibility in peer bullying dynamics, and foster safer, more inclusive learning spaces for pupils in Austria.