How Do Adolescent Students and Their Teachers Conceptualize Classroom Incivility? - A journal of educational research and practice 2023 Vol. 32 (2) 58-80

Oct 15, 2026

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Civility is a key construct linked to child and youth development, making classroom incivility an important concern due to its harm to adolescents’ psychosocial well-being and the overall learning environment. This study compares perceptions of middle and high school students and teachers. Teachers and students rate seriousness and frequency of uncivil behavior, and provide open-ended responses for lived experiences. Findings show students view disrespectful acts toward teachers as more uncivil, while teachers emphasize peers’ uncivil behavior and negative learning impacts, informing intervention needs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Civility and definitions of incivility

Negative impacts and related research

Classroom incivility research gaps

Qualitative methods for understanding perceptions

How Do Adolescent Students and Their Teachers Conceptualize Classroom Incivility? A journal of educational research and practice 2023 Vol. 32 (2) 58−80 [https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked](https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked) Natalie Spadafora* , Anthony A. Volk Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University Abstract Civility is an important construct to be addressed in relation to child and youth development. The issue of classroom incivility is of particular interest, given its potential negative impacts to both the psychosocial well-being of adolescents and the overall learning environment. Therefore, the current study sought to investigate similarities and differences between perceptions of middle and high school students and teachers. Participants consisted of 40 intermediate and high school teachers and 52 students in Grades 7-12. Both students and teachers rated uncivil behaviour in the classroom based on how serious they thought it was and how often it occurred in their classroom. Further, participants responded to open-ended questions to allow for a deeper exploration of the viewpoints and lived experiences of both students and teachers. Findings suggest that adolescent students consider uncivil behaviours that may be seen as disrespectful towards the teacher as more uncivil than do teachers themselves. Teachers tended to focus on adolescents engaging in uncivil behaviuor towards each other as being more serious as well as a focus the negative implications of classroom incivility to the learning environment. These differing perceptions of uncivil behaviour in the classroom have important implications for intervention within educational settings. Keywords: classroom incivility, adolescents, teachers, learning * [nspadafora@brocku.ca](nspadafora@brocku.ca) Introduction Civility is a growing issue among Western democracies that affects children and youth both academically and developmentally. Over the last two decades, incivility has increasingly been studied in both workplace (Andersson & Pearson, 1999; Miner et al. , 201 8) and university classroom settings (Bantha et al. , 2020; Bjorkland & Rehling, 2009) . Incivility is defined as lowlevel antisocial behaviours that are in violation of social norms and in which the intent to cause harm is ambiguous (Andersson & Pearson , 1999) . This low-level antisocial behaviour is sometimes dismissed a trivial, but it may both cause harm and be a precursor to higher-level antisocial behaviour. These actions might include carrying on a loud side conversation or leaving trash for someone else to pick up (Andersson & Pearson , 1999) . Further, early research on incivility has established that incivility can be associated with increased violence and crime (Goldstein, 1994; Spratlen, 1994) . In fact, while we focus on incivility in adolescence within the classroom, we know that civility is important to consider beyond the classroom, as it can impact political, cultural , and economic matters (Achmadi et al. , 2023; Bardon et al. , 2023; Kettler et al. , 2022) . Due to the potential negative culminating effect of incivility, it makes sense that more recent research on classroom incivility is increasingly a topic of interest within adolescent research (Bingöl et al. , 2018; Spadafora et al. , 2020; Volk et al. , 2016) . Specifically, research has demonstrated that adolescent classroom incivility may be associated with other antisocial behaviour and correlates of poorer mental health. This existing research highlights the importance of continuing to increase our understanding of this behaviour. According to Feldmann (2001) university classroom incivility is defined as “any action that interferes with a harmonious and cooperative learning atmosphere in the classroom” (p. 137) . However, there is a more limited understanding of how incivility in the classroom is defined and understood within adolescent classrooms. Given that uncivil behaviour

FAQs

What does the study examine about classroom incivility?

It investigates how middle and high school students and their teachers conceptualize classroom incivility, including similarities and differences in their perceptions.

How were students and teachers asked to evaluate uncivil behavior?

Both groups rated how serious uncivil classroom behavior was and how often it occurred in their classroom, and they also answered open-ended questions.

What key differences in perceptions were found between students and teachers?

Adolescent students tended to judge behaviors seen as disrespectful toward the teacher as more uncivil than teachers did, while teachers emphasized uncivil behavior among adolescents and its negative implications for the learning environment.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr