From leadership research to district action: Influencing factors and optimization paths of teachers’ fulfillment of school bullying governance responsibilities in China

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

The effective fulfillment of teachers’ responsibilities is crucial to the governance of school bullying. Guided by Grounded Theory and utilizing NVivo11 qualitative analysis software, this paper used 316 texts from 55 cases of school bullying in China to conduct open coding, spindle coding and selective coding, analyzed the behavior of teachers, explored the impetus factors and resistance factors influencing teachers’ fulfillment of their responsibilities, and constructed a “two-factors model”. The reasons why these factors in the model affect school bullying governance responsibility of teachers were analyzed through Street-Level Bureaucracy Theory. On the one hand, teachers are legally obligated to provide fair and equitable educational services to students. The media and the public are important forces in monitoring teachers’ fulfillment of their responsibilities. Additionally, leaders from school and the local government such as police department utilize interdependency and gaming relationships with teachers to promote teachers’ fulfillment of their responsibilities. Furthermore, the formulation of laws and policies is an important basis for supervising teachers’ behavior. These factors collectively promote teachers’ fulfillment of school bullying governance responsibilities. On the other hand, teachers have discretion and are difficult to supervise and hold accountable. The interests of different governance subjects may diverge or conflict. Moreover, the complexity and diversity of school bullying exacerbate governance challenges. Furthermore, systems such as laws and policies often fall short in restraining undesirable behavior. These reasons present obstacles to teachers’ fulfilling their responsibilities of school bullying governance. In order to strengthen the impetus factors for teachers to fulfill their responsibilities and mitigate resistance, China needs to optimize the governance path. This involves improving the relevant systems, enhancing publicity, providing education and training for teachers, strengthening the supervision of the local government, the media and the public on teachers, and improving the overall governance environment for school bullying. These measures will encourage teachers to hold themselves to higher standards and effectively fulfill their responsibilities in the governance process of school bullying.

Study methods

Case studies can be used to explain hypothetical causal relationships assumed to exist between different factors in reality that are difficult to study through experiments or surveys, or to explore less obvious and complex and variable causal links [44]. Multiple case studies can overcome the drawbacks of single case studies such as the problem of generalizability of conclusions and the insufficiency of extrinsic validity [45]. Compared with single case studies, multiple case studies are more persuasive and stand up to scrutiny, and cross-case conclusions drawn from case-crossover analysis have broader applicability.

Limitations

This paper focused on the influencing factors of teachers in the governance of school bullying, and constructed a “two-factor” model including impetus factors and resistance factors. The findings have certain reference value, but there are still limitations. On the one hand, the analysis materials in this paper were compiled from school bullying incidents reported by schools, government and media. As these are second-hand data, rather than first-hand direct materials, there are certain deficiencies. On the other hand, based on the framework of Street-Level Bureaucracy Theory, this paper analyzed the impetus factors and resistance factors that affect teachers’ fulfillment of their responsibilities, and put forward optimization countermeasures according to the analysis results. However, the discussion did not delve into the influencing factors beyond the theoretical content of street-level bureaucracy, such as teachers’ psychology, knowledge, and ability in the process of campus bullying governance, which also affect the fulfillment of responsibilities to a certain extent.

A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Select one recurring district decision. Publish the decision owner, evidence requirements, consultation process and appeal route; test the process on a bounded low-risk decision. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Track decision time, unresolved objections, documented reasons, appeals and access differences. Review whether the process changes who can participate and who carries the burden. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Fuyu Li; Xiaohu Yang; Shifang Meng; Haibo Zhang. Influencing factors and optimization paths of teachers’ fulfillment of school bullying governance responsibilities in China. PLOS One (2025-12-05). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319640

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.