Abstract:
Child abuse and neglect is a major social problems witch requires considerable efforts on the part of school teachers. Some studies have estimated that 1 in 5 children in a classroom has been subjected to abuse and/ or neglect. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify teacher’s belieefs about about child abuse and neglect of children in middle school and high school cases of. The participants to this reasearch were 21 teachers, from urban and rural environments, with seniority in education ranging from 14 to 33 years. Teachers responded online to a semistructured interview reagarding their experience with cases of abuse and neglect. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed inductively through the thematic analysis proposed by Guest and colab. in 2012. The research resuslts were systematized in three major themes, related to the stages of case identification, reportinh and intervention. A series of personal beliefs influenced the decisions that teachers take in each stage. This research highlights important practical implications for supporting children with histories of abuse and neglect in school.
