Examination of fear culture at schools within the frame of teachers' views; A phenomenological study

Aim of this study is to understand phenomenology of fear culture at schools by means of teacher views. In this study, phenomenological pattern, which is also a qualitative research pattern, is used. This study has been carried out with 16 teachers out of official high schools Aydın province in 2021-2022 educational year, by using snowball and criterion sampling methods. Information was gathered by means of semi-structured interview forms and was applied content analysis. During analysis, "MAXQDA 2020" qualitative information analyze software program is utilized. According to findings of this study, teachers defined fear culture as; ambiguity, taboo, pressure, feeling unsafe, not feeling free, social learning, phenomenon formed with results of events, managing in the interests, hindering, fear language and social auto control. When it came to findings about teachers who were not affected by fear culture, reasons for not being affected from fear culture are classified under these titles such as experience, positive personality, professional qualification, being open to communication, supportive managing attitude. Methods to cope with fear culture are categorized as working with duty consciousness, not losing hope, utilizing others' experiences, cooperation, inertia, communication, self-improvement, claiming rights and creating an attitude against students. Teachers not only stated their opinions to school management, Ministry of Education, school managers, their colleagues and shareholders to prevent existence of feat culture at schools but they also proposed socially improvable strategies. Suggestions for practitioners and researches were developed by researcher.