Many people intuitively assume that schools intervene when students are bullied. That seems both logical and desirable. Bullying at school has clear consequences for well-being, school experience and sometimes even educational trajectories (see, for example, here). Moreover, we expect schools to create a safe environment. But what is a typical school response when bullying occurs?

A recent systematic literature review by Thao Thanh Nguyen Tran and colleagues tries to answer that question. In this study, the team brought together 74 empirical studies from 2016 to 2025 that examined how teachers respond to bullying behaviour in secondary education. The picture that emerges is at once familiar, nuanced and perhaps also somewhat disappointing.

The first thing that stands out is that schools often fall back on fairly classic responses. Many teachers try to stop bullying by warning students, monitoring behaviour or imposing sanctions on the perpetrator. Punitive or authority-based responses appear most frequently in the literature. That in itself is not surprising. When a situation escalates or requires immediate action, a disciplinary response is an obvious option.

At the same time, the review shows that other strategies occur less often. Supporting victims, mediating between students or holding classroom discussions about group dynamics are described by the researchers, but they appear to be used much less frequently. That does not mean schools are unaware of these approaches; rather, they are less dominant in practice.

Perhaps even more striking is a third pattern that appears across many studies: non-intervention. In several studies, students report that teachers sometimes ignore bullying, minimise it or treat it as something that is simply “part of growing up”. Interestingly, teachers themselves often report in these studies that they rarely do nothing. There, therefore, seems to be a gap between how teachers perceive their own actions and how students experience them. Is it because teachers do not see it as often? Because they hesitate to intervene? Because they reinterpret or downplay what is happening?

What becomes clear is that how schools respond to bullying does not depend only on individual teachers. The literature describes a much broader ecosystem of factors that shape what happens when bullying occurs.

Teachers’ personal beliefs and experiences also play a role. Teachers who perceive bullying as serious are more likely to intervene. Factors such as empathy or the sense that one can intervene effectively also appear to influence the likelihood that a teacher will step in.

But the school’s context is at least as important. Workload, time pressure, school culture, the extent to which clear agreements exist within a school and the kind of support available around bullying all seem to influence how teachers respond. In schools that focus strongly on performance, for example, there is a risk that academic outcomes unintentionally receive more attention than social safety.

Professional support also matters. In several studies, teachers report that they feel insufficiently prepared to deal with complex bullying situations. Training exists, but it does not always connect well with the concrete realities teachers face in schools.

The picture emerging from the literature is therefore less straightforward than is sometimes assumed. The question is not only whether an individual teacher intervenes, but also under what circumstances this happens and what room schools create for such responses.

What I personally take from this review is that anyone who wants to tackle bullying should not focus only on individual teachers’ reactions. School culture, staff collaboration, and the support schools provide to address these situations are at least as important.