But dig a little deeper into your average staffroom scene and a complicated web of social politics will emerge – ...
Cliques, broken trust and ‘surveillance’: one staffroom's emotional toll on teachers
To the outsider, they’re seemingly convivial sites where teachers converge for a shot of caffeine, a small slice of quiet marking time and perhaps a solid debrief on the latest painting disaster in Room 2B.
The research found tense collegial relationships, fractured professional trust, exclusive teacher ‘cliques’ and even a pervasive sense of surveillance came with being in the staffroom.