Teachers’ understanding of motives for students aggression

Abstract In the present article it is analyzed issues related to the motives for manifestations of aggressive behavior of students towards teachers, in Russia. We took as starting point for this analysis some news from informative sources about real facts of aggression in the school space. Then, it was conducted an investigation which aimed to identify how teachers understand the most significant reasons pointed by them why students present aggressive behavior towards teachers. The article presents results of answers to questionnaires applied to teachers about the motives that can generate aggressive behaviors, especially highlighting the most significant ones on a scale from 1 to 7. The results allowed us to characterize the age dynamics of the change in the meaning of the various reasons for the aggressive behavior of students directed to the teacher for students in the early years, for students in the threshold between the first and second segment of elementary school, and for those in the transition phase to adolescence