UK initiative uses interactive performance to address the influence of misogynistic online spaces
Violence against teachers and education staff is increasingly being framed as an occupational safety risk in Canada, with the recent tragedy in Tumbler Ridge, BC providing an extreme example of the types of threats facing educators. Recent incidents in North America and the UK have prompted unions and safety professionals to look beyond classroom management and consider how broader social forces – including the online “manosphere” – may be shaping boys’ behaviour at school.
Rising aggression in schools and gendered impacts
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country’s largest teaching union, has been tracking a marked rise in aggression and violence in educational settings. Research conducted with EIS found that more than 72 per cent of local branches reported increased violence and aggression in schools over a four‑year period. Those reports came from educators and others working directly in educational establishments, with Canadian education unions reporting similar statistics.
The research in the UK also pointed to a gendered pattern. According to EIS figures, 51 per cent of branches reported that boys were more likely to exhibit violent or aggressive behaviour toward women teachers than toward men. For unions and administrators, findings like these raise concerns not only about student safety, but also about women’s safety at work.
From the “manosphere” to the classroom
Civic Digits, a UK-based arts and technology organization, does not conduct this research itself, but works with unions and advocacy groups that do. “Our company generally deals with digital issues and deals with them using digital technology,” says executive director Sarah Cruickshank. Its flagship project in this area, Many Good Men, focuses on preventing boys and young men from being drawn into misogynistic online spaces.
The concern is less about overall screen time and more about targeted grooming into extreme online communities that promote hostility toward women and girls. Cruickshank is cautious about claiming a simple, direct line from a boy’s online activity to a specific incident in a classroom. “It’s very difficult to track that through line,” she notes. Still, she points to digital‑safety organizations that monitor online harms and “do think that that correlates” with the rising aggression being reported by schools.
For occupational safety professionals, this framing suggests that digital culture may be one of several upstream factors influencing the risk of harassment and violence against staff in educational workplaces.
An “artistic intervention” model
Many Good Men approaches this issue through interactive theatre and structured activities, rather than direct confrontation or traditional lectures. Cruickshank contrasts it with one‑to‑one conversations, whether led by teachers or violence‑reduction workers, which can struggle to move past a young person’s defensiveness and “self‑preservation.” Theatre‑based work, she argues, allows participants to explore fictional characters who experience misogynistic violence or are vulnerable to radicalization, and then experiment with alternative choices and outcomes at a safe distance from their own lives.
“There are a bunch of studies that show that it’s much more effective to do that sort of work artistically than just to have those conversations,” she says. In this model, the “intervention” – helping boys examine the ideas they encounter online and how they treat others – is the same, but it is delivered through stories, performance and creative problem‑solving.
The current iteration of Many Good Men was co‑developed with students at Dunfermline High School in Fife over eight weeks of workshops. Two young male characters experience misogynistic violence in their lives; how the rest of the story unfolds was shaped by the students. When the play is performed, audiences can stop the action and suggest changes, or use purpose‑built software on their phones to interact with the drama in real time.
The digital component is intentional. Many young people find safety and community online, and simply “attacking” their digital lives can be alienating. The project aims to show that technology itself is not the problem; instead, the focus is on learning how to navigate online spaces “in a way that’s safe and responsible and fun.”
Implications for Canadian school safety
Cruickshank stresses that educators should not be expected to tackle these issues alone. “This is a very difficult thing to tackle on your own without resources,” she says. Civic Digits has worked with EIS on an educator guide that introduces the language young people encounter online and offers practical workshop formats and activities. The goal is to give teachers and youth workers a vocabulary and set of tools, rather than leave them improvising in sensitive conversations.
She also notes that concern about online misogynistic radicalization is now evident “across Scotland, across the UK and worldwide.” For Canadian readers, this adds another dimension to existing discussions about violence in schools, which often focus on staffing levels, reporting systems, mental‑health supports and physical security.
For occupational health and safety leaders, the UK experience raises several questions. How might online misogyny be considered in hazard assessments related to violence and harassment? What role can external specialists play in supporting already stretched education staff? And how might awareness of digital culture and radicalization be integrated into broader prevention strategies without stigmatizing boys and young men as a group?
Many Good Men does not offer a quick or easily transferable solution. It does, however, illustrate one emerging approach to treating the online “manosphere” not only as a cultural concern, but as a factor that may have implications for workplace safety in schools.
