O assédio sexual no contexto Educacional

Abstract

This study aims to thoroughly understand how sexual harassment manifests in the educational environment, going beyond mapping its forms and dynamics to grasp its direct and indirect impacts on victims' lives. Furthermore, it seeks to reflect on the challenges and responsibilities of educational institutions in confronting, preventing, and providing support in the face of this complex and often neglected reality. The adopted methodology was an interactive bibliographic review, with data collected from established academic databases such as SciELO, Lilacs, and PubMed, as well as institutional portals, official documents, and reports from human rights and education advocacy organizations. The search used strategic descriptors such as “sexual harassment in educational settings,” “gender-based violence in schools,” “harassment prevention in universities,” “power relations in the school environment,” and “victims' rights in education,” combined with Boolean operators to ensure a broad, accurate, and methodologically consistent survey. The analysis concludes that sexual harassment in Brazilian educational settings is neither an isolated nor rare phenomenon but a silent, persistent, and often normalized reality, expressed through behaviors, attitudes, insinuations, and coercions rooted in power dynamics, hierarchy, and gender inequality. This type of violence can occur between faculty and students or among peers, constituting a serious violation of fundamental rights, the dignity of victims, and the very principle of equity that should govern educational spaces. The study highlights the urgent need for effective policies, continuous educational initiatives, and the active commitment of institutions to prevention, humanized support, and accountability in addressing this urgent and sensitive issue.