For some time now, many pedagogical studies have been focused on comparing schools based mostly on academic outcomes (e.g. Coleman et al. 1982; Lubienski & Lubienski 2006). Such an approach seems to stem from the assumption that schools are homogeneous as far as their overall purpose is concerned. While academic performance is certainly core business to schools, in recent years, there is a growing acceptance that schools should place a strong emphasis on various psychosocial targets. In other words, schools are important for building social networks and promote mutual respect, care, encouragement, friendliness, fairness and autonomy (e.g. O’Brien & Bowles, 2012; Woynarowska & Woynarowska-Sołdan 2015).

The purpose of schooling is still very much a relevant issue. However, there exists little empirical work examining the viewpoint of the school itself on its priorities. It is worthwhile to mention some examples of the studies concerning content themes or trends in school mission statements. In 2006, Stemler et al. studied the mission statements of 421 public high schools from ten states across the USA. The researchers noted that despite the range of political and geographical diversity found in the sample, there was a clear consensus on some major purposes of secondary education across the schools (Stemler et al. 2011). Slate (et al. 2008), in turn, focused on the mission statements of 100 elementary schools in Texas. The mission statements of high performing schools were more likely to include the themes of challenge and academic success, citizenship, empower, partnership, and social development than the mission statements of low performing schools. Allen et al. (2018) investigated trends in the priorities of Australian secondary schools. Findings indicated that academic achievement was the most common theme, with school belonging and mental health promotion themes cited by over half of the schools. The above-mentioned studies highlight the importance of school mission statements as a valuable source of data for reflecting on the schools’ priorities or comparing the purpose of schooling nationwide or abroad.

The mission statement was adopted by schools from the corporate sector. For Boerema (2006), the mission statement of a school actually articulates a set of values that answer fundamental questions about the purpose of education. It provides context for governance, decision making, and the way the school is managed. According to Stemler and DePascale (2016, p. 60), “mission statements represent an important summation or distillation of an organization’s core goals represented by concise and simple statements that communicate broad themes. Furthermore, school mission statements are one of the only written documents outlining purpose that nearly all schools have”.

The purpose of my project was to gain a perspective on the school’s priorities as defined by secondary schools themselves. Based on the literature review, it can be concluded that traditional European forms of secondary education began as institutions serving universities, with the purpose of preparing young people for higher education studies (Alvarez et al. 2003; Benavot & Resnik 2007). From the historical perspective, secondary education has served many purposes: teaching mathematics, science, and social studies; helping young people to develop socially; preparing them for productive life; forming responsible citizens and healthy parents, to name a few. Nowadays, it should help students to develop academic competencies, as well as learn skills that generate well-being and involvement in civil society (Alvarez el al. 2003).

The aim of the paper is to present the results of the study to show how the sampled public general secondary schools define their own role and purpose themselves. Based on these results I will determine the extent to which the schools subject to the study represent themselves as academic and well-being enhancing institutions.

The research project focused on the mission statements of general secondary schools. The paper provides an analysis of general secondary school mission statements of 53 schools from the public sector in Warsaw. A sample was created using information from the website of the Education Department of the City of Warsaw. There was a list of general secondary schools (N = 94), of which schools with publicly available mission statements were selected (n = 53). The source of data was extant mission statements taken from the schools’ websites. The content analysis technique was used in this study. Qualitative content analysis is probably the most prevalent approach to the analysis of documents. Generally, it comprises a search of underlying themes and patterns in the materials being analyzed. This implies the key role of the investigator in the construction of the meaning of and in texts (Bryman 2012). According to Stemler (2001), content analysis has been defined as a systematic, replicable technique for compressing many words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding. Gibbs (2007), in turn, points out that coding can be done in pre-set and/or open ways. In my study, a hybrid approach to creating codes was used in order to avoid the dichotomy of “present” or “absent” themes in the process of coding mission statements. Thus, before beginning the coding process, a “starting list” of “a priori codes” was made based on a coding rubric for school mission statements that was developed by Stemler and colleagues (2011). Another set of codes emerged from reading and analyzing the mission statements.

The study examined the broad themes in general secondary school mission statements. The analysis revealed that: 1) mission statements highlight the broad range of objectives that the schools pursue; 2) schools share certain broad beliefs about the basic purposes of schooling; 3) across all the schools subject to the study, many mission statements demonstrate the importance of providing a safe school environment. In general, schools incorporate this goal using two approaches: (1) providing a friendly and supportive environment, and (2) providing a secure school environment in a physical sense. Based on the obtained results, it could be concluded that numerous school mission statements focus on the importance of developing students who are able to succeed, demonstrate their academic achievement, pursue their interests, and who are simultaneously able to adapt to the changing world, developing the life skills and attitudes needed to succeed in their own lives and contribute to the well-being of their communities. Thus, it can be concluded that schools prioritize not only educational outputs, but also educational inputs such as the quality of school environment or school climate. Obviously, one of the main limitations of the study may be the difficulty in establishing a link between the objectives defined in the mission statement and their actual effect on the daily life of the school. However, one could risk the claim that schools would probably be more accountable for those purposes that they themselves define as most important. Therefore, it is worth to consider how schools perceive the emotional aspect of schooling and the safety of the school community members.

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