Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 C, Interactive Poster Session
Poster Session
Contribution
The issue of security in an organisation is a very important parameter for the smooth running of the organisation and its profitability. For educational organisations in particular, the issue of security is crucial as unsafe operating conditions cause dysfunction and obstacles to the educational process. The feeling of insecurity caused to students and teachers does not contribute to the smooth functioning of the school and the achievement of its objectives. The head teacher of a school and the teachers' association, as the collective governing body, play an essential role in ensuring all aspects of the safe operation of the school.
Safety in schools is divided into physical, emotional and digital (Hammond, 2020; Sergiovanni, 2000; Freiberg, 1998). In addition to the issue of safe facilities, there are also serious incidents of violence, such as shootings, kidnappings, etc., that take place in school environments (Armstrong, 2019).
Today, in the era of globalisation of knowledge and information, with the spread of digital technology and its use both for educational purposes in an organised and personalised way by every student or adult, information is accessible in many ways (Sherry, 2020).
School violence, victimization and acrimonious relationships in schools today are occurring with enough frequency to take on epidemic characteristics, and research to analyze them applies epidemiological methods. The term Epidemiology is a compound of the adverb " ep" meaning upon, the term "demos" meaning population and the term " logos" meaning the scientific analysis of the issue. "Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related conditions or events in specific populations and the application of this study to the control of health problems." (Last, 2001, p. 61). Methods of investigating factors that harm public health are appropriate for investigating factors that negatively affect the work of schools. Education researchers who adopt the methods of epidemiology are able to identify key problems that harm the educational process and school effectiveness and find solutions. "The purpose-driven teacher understands the value of seeking information about the underlying problem so that the problem can be identified and solved." (McGiboney, 2023, p. 22).
The purpose of this study is to explore the views of school principals and teachers, as members of the faculty and therefore a collective governing body, regarding safety and the creation of a healthy school climate in the school.The research aims to highlight the current issues of safety and school climate in schools, which seem to be negatively escalating, and to record the views of school management on this vital issue.The choice to interview principals and teachers on these issues is made because they are the ones who are most knowledgeable about the relevant problems and the most competent to highlight the critical parameters that will help prevent risks or improve difficult situations.The principal and teachers experience the daily life of the school internally, they are not external evaluators.For this reason, their opinions and suggestions are the most valid and useful for taking measures that will help to create safe schools, schools that all teachers and students want to belong to. Based on the above, the research questions posed are:
A) What are the safety challenges according to the views of school principals?
B) What are the factors that compromise school safety and how do they address them?
C) What policies and practices can help overcome any problems in this regard?
Method
The issue of school safety is becoming an increasingly serious one for those involved in the school community. Schools are crowded and busy places of activity, and the effectiveness and quality of educational work depends to a large extent on the sense of security in the area. School administrators bear the primary responsibility for ensuring and maintaining safe operating conditions for all participants in the site and educational processes. Pupils in school should feel wholly safe and secure, as well as being respected and connected in trusting relationships with adults and the learning environment. This study explored the views of principals and teachers of vocational high schools (VET) on the issue of safety. This was a quantitative survey of views conducted using a questionnaire. The statistical processing of the data was done with the statistical package for Social Sciences. 480 principals and secondary school teachers working in Vocational Lyceums of the Regional Directorate of Attica and the Regional Directorate of South Aegean took part in the survey. The ethical requirements of the research were met, as regards the consent of the participants, anonymity, data retention for a certain period of time, as stipulated by the Ethics Committee of the University of the Aegean and the Ministry of Education and Science.
Expected Outcomes
This survey gave the principals and teachers the opportunity to highlight dimensions and problems in the operation of schools and related to safety. Respondents highlighted the safety problems faced in schools for students, teachers and other employees, and suggested solutions to overcome them. This survey wishes to contribute to the scientific debate on the effectiveness of schools at a time when problems are becoming more complex due to social and technological changes. The conclusions of the survey record that the issue of security affects the lives of all members of the school community. It is of great concern to the principals of vocational high schools, and they particularly highlight the issue of the emotional safety of pupils. Burnout is also recorded for both principals and teachers, attributed to the increasing demands of their professional role. They stress that their existing institutional framework has focused on strengthening them however, they argue that schools are in need of further support frameworks and regulations.
References
Armstrong, T. (2019). School Safety Starts for Within. Educational Leadership, 77(2), 48-52. Freiberg, H. J. (1998). Measuring school climate: Let me count the ways. Educational Leadership, 56(1), 22-26. Hammond, Z. (2020). The Power of Protocols for Equity. Educational Leadership, 77(7), 45-50. Last, J.M. (2001). Dictionary of Epidemiology 4th Edition. New York, Oxford University Press. McGiboney W.G. (2023). The Psychology of School Climate, 2nd Edition. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2000). The lifeworld of leadership: Creating culture, community, and personal meaning in our schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Sherry, M. (2020). Three Strategies for Better Online Discussions. Educational Leadership, 77(7), 72-74.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.