School safety requires anticipation of risks
Anticipating risks and promoting safety have been proven to increase school safety. Many schools need support to develop their safety culture.
In many Finnish comprehensive schools, the safety culture barely reaches the level required by law. Of the 20 comprehensive schools involved in the study conducted by the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Turku, Rauma campus, only two had a safety culture that exceeded the level required by law and two were clearly at the level required by law.
Of the incidents that were reported by teachers in the schools surveyed, the most common were physical incidents in which violence played the most significant role. A majority of these were situations where a pupil was violent towards another pupil or a teacher.
“Our research shows that there is room for improvement in the safety of schools. It is essential for schools to identify and address the risks in their operational environment. The statutory minimum is not enough: schools should be on the anticipatory level. We cannot think that safety is just about reacting to incidents, instead, it should be about preventing them and minimising their consequences,” says Professor Eila Lindfors from the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Turku.
In some of the schools surveyed – in 14 comprehensive schools – various measures were taken over the course of a year and a half to improve the safety culture. As a result, each school reached at least the statutory level of safety.
The schools set up safety teams consisting of teachers, pupils and, in some cases, stakeholder representatives. The teams drew up development plans and an annual safety calendar for each school based on their safety environment. All the tools and approaches developed in the study are freely available to all schools.
“It is important that safety is discussed regularly at schools. One way to do this is through the safety briefings we have developed. They are short information sessions held during teachers’ meetings to discuss, for example, accidents and acts of violence. It is also recommended to promote safety at school level, for example, by using materials from national events,” explains Professor Lindfors.
One phenomenon that affects school safety is bullying, which after a long decline has become more common in Finnish comprehensive schools during recent years. The most typical forms of bullying are exclusion and verbal bullying. Online bullying has increased but is still relatively low compared to other forms of bullying. Often the bullying is known to many pupils and several pupils are present when the bullying takes place.
According to studies, social shyness and insecurity are traits that increase the risk of being bullied. Children who have problems with emotional regulation and who react strongly to provocation are also more likely to be bullied.
Children who bully often have little empathy and a lower ability to put themselves in the other person’s shoes. It is typical for bullies to justify their own bullying by calling it a joke or explaining their actions through the characteristics of the bullied. Some bullies are very popular among their peers and they might have the characteristics typical for leaders.
“Parents can help their own children by teaching good friendship skills. It is important that parents themselves show respect for other people and intervene if they hear their child talking about someone in an insulting way or being dismissive of bullying. If their own child has bullied, they should not be defensive and blame the school, instead, they should be involved in sorting out the situation,” says Christina Salmivalli, Professor of Psychology at the University of Turku.
When bullying is tackled in schools, it comes to an end within a short period of time in about 70-80 percent of the cases. Salmivalli and her research group are currently investigating why intervention does not always help and bullying continues or starts again.
The researchers’ hypothesis for the continuation of the bullying is that the pupil who has bullied has the intention to change their behaviour after the intervention, but if their peer group is positive about the bullying, they will continue to bully.
INVEST Flagship researchers have looked at how a teacher should approach a pupil who has bullied another child. Initially, it seems that the most effective way is to explicitly demand an end to the bullying, while at the same time appealing to the child’s empathy.
Somewhat surprisingly, appealing to empathy had an effect especially on children who had rated their empathy as low. Salmivalli suggests that such children may need active reminding of how things feel from the perspective of others. Empathy is not just a skill, but also a matter of motivation.
Eila Lindfors thinks schools should not be left alone to struggle with safety. Providers of education – be they municipalities or private bodies – should provide schools with common approaches for developing a safety culture. In practice, this could mean, for example, safety experts working in municipalities to develop the safety culture with schools.
In schools, it is important to involve the whole community in developing the safety culture, both teachers and pupils. Adults are responsible for safety but children and young people should also be involved in planning safety and taking responsibility for their own behaviour.
Text: Jenni Valta
Translation: Saara Yli-Kauhaluoma
Photo: Hanna Oksanen / University of Turku
Tools and approaches for developing school safety
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