Looking for ways to promote respectful relationships in the classroom: investigating the school climate

• Grant number: 14/24297-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: March 01, 2015 - February 28, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Fundamentals of Education
• Principal Investigator: Telma Pileggi Vinha
• Grantee: Telma Pileggi Vinha
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Adriana de Melo Ramos ; Alessandra de Morais Shimizu ; Carmen Lúcia Dias ; CAROLINA DE ARAGÃO ESCHER MARQUES ; Juliana Aparecida Matias Zechi ; Lívia Maria Ferreira da Silva ; Luciene Regina Paulino Tognetta ; Maria Suzana de Stefano Menin ; Marialva Rossi Tavares ; Patrícia Unger Raphael Bataglia ; Raul Aragão Martins ; Roberta Gurgel Azzi

Abstract

The school climate can be understood as the set of perceptions of the members of the school community about the school that include factors related to it's organization, it's pedagogical and administrative structures as well as the human relationships that occur inside the school. The school climate influences not only the student's learning (performance, motivation...), but also the quality of the social interactions (conflicts, aggression...). In Brazil, there aren't any validated instruments which enable the assessment of the various interrelated dimensions that make up the climate of a school, such as: learning, interpersonal relationships, security, fairness, participation, infrastructure and sense of belonging. None of the instruments met all the listed criteria. Therefore, this project aims to build, test and validate three instruments adapted to the reality of Brazilian schools, which will assess school climate on students from 7th grade and up, teachers and administrators. From the study of a significant body of research in the field and the analysis of various international school climate surveys, we have elaborated questionnaires using the Likert scale targeted at the aforementioned three groups of people. These surveys have already been pre-tested and submitted to experts researchers in the field. They consist of questions containing items that assess subjects' perceptions about the various dimensions that constitute the school climate. 3.000 subjects will answer these surveys: students from 7th to 9th grade, teachers and administrators from public and private schools in different cities of São Paulo state. Data will be analyzed quantitatively by statistical treatment. Not only will this study contribute to the expansion of research in this field, but also these surveys will allow schools to expand their knowledge of their own reality, which will help with the preparation of proposals for more effective intervention. (AU)