back to programm overview

Investigating teachers' perceptions of school climate

Dziuginta Baraldsnes, Associate Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioural Research in Education, University of Stavanger

School climate is a multifaceted endeavour (Freiberg & Stein, 1999). In general, school climate refers to the culture, milieu, or character of a school, capturing its sense of community and overall organisational health (Cohen, 2006). School climate plays a significant role in bullying and victimisation, as well as in the prevention of school bullying (cf. Bradshaw et al., 2013; Bosworth & Judkins, 2016). The study aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of school climate. School climate perception was measured by administering the School Climate Assessment Instrument, including 8 subscales (Alliance for the Study of School Climate, 2014). Data were collected through a standardised online self-administered survey questionnaire in 2017. The results of the Friedman test indicated that the teachers (n 1576) differently perceived their schools' physical appearance χ2 (7) 900.96, p < .001), faculty relations χ2 (10) 159.317, p < .001), pupil interactions χ2 (9) 1485.730, p < .001), leadership and decisions , χ2 (10) 1823.226, p < .001), discipline environment χ2 (9) 960.748, p < .001), learning, instruction and assessment χ2 (11) 1112.612, p < .001), attitude and culture χ2 (9) 2242.458, p < .001), and community relations χ2 (5) 2120.509, p < .001). The factors related to school attitude and culture (M 3.99, SD .62) received the lowest assessments, and the school's physical appearance (M 4.26, SD .54), the highest. The means of all sub-scales and school climate variable appertained to the high level. Therefore, despite the fact that the mean of school climate could vary from school to school, in general, an assumption could be made that the development of the encouraging and empowering school climate in the surveyed schools was intentional and the schools' vision was translated into effective practice. Further, some differences between teachers' sociodemographic characteristics and their perceptions of school climate are presented.

back to programm overview