Safety in schools: an integral approach

Abstract

The present paper summarizes a research project into integral safety in schools. The aims of this particular research are, firstly, to evaluate the degree of integral safety in schools, secondly, to propose means for improving prevention and integral safety systems and thirdly, to identify the characteristics of safety culture. The field work was undertaken in 20 schools in the Barcelona metropolitan area. Two instruments were applied: questionnaires and the focus group, with a methodological orientation of a qualitative nature. Results show that safety issues involve a high degree of responsibility on which management personnel spend a considerable amount of time, stating that they were less aware of the importance of the issue until they had been involved in school management for several years. Schools address safety issues in a reactive and anything but preventive way, for the most part designing involvement protocols in those schools that have already experienced accidents previously. The results obtained open up new possibilities for examination and should shape perceptions in schools by relating and incorporating the management of integral safety procedures, interpersonal relationships and the training of school managers.

Security or Safety: Quantitative and Comparative Analysis of Usage in Research Works Published in 2004–2019

“…Analysis of the article content with the relevant categories "state", "health", and "education" shows that these publications are devoted to political (organizational and administrative), and police measures in the area of public security connected with health protection [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]; food security [26][27][28]; protection from threats and violence in educational sphere [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]; urban security [41][42][43][44][45][46][47]; and protection from crime and terrorism [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. These life spheres and human behavior are evaluated for external risks and physical threats with preventive or reactive impacts on the environment and social relations being the factors and tools of protection from them.…”

Dimensiones competenciales de la prevención y el afrontamiento de riesgos en Educación Primaria

“…Los hábitos de cautela y de precaución, no sólo a nivel individual, sino teniendo en cuenta la repercusión de las conductas individuales en el resto del grupo, objetivan que a la edad de ocho-nueve años, las personas son capaces de conectar con los demás e identificar nuestras emociones y las de las otras personas. Gracias a esa capacidad tan innatamente humana, somos capaces de sintonizar con la parte más íntima de quienes nos rodean y desarrollar estrategias de afrontamiento en el caso de la prevención de accidentes escolares o la adaptación de estilos de vida saludables a nivel individual y comunitario Gairín & Castro, 2011;Mangrulkar, Whitman y Posner, 2001).…”

“…Las evidencias de algunos estudios Gairín & Castro, 2011; Gairín, Díaz-Vicario, Rosales y Sentillena, 2014) ponen de relieve que: 1) es preciso hablar de "seguridad integral", es decir de la integración de factores estructurales, de funcionamiento y de condiciones sociales derivadas de las relaciones (que es dónde se dan los casos de acoso y ciberacoso, entre otros); y 2) es imprescindible fomentar "procesos preventivos" en la cultura de la escuela, en sus valores y prácticas, en las competencias que fomenta.…”

Leading charters

“…For many school leaders, these incidents define school safety-protecting against violence, crime, and other personal violations (Armenta and Stader, 2011;Smith, 2011). Defined as such, charter leaders may be right in their confidence at maintaining school safety, but were that definition to be expanded to natural disasters, emergencies, crises, environmental hazards, and other such threats to student (and staff) safety (Gairín and Castro, 2011), they might not feel so sanguine. Moreover, recent research suggests school leaders may overestimate the extent to which they are prepared to deal with crises, disasters, emergencies, and the like (Kano and Bourque, 2007).…”