What Makes a School a Happy School? Parents’ Perspectives

Abstract

Well-being, equity, and inclusion are central aspects of happy schools. In this context, we aim to provide information to identify the characteristics of happy schools and Portuguese children’s level of happiness at school. In total, one thousand three hundred and ninety-nine parents of children from five to twenty years old participated in this study by answering a mostly open-ended questionnaire. They indicated their perceptions of how happy their children were at school, the moments they associated with individual happiness and unhappiness, and the characteristics of schools that they found conducive to promoting happiness. The findings show that parents value the relationships their children establish at school, teachers’ personal and professional skills, learning strategies, and the fact that students can be creative while learning valuable content. From the perspective of parents, unhappy schools are characterized by teachers with negative attitudes and attributes, bullying, an excessive workload, and consequent stress. Differences in terms of gender and age were not significant in this study. We found that levels of happiness at school decrease as students’ ages increase.

What makes a school a happy school? Portuguese students’ perspectives

“…Happiness positively correlates to creativity, friends, learning strategies, and teachers' attitudes, competencies, and capacities. These findings are in line with parents' perspectives (Gramaxo et al, 2023), which reinforces our conclusions. On the other hand, negative attitudes from teachers or bullying can put happiness at risk.…”

“…The existence of extracurricular activities and school events is reported as being relevant for students to feel happy at school (Huebner et al, 2014), in line with parents 'perspectives (Feraco et al, 2023;Gramaxo et al, 2023). Participating in extracurricular activities relates to students´ life satisfaction (Feraco et al, 2023) and it's a characteristic of a happy school (UNESCO, 2016).…”

“…Our global objective is to understand the concept of a happy school from the Portuguese students' perspective. We have already studied the concept from the parents' perspective (Gramaxo et al, 2023). Our goal with this present study was to uncover Portuguese students´ perspectives concerning a happy school.…”

The impact of Benevolent Childhood Experiences on adult Flourishing: the mediating role of Light Triad traits

“…School support provides a nurturing environment that enhances a child’s emotional intelligence, sense of belonging, competence, and positive relationships, foundational elements for healthy psychological development ( Puertas Molero et al, 2020 ; Gramaxo et al, 2023 ). Liking school reflects positive experiences, engagement, and a sense of purpose, contributing to intrinsic motivation and developing a positive worldview.…”

Scrutinizing the Awareness of Hidden Curriculum: Connecting Lecturers to Themselves, Students, and Non-Engineering Study Programs

“…Since lecturers are viewed as change agents and have a moral impact on their students' moral development, they need to understand the ethical complexities of their work. This is because education is a tool for helping students develop their character (Sailer et al, 2021;Tong et al, 2022;Chai et al, 2022;Gramaxo et al, 2023;Mangion & Riebel, 2023). The main purpose of education is to make effective, confirming, and difficult environments within which students will learn skills, tendencies, and behaviors to direct their lives with success (López-Alvarado, 2017;Michael Adam, 2020).…”