Essay - The Impact of School Culture on School Safety Chapter I...

The Impact of School Culture on School Safety

CHAPTER I

Background to the Study

Introducti*****

***** studies have been done on safety in schools. Likewise, many studies have been done on the culture of various *****. Unfortunately, there has not been significant research on a link between the two. This is ***** to say that these kinds of studies ***** not been *****, but rather that there has not ***** enough of them. Many ***** the studies ***** have been performed in this area show that *****re is a def*****ite link between the type of culture ***** a school has and what kind of ***** the occupants of ***** school can expect. As with any research, there are critics of this opini*****, and there are studies that would appear to indicate that ***** is no link between the two.

It is in ***** spirit ***** debate and discovery that this study ***** been undertaken. Children are the future of ***** planet, and they deserve to attend ***** where they are free from hostility and danger. There will always be some issues with students that just don't like each other, and this study is not attempting to show that all violence can be removed ***** schools if only ********** ***** spend more time figuring out why its there in the first place.

Violence in schools, like ***** in society ***** l*****e *****elf, will ***** ***** ***** us (Back, 2001). This researcher hopes to show ***** how to remove the vio*****nce, but that ***** ***** of the school affects if there is violence, and how much violence. In other words, that the culture of a school ***** directly linked to ***** safety ***** security ***** that school. If this can be shown to be valid, then ***** opens the door to others who can then ***** not only the validity of the statements made in ***** pages, ***** also work toward a go*****l of cultural adj*****tment and change for ***** that seem to spend most ***** their ***** dealing with ***** instead of instruction.

This is a quantitative research study on the impact of school culture on school safety. It ***** based on ***** responses of teachers and administrators to two surveys. The first is the Inviting School ***** Survey or ISSS (Lehr ***** Purkey, 1996) which focuses on issues of safety, and the second is ***** School Culture Survey or SCS (Gruenert & Valentine, 1997), which is self-explana*****ry by its title. Both of these ***** provide insight about the shared values and beliefs, ***** patterns of behavior, and the relationships in a school setting, and are ********** good indicators of the relationship between the culture of a school *****nd the safety *****in its walls.

While it would be possible to use only one survey, and researchers in the past have d***** so in several *****, it woul***** be d*****ficult to obtain an accurate picture of the culture/safety link by using only a cultural survey or ***** a safety survey. Since the