The problems that affect coexistence depending on the type of educational centre

Zusammenfassung

Various research studies have linked violence in schools to the low level of student learning. Situations of violence that occur in schools, in turn, have different causes, such as the existing gap in traditional forms of rule and order maintenance, school management and the new characteristics and needs of children and adolescents. In this sense, coexistence in the classroom is an important factor to take into account since it affects student performance. The objective of the study is to analyze, according to the perception of teachers and students, the possible relationships between coexistence problems and the types of schools. The study is retrospective descriptive transversal observational and inferential. The sample is made up of 887 students and 616 teachers of Primary and Secondary Education from public, private and subsidized Spanish schools. An ad hoc questionnaire has been designed for data collection. The questionnaire is made up of 21 items that reflect the different types of school violence. The data collection was carried out in the 2017-2018 academic year. The most important findings reveal that there is a relationship between the type of school and the different types of violence, with the exception of the "cyber-bullying" factor (sig>0.05) whose average is similar in the three types of school: public (1.62), private (1.42) and subsidized (1.62). Kruskall Wallis' analysis shows that in public school the scores on problems affecting school coexistence are higher, with the exception of gender violence (1.49). When analyzing the sample of teachers, not many significant differences are found in the medians of the subscales of school violence according to the type of school. In this case, statistically significant differences are only found in school dropout and absenteeism, indiscipline, disruption and discrimination. Something similar occurs in the sample of students, where significant differences according to the type of school are found in addictions, dropouts, absenteeism, disruption and discrimination. The averages are higher in public schools, with the exception of gender violence, where the highest average value is in private schools (1.78). We conclude that the type of school does influence the occurrence of the different problems that affect coexistence and the classroom climate. In public schools, these problems have a higher rate of appearance, followed by private schools and finally by subsidized schools. Both teachers and students coincide in pointing out that school desertion, absenteeism, indiscipline, disruption and discrimination are problems that occur especially in public schools, with the exception of gender violence which, according to the participants, occurs especially in private schools. The results of this study suggest the need to implement violence prevention programs in schools, which take into account both generalized problems in Spanish classrooms, but also specific problems, depending on the needs and characteristics of each school. These programs should focus on improving relations between members of the educational community and on promoting the participatory construction of school and classroom rules.