“THE SCHOOL AS A RESEARCH SUBJECT: SCHOOL CLIMATE AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT”

One of the dissemination activities of the Let’s Care Project was the workshop for parents and grandparents entitled “School as a subject of research. School climate and school achievement”. The workshop was led by a member of the Let’s Care team from University Ignatianum in Krakow, prof. Maria Marta Urlińska. The online meeting was organized on April 9, 2024.

During the workshop, issues related to the elements constituting the school (school climate, school culture, the hidden school curriculum) were discussed. The relationship between the various elements and student achievement was shown. The value of the relationship between actors (teachers, school management, students, parents and school staff) was emphasized, but not without significance for the life of the school is also the fact of the influence of the authority supervising and leading the institution, as well as the mutual relationship of the school with the local environment.

Participants were introduced to the functions and tasks of the school. The school was shown as an institution that transmits scientific knowledge to students, using scientific methods, as opposed to the family, which transmits colloquial knowledge, the workplace, which transmits practical knowledge, and the Church, which transmits religious knowledge.

At school, a student verifies its observations, perceptions and life experiences with scientific theories, and the knowledge gained at school remains with him for life. School is not just an institution that transmits knowledge but a co-creator of knowledge that supports students in self-development and self-knowledge. A modern school is supposed to raise a creative person, open to changes brought about by the civilization of knowledge, who is also able to move in the world of values, and is prepared to function in a democracy.

Workshop participants had the opportunity to look at school as a system, institution, organization, community and educational environment.

• The school as a system as a system tries to find relationships between the school and the environment. It is a collection of elements that are related in such a way that a change in one of them or a change in the way they are related entails a change in other elements or connections.
• School as an institution is a place where significant personality processes take place, where the most essential human needs are realized, where authentic life takes place.
• The school as an organization has specific goals, formal and informal structure, participants and equipment, has an administrative system and a communication system of direct subordination.
• The school as a community imparts knowledge, develops skills and educates. It prepares for the best, optimal education of the student, preparing him for the challenges of the world. These challenges can be realized through collective actions, their subject should be the student, around whom the activities of teachers, educators and parents are concentrated.
• The school as an educational environment is seen from the perspective of: people involved in the educational process (analyzing the needs of students, assessing the professional skills of teachers, the expectations of parents, and building positive relations and mutual trust between the subjects of the educational process); focusing on the goals of teacher and student action, the conditions for achieving these goals (describing the methods of teaching and the results of applying these methods, studying the effectiveness of teaching and measuring the quality of school work); the analysis of intra-school relations from the perspective of school management (the interaction of people with each other, the emergence of conflicts between school actors, the resolution of these conflicts and the achievement of compromises); and the focus on school symbolism (traditions, customs, rituals and ceremonies).

School climate is a subjective representation of objective environmental conditions. It is a reflection of the characteristics of the school environment experienced by students, their psychological situation. The elements that make up the climate of a school are: relations between teachers and students, relations between students, and the properties of the educational and educational process. The culture of a school is a set of values, behavioral patterns, norms, traditions and school rituals, characteristic of a particular institution. A significant element is also the hidden agenda and spaces of the school, which are considered as a set of behaviors, feelings, material part of the environment, environment, buildings, objects or the surrounding material and immaterial world.

During the meeting, a lively discussion developed about the role of the family and the school environment and their importance for a child’s school achievement (or lack of achievement).