Browsing by Subject "koulun turvallisuus"

Objective of the study: According to previous studies on teachers, violence and threatening situations are common in schools and occur on daily basis. Physical school violence has not broadly been studied in Finland as the term school violence is often confused with school bullying. Physical school violence causes both physical and mental damage, creates lack of security, weakens the atmosphere in schools and distracts the learning environment. There are many different causes to pupils' violent behaviour. The objective of this study was to discover the nature of school violence situations, causes of violent behaviour, the effects of school violence and ways to prevent it in schools. The purpose is also to raise awareness of school violence and create safe and positive environment in schools. Methods: This study was carried out as a qualitative study using phenomenological approach. The data was collected interviewing six elementary school teachers in February 2016 and analysed by using qualitative content analysis. Conclusions: According to the respondents, violence is common in elementary schools and it has many negative effects in everyday school life. In addition to physical damage school violence causes lack of security, distracts teaching and affects both pupils' and teachers' contentedness in school. Most of the violence occurs between pupils as a result of a conflict. Teachers concluded that pupils' violent behaviour is often caused by difficulties of controlling aggressions and solving disagreements. Pupils like these are reactively aggressive. However, schools seem to have many different ways to prevent school violence including practising social and emotional skills and appropriate ways to deal with aggression.