School climate and school culture: A framework for creating school as a safe and stimulating environment for learning and development

Abstract

School, as an educational institution, represents an important context for the development of children and young people. It is therefore necessary to shape it as a safe and stimulating environment for student learning and development. This paper offers a definition of the concept of school as a safe and stimulating environment for student learning and development, based on a review of academic and scholarly papers from a variety of disciplines and areas of practice. The content and meaning of the concept of school safety have been considered from the physical and psychological aspects, while the concept of school as a stimulating learning environment has been specified in terms of four dimensions - the physical, psychological, social and cognitive school environment. It is pointed out that these concepts and the phenomena they denote tend to be interpreted and analysed as the components or dimensions of broader concepts, namely, school climate and school culture. One section of the paper is therefore devoted to explaining these concepts, as well as considering their interrelationship and the importance of creating a positive and stimulating school climate and culture for institutional practice. The conclusion further emphasises that creating school as a safe and stimulating environment for student learning and development, as well as creating positive and supportive school climate and culture, is an extremely complex process that entails changes in the content and structure of the school institution as a whole. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 179060: Modeli procenjivanja i strategije unapređivanja kvaliteta obrazovanja u Srbiji and Grant no. 179017: Socijalna participacija osoba sa intelektualnom ometenoscu]