Health promotion in primary school: Factors influencing children’s perception of school climate
Résumé
School climate is a central component of the educational environment, a positive climate contribute to students’ health and learning (Samdal et al., 1998). This paper presents a study of the students’ perception of school climate in 22 French schools involved in a health promotion program (Simar et al., 2007) between 2003 and 2007. The main object of this study was to analyse children’s views since little is known of how children of this age experience life in school. Nevertheless, there is strong evidence of the importance of the teacher and the relationship among children on their wellbeing (Young and Perry, 2009). Data (individual interviews using visual analogic scales, smileys and photos) have been collected from 2817 pupils, aged 6 to 8 (697 in 2005).Results showed children have a positive view of their school in general and of the relationship with the teachers in particular. This view is better than their older counterparts (Rotat, 2008). However, the relationships among children were not so well evaluated. In addition, a little minority seemed to feel very bad at school, which is shown by the negative evaluation of all the dimensions of the school climate. Factors influencing students’ perceptions are geographical location (urban vs. rural p=0,0056), socioeconomic status (p= 0,0043), school size (p=0,0417) and teaching methods (p=0,0338). The presentation will firstly analyze the interest of the methodology used in this study in the assessment of student’s perception of school climate. Secondly the way in which teacher education and school support could improve school climate will be discuss.