Training Sources

Fighting violence in schools: a better communication between School, Parents and Children

Ana-Maria Magheraș, Denisa Boțu, Claudia Atănăsoae
Coordinator: Cezar Caluschi

Education Sciences Institute

2010

English

Romanian

National

Online Publication

School bullying

Headmasters, Teachers, Students, Parents

http://www.tineriimpotrivaviolentei.edumanager.ro/
http://www.tineriimpotrivaviolentei.edumanager.ro/biblioteca-virtuala/category/6-ghid-de-comunicare.html

The human violence is one of the major problems of the contemporary society. Examples of types of violence can be seen daily both in public space and the private one, as well as in the institutionalized public one, as it is the case of the School. The suggested communication guide offers an alternative regarding the prevention and fighting the school violence phenomenon. The material assumes that the development of an array of internal and external communication in schools can be a starting point in solving these problems. The guide is aimed primarily teachers and schools and can be downloaded from the project website, the following link
http://www.tineriimpotrivaviolentei.edumanager.ro/biblioteca-virtuala/category/6-ghid-de-comunicare.html, : based on username and password. The guide is divided into six chapters:
1. Overview of violence
2. Institution internal communication
3. Institution external communication
4. Management of the institution crisis image
5. Communication instruments and channels
6. Final conclusions
The first chapter deals with the concept of violence, by providing a large number of definitions offered over the years by different specialists, as well as school violence typologies.
The second chapter summarizes all the internal communication variants among the participants to education: the headmaster–teachers communication, the headmaster–school counselors communication, headmaster–parents communication, teachers-students communication, teachers-school counselors communication, teachers-students communication, school counselors-students communication, school counselor-parents communication, students-students communication. Within each communication option there are approached aspects regarding the subjects of communication, types of messages, communication instruments, communication frequency.
The third chapter presents external communication variants between school and school inspectorate, Ministry of Education, Teacher’s Training Institution, County School Counselors, Local Public Authorities, Police County Inspectorates, Public Health Department, the Media and the on-line environment. Within each communication option, just like in the second chapter, there are approached aspects regarding the subjects of communication, types of messages, communication instruments, communication frequency.
The fourth chapter contains information concerning the importance of the institution image and the need to establish a strategy for creating its image crisis management of the institution where this occurs, the elements that could guarantee its success , the specific of the image crisis management.
The fifth chapter presents instruments and communication channels: formal and informal meetings, events organized by the educational institution, the on-line environment, press conference.
The sixth chapter includes final conclusions regarding the communication between school, parents, children, in order to fight violence in schools.

The communication guide regarding fighting violence in schools is divided in six chapters, each of them including laborious information regarding the communication between different factors of education.
In order to work over the communication guide, meant to be a useful tool for teachers and headmasters, this was analyzed from the point of view of structure clarity, of the content sequence logic, of the content quality and relevance and of its compatibility with the target group whom it addresses to, as follows:
Concerning the contents of each chapter, these are presented in a logical sequence, they present updated information according to the law in effect in order to support the educational institutions aiming at diminish the violence in school, as well as at creating an image of the institution that can bring benefits and can contribute to increase its prestige. The structure of the guide was worked over, each type of internal and external communication of the educational institution being presented according to its importance.
A very important aspect from the point of view of making the communication more efficient regarding the violence in school is improving the management of communication among all the factors involved in education from the school level, by identifying the communication barriers between them and improving the communication strategies and channels.
The communication guide being drafted before 2011, when the new Law of Education was enacted, needs an information updating in order to be consistent with the new legislation. Thus, the guide will be revised, especially the chapters II and III, because the new vision over education focuses on the student, all the other participants to the students’ education will need to make communication more efficient to get best results in terms of the students’ education. Also, there will be improvements concerning strategies of creating a school image as well as of managing a possible image crisis. Regarding the external communication, there was introduced the school communication with RAQAPUES (Romanian Agency of Quality Assurance in the Pre Univeristy Educational System), a very important communication, that is enacted (O.U. 75/2005, approved with amendments and addenda by means of the Law 86/2006 regarding Education Quality Assurance) and it contributes to increasing quality in education.
The communication guide is a useful tool for the headmasters and teachers’ training that can still be used in order to improve their communication with students, parents, school counselors, local, county and national public authorities, and with the higher authorities in education. Also, the guide supports the students and their parents, in order to increase their involvement in the educational process, through awareness of communication importance and its improvement.
Overall, the communication guide includes useful aspects for all the factors involved in education: headmasters, teachers, students, parents, representatives of the local communities, decision making factors in education as far as the violence is concerned, types of school violence, aspects of internal and external communication within the educational system regarding the subjects of communication, types of messages, communication instruments, communication frequency, communication instruments and channels, that will be able to lead to preventing and fighting the school violence phenomenon, as well as to increasing education quality.