SAFESCHOOLS · Teaching in the 21st Century: Responding to Bullying and Safeguarding Issues in Scotland's Schools, a Longitudinal Study of Teacher Trainees

Teaching in the 21st Century: Responding to Bullying and Safeguarding Issues in Scotland's Schools, a Longitudinal Study of Teacher Trainees

Over the last 50 years, school education has increasingly become one of the most important areas for government policy. This is in part due to the recognition that a highly educated population is one of the key determinants of economic success. This has led countries to search for ways to improve the education of children and young people. Within schools, however, there is a significant barrier to learning that exists. Evidence is emerging of the negative impact experiences of abuse – both from adults and from other children and young people – has on the learning environment and outcomes for children and young people. Research has shown that both bullying and child abuse have tremendous long-term impacts. The Safe Schools study is the first longitudinal study of teacher trainees in Scotland. Led by Dr. Deborah Fry at the University of Edinburgh, this 3.5 year study (2012-2015) followed a cohort of new teachers over time to examine their knowledge, attitudes and confidence in responding to issues of bullying and child protection in schools. The study consisted of baseline and follow-up in-depth interviews of 23 participants and four waves of survey data collection with the same 148 teachers answering about 562 teaching placements throughout the 3.5 years of the study. Findings from this study show that there is a crisis in confidence of new teachers in identifying and responding to a range of protection issues in schools and the findings are particularly striking for sexual abuse. Findings show that in 15% of all teaching placements students would be apprehensive to report child sexual abuse for fear of family/community retaliation and in 39% of teaching placements, students reported not being familiar with the procedures for reporting child sexual abuse at the school (including in 35% of primary school placements and 35% of secondary school placements). These findings among others highlight that teacher trainees and newly qualified teachers are not well equipped to identify or respond to (including passing information on to a named or designated person) safeguarding issues and that there is a crisis in confidence in responding to these issues pointing to the need to ensure that guidance and training is given to all teachers to keep children safe. Using generalized estimating equations, significant factors predicting teacher attitudes towards reporting child abuse include previous experiences of working with children and young people, confidence in identifying and responding and positive school climate in which they feel respected. Additional analyses highlight that policies and guidance alone do not equip new teachers to identify and respond to child abuse, neglect and peer-to-peer violence in schools. Additional training is needed within both initial teacher education and also as continuing professional development. The Safe Schools study provides crucial information on how best to support teachers in the complex teaching environments in which they operate. Findings from the study have led to a follow-up study called ‘Safe Schools for Teens’ which utilizes the findings to implement a school-based intervention in two schools in the Philippines. This study is funded by the UBS Optimus Foundation. Additional funding was obtained to use the Safe Schools Study findings to influence the content and provision of comprehensive guidance around the Named Person provision within the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act – for all teachers, not just named persons. This Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 19th February 2014. Within schools, there will be a named person for every child, most likely a head teacher or other ‘promoted post’ that will serve as the point of contact not only for child protection concerns but also children’s well-being. There has been much debate on the lack of guidance around this role not only for the named person but for other teachers in respect of how they interact with child protection concerns as they arise. Consideration of how this provision will be operationalised will be ongoing in 2015 and 2016. This study is providing significant evidence to support key actors and researchers in order to ensure all children and young people are able to achieve their rights to a safe education and a life free from violence. For more information about this study, contact Dr. Deborah Fry at the University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education: debi.fry@ed.ac.uk

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