AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
school products – rituals, school roles and standards,
values – main directions of pupils´ a school value system,
dispositions and school objectives – creating climate for
objectives achievement.
It is obvious from the above mentioned information that school
culture includes many areas which influence education activity.
Therefore there has been recently paid more and more attention
to it. We focus on some areas of school climate in this article.
School climate is one of the significant parts of school culture as
it is stated by H. Grecmanová (2008), J. Mareš (2003), E. Petlák
(2006), J S
větlík (2004) and others who add that climate and
culture are two inseparable phenomena.
Regarding work of school, teachers and pupils, it is necessary to
emphasize that heavier and heavier demands are put not only on
school and teachers, but even more on pupils. Therefore it is
necessary to create suitable school climate within good school
culture for them to be able to meet these requirements.
School with good culture not only teaches, controls and
evaluates pupils but it is also interested in their learning
problems and helps, gives advice and regulates them.
School culture has broad influence and cannot be limited to
pupils only. Good school culture creates good climate which
helps everybody involved in school:
pupils, because they attend good school and good class
with interest, they look forward to their teachers,
schoolmates and to everything going on at school…;
teachers, because good climate is a prerequisite of good
relations, it evokes interest in educational innovations, it
opens good opportunities for self-realization…;
other school employees, because they contribute to
education of pupils as well, they co-create school climate,
their satisfaction and dissatisfaction also influences pupils;
parents, because all parents wish their children have good
and first-rate school, good teachers and schoolmates. Good
school significantly stimulates parents´ cooperation.
Parents are informed in detail about what is going on at
school via their children. Thus the parents are familiar with
school culture via their children.
There are undoubtedly many reasons to care about school
culture. We do not deal with the terminological differences
between school climate and culture in this article as there are
many authors who do not see any differences between them and
consider them more-less equal.
In the contemporary literature is school climate defined and
described in various aspects. This is because there are used
different terms with regard to the climate of the school. Most
often, climate is described by those terms, eg.: atmosphere of the
school, school spirit, school ethos, school culture, school
conditions, school environment, subculture of the group, social
system of the school etc.
E. Eders´ opinion is that the terms "school, teaching and class
climate are just beginning to establish itself in the conceptual
repertoire of education science in the German-speaking area" (In
Seebauerová, R., 2005). We add that this statement can be
applied not only in the German language area, but has a wider
validity. The influence of the number of views overlap, for
example what one author refers to school climate, another calls it
school culture, school spirit etc. However, we are of the opinion
that this inconsistency in terminology does not substantially
affect the pedagogic and didactic work of teachers in relation to
the creation of a class or school climate. But we do not want to
say that we should not strive for standardization of terminology.
(This does not apply only to this concept. In Pedagogy still exist
some terms, which the authors mean the same thing, but
otherwise are named differently.)
Stoll (2018) writes: „School culture is one of the most complex
and important concepts in education. Culture describes how
things are and acts as a screen or lens through which the world is
viewed. Each school has a different reality or mindset of school
life, A school’s culture is shaped by its history, context and the
people in it. The school’s age can impact cultural change. School
culture is influenced by a school’s external context. School
cultures vary between primary and secondary schools. School
culture is influenced by the school’s pupils and their social class
background. Changes in society pose challenges to a school’s
culture.“
T. Pilch (2003) summarized and analyzed various definitions
from the Polish and also from foreign literature and concluded
that some definitions explain the school climate more complex
(wider), other less complex (restricted).
In the more complex definitions are explained: the relationships
between personality and environment, social climate as a school
culture with its values, norms, opinions, climate as a set of
subjective views of participating individuals, relationships of the
school staffs etc.
Narrower definitions describe: climate as an organizational
ideology - the objectives and values of school, climate as
"mood", psychic state, as social climate typical for the class,
climate as the overall rules of life in the classroom, climate as a
mediator between students and teachers, etc.
Another criterion for defining the school is culture of didactic
process and the social aspect, so called social climate. Culture of
didactic process is expressed as: the quality of the school
environment, as a link of educational content with the life
orientation of the pupil in the educational process, the chances of
success and the emphasis is on the process of education etc.
Social climate is expressed as: involvement of teachers in the
work, relationships between teachers and pupils, participation,
relationships pupil - pupil, mutual coexistence etc.
These approaches were introduced to indicate the possibility of
multiple approaches, but also to help the reader realize what all
falls under the school climate, climate of the class and what
affects it.
Another opinion has L. Pytka: "School climate is subjective
image of phenomena situated in an environment, the specificity
of the institution and its activities and behavior of each member
of the institution, behavior and activities of the whole institution,
organizational regulations." (In Pilch, T., 2003)
Czech authors define school climate as follows: "School climate
is socio-psychological variable that reflects the quality of
interpersonal relationships and social processes within the school
as their value is perceived and experienced by teachers, students
or school staff." (P
růcha , J., Walter, E., Mares, J., 2013)
According to H. Grecmanová school climate includes the overall
quality of the school environment:
Ecology of the School (physical and aesthetic aspects of
the school);
Social environment (relationships among pupils, teachers,
parents, school management);
Social system, the social dimension related to the level of
communication and cooperation between pupils, teachers,
parent.
Cultural and social dimension relating to the value patterns,
new system ... (Grecmanová, H. 1988).
We believe that for the understanding or explanation of the
school climate, it is not necessary to give further definitions.
More important is to know that the school climate may vary.
Understanding of the types of school climate can also serve as a
- 228 -