| dc.description.abstract | Almost every day, Swedish media bring up issues from the school environment. Public
and academic research identifies problems in these environments.
Knowledge about the school environment is mainly about the conditions in schools. Less
is known about how schools could work with changing their environment. This study
develops knowledge about how schools could improve their environments in a broad
sense – buildings, the physical, socio-psychological, pedagogic and organisational aspects
of the environment.
A project has been followed, analysed and reported. It was a co-operation between a
council’s school property management unit and three schools. The project has generated
67 different sites, which have worked in different ways.
Understanding has been developed through these experiences. Three projects have been
described extensively, but the conclusions are based on the whole project. This work has
a strong empirical base. The material has also been analysed, compared and reflected in
different ways. Conclusions have been related to different areas of research.
The practical conclusions are about the work process, different participants and the
thoughts behind school environment development. The importance of time, feedback,
information and economy has also been emphasised. The study shows that the development
of the environment should be broad, connected to the schools core activity, and
that it is important that teachers and students participate. The school should also co-operate
with external participants, such as the public schoolhouse maintenance organisation.
It is a difficult and complicated process, and the work should be adapted to the unique
conditions and circumstances in each school.
The theoretical conclusions develop our understanding of such work at close quarters.
The conclusions show that this work consists of two different dimensions; one is about
the factual matter and developing the school environment, the other dimension is about
participation in this process. The first is called the activity dimension, the second the
meaning dimension. A successful process should integrate those two dimensions, so that
they amplify each other and work as a reciprocal carrier wave. The study also shows that
a great challenge in developing a school environment is to work on a small scale and to
integrate both dimensions of the process to make the activities meaningful to the individuals
who participate.
Key words: School environment, environment in a broad sense, improvement, change,
work process, buildings, property management, maintenance, co-operation, empirical
base, participation, learning, time, feedback, information, economy, activity, meaning
and small scale. | |
