School Governance
We noticed how the school is not even accessible to wheelchairs. Now we thought of the activities that we needed to create to address these challenges to accessibility and also we included other students' opinions into it…
Research team member
Our research is all about how schools are governed. We're digging into school rules and how schools are managed to find better ways to ensure the school's rules align with the school's values and respect student rights.
Since students spend most of their time in school, it has a big impact on who they become and their future. That's why it's crucial for schools to be places where students feel respected and comfortable. Right now, we think schools don't always get it right. They can invade students' privacy, assume they know what's best for students more than students do, and try to control students, which often leads to rebellion.
We believe that moving forward, schools should respect students, their privacy, and their individual growth. Everyone should be treated equally, and attention to students should be fair. All these changes can lead to a better future and a better society. By studying this important topic, we aim to create a brighter future for the next generations. Ignoring this issue could lead to students facing more mental stress and struggling in school.
We started our project thinking of school’s furniture and safety, we ended up discussing the systemic causes for lack of accessibility…
Team participant
We began our research focusing on key themes and believed these were the most important questions to ask our peers.
• Do you spend recess doing school work and reciting things you had to memorize to your teachers?
• Do you think school rules and policies violate students' privacy? If yes, then why?
• Do you consider school a safe space?
• Do you think school is considerate of students' mental health?
• Do you think school fulfills all of your needs academically?
• Do you hire a private tutor after-hours?
• If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?
• Mention a situation that happened at school that had a negative impact on you
And as any research project goes, we were full of assumptions that would later be clarified by some very succinct realizations.
Assumptions
• The school interferes with the student's privacy, which is not their right.
• School environment is considered to be toxic.
• Centralized authority structures enable abuses of power.
• School thinks they control the students, so the students rebel against them.
• Schools think they know the interest of the student more than the student.
Realizations
• The majority of students believe that school rules violate their privacy.
• While the majority of students perceive their schools to be safe spaces, which is a positive realization, there is still a significant portion of students who do not.
• The majority of students do not have their academic needs fulfilled by their schools, and hire private tutors after school hours. This is both because the school is not seen to be providing enough academic support, as well as because of high academic expectations.
• Schools are not considerate of the mental health of their students.
• Factors that have a negative impact on students' experiences at school include teachers’ behaviors and attitudes, the school administration, discrimination and favoritism, bullying by peers, school facilities, and unnecessary and unfair school rules and policies.
• Students have had a lot of experiences at school that have had a negative impact on them and the majority of students believe that their peers have had similar negative experiences.
The data that we collected
We developed a survey focused on examining the impact of school regulations on various aspects including students' privacy, mental health, academic success, and overall satisfaction with school. The ultimate goal of our research was to identify effective ideas and inputs that could contribute to creating a better future for us, students. We received survey responses from 161 public high school students from five different governorates in Kuwait. Of course, we know that our data has limitations, which are listed here for full transparency.
Data details and limitations
Representation:
60% of our survey respondents are from Jahra, and 96% of them are female.
Small Sample Size:
The number of respondents in the survey is relatively small, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
Key insights from our data
Around 65% of our survey respondents considers school a safe space, while the remaining 35% does not.
68% of students believe that their school does not respect their privacy.
A significant number of respondents reported negative experiences with teachers who were disrespectful, yelled at students, used derogatory language, or belittled them.
Approximately 88% of students hire a private tutor after-hours
65% of students believe that their school does not fulfill their academic needs.
A number of respondents reported being bullied by their peers, experiencing hurtful words, or witnessing teachers being bullied by other students.
A whopping 81% of students believe that their school is not considerate of their mental health.
Rules or policies respondents found to be unfair or unnecessary included dress codes, restrictions on bathroom use, and not being allowed to leave school early.
Our conclusion
We're a group of students who experience school governance every day, just like you. We care a lot about student rights, privacy, and how these things affect society because we share these goals and ideals personally.
Our research found that many students don't feel safe at school, and most of us don't think schools meet our academic needs very well. We also checked out things like school buildings, furniture, and the availability of fun stuff to do outside of regular classes, and how these things affect how we feel.
We believe students, teachers, and school administrators should work together to make school governance more inclusive, responsive, and better at meeting our needs.