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Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?

The word ‘safe’ is widely used in everyday education speak in phrases such as ‘safe learning environment’, but how do trainee and experienced teachers interpret, understand and use this word in their everyday teaching? Teachers are acting as observers of pupils’ well-being, and one of their roles in...

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Main Authors: Sarah Turner, Maggie Braine
Format: Default Article
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/18640
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author Sarah Turner
Maggie Braine
author_facet Sarah Turner
Maggie Braine
author_sort Sarah Turner (1255620)
collection Figshare
description The word ‘safe’ is widely used in everyday education speak in phrases such as ‘safe learning environment’, but how do trainee and experienced teachers interpret, understand and use this word in their everyday teaching? Teachers are acting as observers of pupils’ well-being, and one of their roles in the classroom is to offer support to build relationships and enable pupils to achieve their best. This case study reports the use of the ‘safe’ concept by trainee and experienced teachers in England and uses ‘safe spaces’ groupings to allow categorising of the qualitative results obtained. The majority of trainee teacher responses related to ‘safe’ meaning a classroom where no child is embarrassed about sharing their opinions/answers, where pupils are comfortable about taking risks in their learning and one which is rooted in mutual respect. Experienced teachers reported that a ‘safe’ classroom was where pupils could express their thoughts, feel comfortable and be safe from harm. This concept has been used by all participants in this study but differently. The findings could help develop teachers’ understandings to ensure the use of the word ‘safe’ is not limited and maximum impact within school is obtained. It could help all teachers to be fully aware of the broadness of the concept, especially that surrounding the ability to achieve due to the importance of feeling safe in lessons.
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spelling rr-article-93498232015-01-01T00:00:00Z Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding? Sarah Turner (1255620) Maggie Braine (7152293) Design not elsewhere classified Safe Teacher training Teachers’ standards Well-being Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified The word ‘safe’ is widely used in everyday education speak in phrases such as ‘safe learning environment’, but how do trainee and experienced teachers interpret, understand and use this word in their everyday teaching? Teachers are acting as observers of pupils’ well-being, and one of their roles in the classroom is to offer support to build relationships and enable pupils to achieve their best. This case study reports the use of the ‘safe’ concept by trainee and experienced teachers in England and uses ‘safe spaces’ groupings to allow categorising of the qualitative results obtained. The majority of trainee teacher responses related to ‘safe’ meaning a classroom where no child is embarrassed about sharing their opinions/answers, where pupils are comfortable about taking risks in their learning and one which is rooted in mutual respect. Experienced teachers reported that a ‘safe’ classroom was where pupils could express their thoughts, feel comfortable and be safe from harm. This concept has been used by all participants in this study but differently. The findings could help develop teachers’ understandings to ensure the use of the word ‘safe’ is not limited and maximum impact within school is obtained. It could help all teachers to be fully aware of the broadness of the concept, especially that surrounding the ability to achieve due to the importance of feeling safe in lessons. 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/18640 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Unravelling_the_Safe_concept_in_teaching_what_can_we_learn_from_teachers_understanding_/9349823 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
spellingShingle Design not elsewhere classified
Safe
Teacher training
Teachers’ standards
Well-being
Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified
Sarah Turner
Maggie Braine
Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
title Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
title_full Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
title_fullStr Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
title_full_unstemmed Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
title_short Unravelling the ‘Safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
title_sort unravelling the ‘safe’ concept in teaching: what can we learn from teachers’ understanding?
topic Design not elsewhere classified
Safe
Teacher training
Teachers’ standards
Well-being
Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified
url https://hdl.handle.net/2134/18640