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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1455387

Subjective theories of the Chilean Teachers' Union about School Climate and Violence during the Return to face-to-face Education after the Pandemic: A Study of Web News

Provisionally accepted
Pablo Javier Castro Pablo Javier Castro 1,2*David Cuadra-Martínez David Cuadra-Martínez 3Veronica Gubbins Veronica Gubbins 4Fabiana Rodríguez- Pastene Fabiana Rodríguez- Pastene 5Claudia Carrasco-Aguilar Claudia Carrasco-Aguilar 5Vladimir Caamaño Vladimir Caamaño 1,6Martina Zelaya Martina Zelaya 1
  • 1 University of La Serena, La Serena, Chile
  • 2 Catholic University of the Maule, Talca, Chile
  • 3 Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó, Chile
  • 4 Finis Terrae University, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
  • 5 Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile
  • 6 Santo Tomás University, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic increased school violence and worsened the school climate in Chile. In Chile, punitive control policies such as the Safe Class Law (Ley Aula Segura) have been adopted. A key actor in the public debate is the Chilean Teachers’ Union, due to its potential impact on new public policies on the issue. Objectives: The aim of this study was to reconstruct the subjective theories of school violence and school climate presented by the Chilean Teachers’ Union after the Covid-19 pandemic, in its public discourse broadcast on the web news. Methods: Based on a documentary study, a case study design and qualitative methodology, embedded in the FONDECYT project No. 1231667, titled “The social construction in Chile of school climate and school violence after the return to face-to-face education”, web news (N = 36) were analyzed in which the Chilean Teachers’ Union explains school violence and school climate after the pandemic. Results: We found subjective theories that explain the meaning of school violence and school climate, and external factors associated with the serious deterioration of these educational dimensions after the Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, we obtained a set of measures such as inclusive policies, curriculum, participation in the development of educational policies, and refunding public education that teachers propose to solve these phenomena in the future. Discussion: In the context of a union that has historically considered public policies to be non-participative in their formulation and distant from the schools’ reality, these findings have important implications for understanding the arguments of the Teachers’ Union about the need to improve mental health and working conditions as crucial elements for addressing school climate and school violence.

    Keywords: Subjective theories, School Climate, school violence, Teachers union, Post pandemic

    Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Castro, Cuadra-Martínez, Gubbins, Rodríguez- Pastene, Carrasco-Aguilar, Caamaño and Zelaya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pablo Javier Castro, University of La Serena, La Serena, Chile

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.