Evaluation of the Seriousness of Acts of Violence against Immigrant Secondary School Students in Boarding Schools

ABSTRACT

The National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia has issued the Guidelines for the Integration of Immigrant Children in Kindergartens and Schools. The difficulties with the integration of immigrant students are of a broad character, and the essay deals with the issue of the safety of the boarding school environment for secondary school students with immigrant parents. In our opinion it is also influenced by the statements, beliefs and attitudes of educators and secondary school students regarding acts of violence. To obtain the answers to our hypotheses, a research project was carried out in which educators (teachers) and boarding school students were questioned as to the level of seriousness at which they evaluate psychological or physical acts of violence against secondary school students with immigrant parents. There are 39 boarding schools in Slovenia which employ 200 educators and at which 5000 secondary school students are enrolled. The research involved all of the boarding schools in Slovenia, including 154 educators and 1331 boarding school students. We recommend the introduction of topics of non-violent culture regarding immigrant secondary school students into the management policy of boarding schools.

KEY WORDS: boarding school, secondary school students, educators, immigrants, evaluation of the seriousness of violent acts