Comprehensive security management in educational centers: Facilitators and obstacles

Educational institutions must be safe and secure spaces for students and teachers and non-teaching staff. It should properly manage the safety and security to prevent accidents and incidents, creating an environment in which the physical, emotional, social, individual and collective well-being is promoted. Educational administration, managers, teachers, administrative and service personnel should carry out actions and activities to promote and guarantee the physical, emotional and social safety during school hours, involving the students and families in safety management and promoting a culture of prevention. The following study aims to investigate a comprehensive safety management in educational institutions of Catalonia (Spain). Specifically, it seeks to know how all aspects related to safety and security in an educational institution are organized and managed, analyzing the specific practices that administrators, teachers and other staff perform, and also knowing the opinion that has the educational community. There are two overall objectives in this study: (a) Understand the current development of the processes of comprehensive safety management in educational institutions; (b) Analyze the conditions that facilitate and obstruct the process of comprehensive safety management in educational institutions. From an eminently qualitative perspective, we have carried out a multiple case study, with a sample of nine educational institutions (three primary schools, three secondary schools and three vocational training institutions) of public and private ownership in the province of Barcelona. Triangulation by method (individual and collective depth interviews, document analysis, focus group, and observation and field notes) and by data source informants (headmaster, coordinators of prevention of occupational hazards, teachers and members of the educational community, mainly parents involved in AMPA (Parents’ Associations) of the analyzed institutions) are guaranteed. Although the study results cannot be generalized, they provide a near reality of the comprehensive safety management of the Catalan educational institutions. Allow, in turn, to conclude with the proposal of a Comprehensive safety management model in educational institutions.