An exploratory study of psychological safety practices in Malaysian primary schools

Abstract

The increase in number of absenteeism due to children not feeling psychologically safe at school has drawn the attention of educators and researchers to find out the situation and condition at schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological safety practices taking place in Malaysian primary schools. It examined the relationship between the roles of the Safe School Committee and the practice of Psychological Safety programs in school as well as the significant difference in the practice of Safe School program and implementation of Safety Education in school’s curriculum based on selected demographic characteristics such as school locations, teachers’ length of service and teachers’ academic background. Using the stratified method, 443 teachers were selected in the central Malaysian states of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Descriptive analysis revealed that Safe School Programs were mainly practiced but a fair number of teachers said training to implement Safety Education and Safe School Program were not widely provided for teachers. T-test analysis indicated that there was no significant difference between schools located in urban and rural areas on the practice of psychological safety. Similarly, ANOVA analysis results found that there was no significant difference in teachers’ length of service and teachers’ academic background on the practice of Safety Education the school curriculum. However, the relationship between the roles of Safe School Committee and the practice of Safe School Program in school were found to be significant using the Pearson Correlation analysis. The overall results of this study reflected a general lack of awareness and effectiveness in implementing and practicing Psychological Safety in schools. As such, some recommendations were made concerning the need for improving the current Safety Education practices, as well as developing and implementing a holistic model for Safety Education.