What if something worse happens… : A qualitative study on students’ perceptions of safety and security.

Abstract: This research aimed to understand how students between 15-19 years at Lagaholm School and Osbeck High School experience safety and security at their schools and how they experience the impact of external events on the perception of safety and security. To investigate this, the following research questions were asked: How do students experience the situation of safety and security at their schools? How do students experience that external events impact their sense of safety and security? What conclusions can be made from the experiences and factors that emerge? The third research question is primarily answered by the researcher’s conclusions and reflections from the empirical evidence that emerges from the first two research questions. As the ambition of the research was to evolve a deeper understanding of students’ perception of safety and security, the empirical collection was based on seven semi-structured interviews with students from each school. Three were students at Lagaholm School and four at Osbeck High School. The study’s theoretical framework consisted of Anthony Giddens’s (1996) theory of Ontological Security and Ulrich Beck’s (2012) theory of the Risk Society. Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions were also included in the theoretical framework to provide a further understanding of the connection between the global and local context.   The results show that students at Lagaholm School perceived their school as less safe and secure than students at Osbeck High School perceived their school. In terms of what impacted the students’ sense of safety and security at school, patterns emerged of: age, maturity, knowledge of safety and security measures, teachers’ presence and consideration for students. Further, awareness and proximity in time, distance, and emotions proved to be relevant for what affected the feeling of safety and security in relation to external events. This became clear when events that took place in the near future and in Sweden or Laholm affected more than events that took place in other countries.