Creating a climate in which students can flourish: A whole school intercultural approach

Abstract

This article reports part of an ongoing process that is taking place at one high school. With the vision of an inclusive school in which all students could flourish, the school deliberately set out to develop a culture in which the students would feel welcome, connected and have a sense of belonging. This article focuses on, first, how the school, with a culturally-diverse student population, implemented a whole school intercultural approach aimed at improving students’ views of the school climate and, second, the impact that this had on students’ perceptions of the school climate and their self-reports of wellbeing, resilience and identity. These results indicated that, at the end of the 18 month period, students’ perceptions of the school climate were statistically significantly higher for four of the six school climate scales. Further, students’ scored statistically higher in terms of their wellbeing, resilience, self-anchoring and moral identity.