Exploring students’ conceptions of school safety and unsafety

Background School safety has become a topic of growing international concern, reflecting increased awareness of its importance for students’ wellbeing and the serious consequences associated with experiences of unsafety. Yet the concept is often treated as self-evident and is rarely defined in policy documents. Comparatively little is known about how students themselves conceptualise safety and unsafety in a school environment.Purpose This study explores how 94 students across six schools in Sweden perceived and conceptualised safety and unsafety within their school environments. It provides an emic perspective on school safety, grounded in students’ own experiences, interpretations, and local knowledge.Method This qualitative study consisted of field observations conducted over periods ranging from three days to three weeks in each of the six schools, followed by individual and paired semi-structured interviews with the students, who were in Grades 4–9 (ages 9–16). Students were asked open-ended questions about how they understood safety and unsafety. The data were analysed thematically.Findings Safety and unsafety were described by the students as dynamic processes encompassing several dimensions rather than static states. These included social safety (e.g. friendship and loneliness); emotional safety (e.g. calmness and fear, authenticity and insecurity); safety through order (e.g. adult presence, predictability and lack of control); and freedom from victimisation (e.g. the absence of threats, bullying and aggression).Conclusion The findings suggest that school safety should be understood not only as protection from victimisation, but also as a relational, emotional, and organisational condition shaped by students’ everyday experiences. The findings highlight the need for holistic approaches to school safety that attend to belonging, emotional security, predictability, and supportive social relationships as well as protection from harm. The study also highlights the importance of listening to students’ own perspectives when planning and improving safety in school.