Introduction

Setting a focus

The 1995/96 Northwest Territories School Relationships Survey responds to a sense of community concern by zeroing in on how people treat each other in school.

The study taps the ideas of all groups within the schools, seeking answers to these four questions:

1. How satisfied are people with the schools?
2. Are discipline policies in place, and applied?
3. Does it make a difference when staff receive special training in managing difficult behaviour?
4. How much disruptive behaviour occurs, impacting not only students, but anyone at school?

As you can see from the key findings on page 5, disruptive behaviour and related discipline issues stand out as key areas of concern in some schools. Survey design and response rates, detailed on page 24, give high confidence that these results reflect reality.

The following pages discuss key findings in more detail, focusing on differences in viewpoints and areas needing the most attention. See the full report for a complete analysis of findings.

Importance of this study

Besides answering key questions for NWT schools, this study adds to an important body of research. In fact, the report is unique in several ways:

• it seeks extensive input from every group involved;
• it collected detailed descriptions of disruptive incidents from both staff and principals;
• it reports on conflicts from the student perspective.

In undertaking this study, the NWT stands at the leading edge in an important area of research.

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