There was a consensus throughout the answers that school should be primarily responsible for socialising children, followed by the family, and then the entire community as a whole, summarised in Figure 3.6.
Figure 3.6. Frequency of teachers’ answers to the question: Whose responsibility is it to socialise children? School, family or the community.
Socialising is part of education
Most teachers agreed that education serves as a socialising factor, with this being commonly mentioned by teachers in all four countries: Spain (38%), Sweden (36%), Greece (34%), and the UK (32%). Many teachers described education as a socialising force, and that teachers are agents of this process regardless of their personal opinion on the matter:
● “ They [students] spend a significant portion of their time at school when they grow up, and thus we have a role to play in socialising students - and we do so, whether we think so or not. ” 116
● “ People who think they don't affect socialisation, may act as a negative model without knowing it. ” 117
The analogy of molding clay was used in all four countries (mostly in Greece, Spain and Sweden) when describing socialisation: “ We are adult role models for the pupils and play a part in shaping them as they grow up. It is a big responsibility. ” Many teachers in 118 the questionnaire highlighted the difference between the home and school environment as a justification, where " school is the place where many children for the first time have to interact in a social situation and respond to the emotional needs of others and not just themselves ." Others saw the school as an opportunity to model a better society, or to improve wellbeing. The intended outcomes for socialisation were many and varied, but most teachers agreed that something had to be done.
The most popularly cited reason regarding school acting as a part of socialisation was the time spent therein: 36% of Greeks, 22% of Spanish, 22% of Swedes and 29% of UK teachers mentioned the significant amount of time/hours children were in schools. Whilst the most common way to describe this in all countries (but particularly in the UK and Sweden) was the word ‘spend’, as in, ‘ we spend so much time together ’, the second most common word used (particularly in Spain and Greece) was the word live ( convivir / ζουν ), as in, ‘ the large number of hours that we live together with the children ’. These linguistic differences emphasise the varying cross-cultural boundaries
116 Swedish teacher’s reply in English
117 La gente que cree que no trabaja, puede que trabaje en negativo sin saberlo 118 Vi är vuxna förebilder för eleverna och formar dem där efter. Ett stort ansvar.
between home and school: whereas to live with someone in English expressly defines the sharing of time privately - usually at home - this word was used to describe the public environment of the school by some of the Mediterranean teachers, further blurring the boundaries between home and school. As one Spanish teacher summarised, “ A kid should not consider the different moments of his upbringing as compartmentalised and unrelated to each other. Life is dynamic ... and learning must be too. ” 119
Family should be primarily responsible for socialisation
Not all teachers believed that it is their responsibility to socialise students and impart social and emotional skills, and teachers in all four countries mentioned this: Sweden (18%), Spain (17%), UK (10%) and Greece (8%). Sweden had the highest number of objections to teachers being held accountable for socialising students, for example:
● “ Parents need to take more responsibility here - many parents see it as school should raise their kids. We as a
school/teacher can teach kids about values- ie different values, but not decide what values for the kids to choose like parents can do. ” 120
● “ Parents are the ones who put the kids into this world and therefore responsible for them. ” 121
● “ I believe that too much of that responsibility is left with the school and teacher. Yes, we should educate the children in
119 El chaval no debe considerar los distintos momentos de su crianza como cajones estancos sin relacionar. La vida es dinámica y homogénea, así debe ser el aprendizaje.
120 Swedish teacher’s reply in English 121 Swedish teacher’s reply in English
this aspect to some extent, but it takes too much emphasis away from the rest of the curriculum. ” 122
In Spain and Greece there were similar objections to teachers acting as socialising agents saying that parents should be the most important role models, but unlike a lot of the responses in Sweden, the teachers emphasised that they should work collaboratively, “ Each passing year we are more responsible. The families are delegating their duties onto us. And schools should be socialising children hand in hand with families, working together .” In the UK there was a 123 common theme of an ever-widening remit for teachers which they did not agree with, for example, " The idea of teacher role has become too widespread, our role is to impart and instruct information/skills. Emotion is the place of the family, " and, “ Our main responsibility is to prepare students to succeed in exams. " Though many UK teachers said that socialising students is beyond their remit, many mentioned being forced to, due to various social and political reasons, " Social emotional skills are better learnt within the family. Among trusted nurturing relationships. This is not the role of the school but has become so by default over the years due to a breakdown in family life ." In Greece one teacher talked about their powerlessness to influence home life and the values therein, “ The family lays the foundation for a child. The teacher can’t do much if the family is negative .” 124
Some teachers who participated in the questionnaire - though they did make up the minority - believed social and emotional skills could not be transferred from teacher to student, “ I don't think these
122 Jag tycker för mycket av det ansvaret läggs på skolan och läraren. Vi ska utbilda barnen i detta till viss del men idag tar det alldeles för stor plats i den övriga undervisningen.
123 Cada vez más. Las familias nos van delegando sus funciones. Y deberíamos ir de la mano en la socialización de los niños y niñas, trabajar en conjunto
familias-escuela.
124 Τα παιδιά παίρνουν τις βάσεις από την οικογένειά τους. Ο δάσκαλος δε μπορεί να κάνει πολλά αν η οικογένεια είναι αρνητική.
skills can be taught directly ,” whilst others highlighted the limits of 125 the teacher in SEE due to lack of training: " Without specific
teaching/lessons in social and emotional education from somebody who understands the psychological and related physiological
concepts well and the coping methods there is limited influence you can deliver via being a good role model in passing. It must be concentrated academia ."
All adults in society should be responsible
The old proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ could be witnessed in the responses cross-culturally, with 13% of Swedish, 12% of Spanish, 9% of UK and 3% of Greek teachers saying that all adults in a community are responsible for the socialisation of
children. The reasons why could be grouped into three themes: all people are influenced by their surroundings, education is not specific to the school environment, and the responsibility for socialising the next generation needs to be shared as a community.