Schooling and Child Protection from Children’s Perspectives.

While all children learn through experience, in a range of interconnected and influential contexts, like school, home and community, there is a staunch assumption that school is a strong protective factor for children’s well-being. However, it is important to understand how children who have experienced trauma experience well-being in educational settings. Research on children’s experiences of school when they are unsafe in other contexts is limited. There is evidence that children who are unsafe at home, underachieve academically as students. However, a deeper consideration is needed on how safety at school is constructed and might exacerbate or support the well-being of children who are exposed to violence, neglect and/or living in out-of-home care. This paper presents a theoretical discussion of how children construct safety at school, and other socio-political imperatives that drive social constructions of safety at school. It compares the dominant approaches of education as means to future well-being with an appreciation of academic achievement as an end goal resulting from well-being. It challenges the idea that school is always constructed as a positive learning environment and safe haven providing comfort and stimulation from violence in the home, through physical environment and relationships. It presents the experiences of traumatised children who describe school as a multifaceted and inherently risky institution. An institution where children’s agency is needed to navigate safety with peers, safety with adults, and safety in physical spaces that can replicate unsafe experiences in other contexts of their lives. The implications of this analysis indicate that children’s constructs of school-related safety, are essential. They need to be prioritised in educational policy to access the untapped potential for learning contexts to counter the impacts of violence on children. Furthermore, they invite a more integrated and dynamic discourse of schooling and children’s well-being.