This article presents results from a research project exploring the relational interplay between school staff and students, its functions and complexity in the secondary school context. School relationships (between students and different kinds of staff) are more or less indirectly related to educational content: subject matter as well as norms and values. In the teacher–student relationship, the teaching and learning of subject matter largely defines the relationship, whereas for school support staff, the relationship to such content is fairly distant. However, they all have in common that these assigned functions are created for the purpose of enabling the education of our youth. In this article, a case study from a secondary school is used to develop a typology for understanding the relevance that content may have in these different types of relationships. We also explore the sometimes unpredictable ways in which content can emerge as relevant. A year-long case study was conducted during the 2012–2013 school year at a secondary school that had recently been renovated and in which work had been done to improve the educational environment. Multiple data sources were used, including document analysis, mapping, contextual observations and interviews. Official statistics, newspaper articles and school quality reports were used to contextualize the case. In this article, interviews with different categories of school staff and students formed the main source of data. The different assigned functions of the staff were categorized as: educators, education professionals (e.g. counsellors) and education support professionals (e.g. caretakers). Although the latter were often indirectly connected to content, they could also have relevance through the relationships that they developed with students. Here, there is a point in separating the staff´s assigned function as officially described and their relation to students as played out in practice. Two examples illustrate how members of staff diverge somewhat from their assigned functions in informal places and spaces to facilitate the educational experience of the students. It is argued that in a school for all students, this flexibility in school relationships can improve students’ relations to content and school success.

From an ecological whole-school perspective different parts of the educational environment are viewed as in constant relation to others. This means that everyone involved condition, and are conditioned by, each other’s actions in multiple continuous processes. If one function fails the consequences affects others who share their environment. The purpose of this presentation is to use an ecological approach to understand ways in which staff who is only indirectly involved in education can contribute to the educational environment. In discussions of educational environments the teachers, students and content often take center stage. Hansen’s examination of Dewey’s educative environment focuses on the classroom, however, education is underpinned by indirect functions such as care takers, cleaners and canteen staff that facilitate students’ educational experiences by attending to students’ need of nutrition and a clean and safe school environment. Dewey argued that the environment consists of relevant features for the given situation, discriminating it from the surroundings that are irrelevant. Thus, the indirect functions cannot be viewed as surroundings, but constitute part of the educational environment albeit often overlooked or viewed as peripheral. As illustrated by a case study in a Swedish secondary school these staff members, by their presence alone as adults in the corridors and other places in the school, contributed to a safe environment. Moreover, at times they collaborated with other professions, as well as went beyond their intended functions, for the best of the students. For example, cleaners who witnessed bullying reported it to the teachers. The care takers took some students under their wings and asked them to help mend broken things around the school, thus providing them with meaningful relationships that strengthened the students’ bond with the school. However, the municipal management cut back on costs for care takers, despite protests from the principal, and the care takers were replaced by a weekly service visit operated centrally. This can be framed as an atomistic logic of schooling, disregarding the actual function of support staff in the educational environment. We argue that an ecological perspective can provide fruitful insights that can be used for promoting safe educational environments.

This article introduces a theoretical framework for studying school improvement processes such as making school environments safer. Using concepts from spatial theory, in which distinctions between mental, social and physical space are applied, makes for a multidimensional analysis of processes of change. In a multi-level case study, these were combined with task perception analysis, where all categories of personnel and management in the school were studied. The results indicated the significance of borderlands in the school for helping students, of organizational transgressions aimed at “making things work” and of social spaces created in the borderlands that contributed to the necessary social glue in the school. This theoretical framework offers alternative and fruitful lenses which can enrich studies of school improvement processes. The use of multiple data sources allows for triangulation, which in turn improves the validity and reliability of the results.

One of the often neglected preconditions for a productive educational environment is that students feel positive about coming to school and that they have meaningful relationships in school. In this paper, attention is directed towards the common areas that lie within the school but outside of classrooms, e.g. corridors, school yards and dining halls. The concept of the “borderlands of the common areas” in everyday activities at schools is addressed. We explore common area spaces and practices, along with the intentions of the personnel that are responsible for them.

This paper presents data from a research project aiming at exploring the relational interplay between school personnel and students, its functions and complexity in the secondary school context. A year-long case study is being conducted during the 2012-13 school year at a secondary school that has recently been renovated and where the staff is working to improve the school environment. We make use of multiple data sources, including document analysis, mapping, observations and interviews. In the analyses, spatial theories are applied, a novel approach within the field. These are fruitful for understanding the factors that contribute to positive relational processes within the school context  (cf Author 1 & Author 2; Ferrare & Apple, 2010).  

The common areas in the school are easily neglected and can be described as “non-places” in the everyday activities. The results indicate that the common areas in the school are used for practices addressing student concerns, aimed at improving conditions for students so that they can concentrate on studying. These borderland practices are viewed as constructed social spaces, where students can feel safe and enjoy coming to school.  These two predicaments are in turn preconditions for enhancing students’ ability to study and to succeed.