School Climate and Adoption

What is it about?

The following research aims to investigate the of association between school climate and teachers’ skills about the adoption which involves schools and families. According to the Commission for International Adoptions (CIA 2014-2015), Italy is the first country in Europe for the largest number of international adoptions although, the adoption process is characterized by complicated bureaucratic practices, unexpected setbacks, inadequate assistance, continuous evaluations of the aspiring parents by the juvenile court and anxiety and stress. Foreign children adopted in Italy come from 56 countries in the world and the success or failure of an adoptive process does not depend only on the potentially adoptive family but also on the host country, the local community and the school. In fact, adopted children are particularly vulnerable to academic and relation problems caused by neglect or past traumatic experiences; therefore, schools should can contribute to the prevention and reduction of children problematic behaviours by optimising different aspect of school climate. A promising strategy consists in promoting those characteristics of the school climate that can foster the teachers’ competence to satisfy the educational and emotional needs of adopted children. The school climate refers to the quality and the ‘character’ of school life and it reflect norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationship, teaching and learning practices, as well as organisational aspects including the physical environments, all these elements that are highly related with school effectiveness. The survey on the relationship between school climate and teachers’ knowledge/skills in the adoption experience was assessed through a logistic regression analysis with multiple independent variables; participants were 573 teachers of the primary school of three Italian regions characterised by rates of international adoption that are higher than the national average, included in this study. Through an agreement with the schools principal, a questionnaire was distributed to find out the teachers' knowledge about: - the laws and the adoption process; their knowledge about the experience of adoptive parents; - the competence perceived by the teachers; - the school climate; - the quality of the relationships between the teachers and the dean; - the level of collaboration’s level between teachers; - the parents’ involvement of parents in school activities; - the relationship between schools, local institutions and social services; - the demographic aspects related to the variables of gender, age, duration of the carierra (of each teacher) and whether or not they had taught in a class where an adopted child was present. The results of the research show that: - a better degree of connection between the schools and the local community get teachers more informed about the legislative aspect linked to adoption and therefore more aware of the complex adoptive experience - the skills can be strengthened by a greater participation of parental figures in school activities in order to favor the establishment of a relationship of trust that ensures teachers a higher degree of involvement of emotions before, during and after the adoption.

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