The Seoul City government has been interested in reducing school violence and improving psychological stability of students through design improvement since 2012. A case in point is “Kongjin Middle School” in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. It is the best practice in school design improvement, under which physical and environmental elements of out-of-the-way and abandoned portions of school were improved and turned the negative mental state (low self-esteem and melancholy) of students into positive. The practice of Kongjin Middle School was included in the 2014 policy of the Ministry of Education and is being disseminated to other schools across the country. As a successor of this project, Seoul City conducted “Safe School Walkway” project in the neighborhood of Choongam Middle School, Eunpyeong-gu, in Seoul. Once this project is uated as an effective school violence prevention program in the mid-and-long term, it is very likely that this program will be recommended and disseminated to other schools by the Ministry of Education and other local governments. To this end, there was a need for an objective uation by a more specialized research institute. The Korean Institute of Criminology was selected to uate the efficacy of the safe school walkway project. This policy uation research is expected to contribute to the improvement and advancement of evidence-based policies by objectively measuring and analyzing the efficacy of specific programs for safety and protection.
Research methodologies include before-and-after project survey on students to analyze changes in their experiences, awareness and behaviors after the installation of design fixtures, and the focus group interview with students with the cooperation from the school concerned. In addition, researchers visited the school and the neighborhoods around it several times to check the facts, and observed the behaviors of students after the installation of design fixtures.
Important survey findings include the following:
First, awareness level of the design fixtures installed around school walkways to prevent school violence was high but not many knew the reason for the installation of the same.
Second, generally, female students than their male counterparts and 1st-year students than others actually used such fixtures more.
Third, regarding their satisfaction level with the fixtures, more than half of the students surveyed were happy with the same. And satisfaction of those who used them was higher in general than those who did not. Many also responded that after the installation their way to and from school became not boring at all.
Fourth, what was left to be desired about the fixtures includes explanation and management of the deign fixtures, and efficient mode of operation of the same, many pointed out.
Fifth, given many answered that they use the school pathway with the design fixtures installed, the places with the fixtures are used as a venue for playing with friends or for meeting others. In a before-and-after installation comparison, the awareness level of bad words used among friends was not that high but verbal abuse such as swear or insulting words was surveyed to have decreased.
In order to understand these findings, the routine language habit of middle school students needs to be understood first. The frequent use of vulgarism and slangs in communication is not necessarily to bully others but can be taken as differently or harmlessly. In addition, the reason why the incident of inflicting verbal abuse to others has also decreased can directly be attributable to the installation to a certain degree but more attributable to the fact that teachers and students alike came to be seriously aware of the issues and problems of verbal abuse and school violence over the course of the installation of the design fixtures, indirectly reducing the incidents of school violence, it seems. Therefore, going beyond the mere installation of design fixtures to prevent a specific situation known as school violence, if education for the use of appropriate language is given routinely in school or home, the positive effect of the fixtures will be maximized.
In conclusion, the positive aspect of this project includes the fact that the rate of use of and satisfaction with the design fixtures is high, that verbal violence has reduced somewhat, and that the awareness level of teachers and students about prevention of school violence got heightened after the installation (the indirect effect of the design fixtures on school violence). However, aside from sounding the alarm on verbal violence, the design project did not have tangible effect on changing students’ language habit (use of vulgarism and slangs) and enhancing bonding among students. In addition, it turned out that creation of contents participated and led by students was rare, and that verbal communication between teachers and students, parents and students, and community members and student is not established very well.
For maintenance of the design fixtures installed and contents creation like in the aforementioned safe school walkway project through design to go well, the role of schools and teachers is very important and the interest and participation of the Office of Education is of significance.