“I think we have a good time if there are no disputes”: pupils’ dynamic perspectives on being on breaktime

Abstract

School climate is crucial for understanding everyday school life. For pupils, breaktime seems to be associated with how they feel about their school climate. To better understand school climate and what social processes pupils address, this study explores pupils’ perspectives on school climate with attention on how they perceive their breaktimes. The study was based on 29 focus group interviews (n = 164) with pupils from two public schools in grades 1–9 (i.e. 7–15 years old). Constructivist grounded theory guided data gathering and analysis. Findings revealed how breaktime was an indicator of how pupils perceived their school climate, but their perceptions were dynamic. We conceptualised breaktime as a social process influenced by three main categories: peer climate, levels of unsafe incidents, and availability of activities. We adopted a social-ecological perspective to conceptualise how pupils’ perceptions of breaktimes varied due to how breaktimes were nested within different social-ecological systems.