The Relationship between Faith Engagement and School Climate at a Faith Based K-12 School

Abstract

Over the past two decades the concept of school climate has gained prominence due to increased research linking it to a wide range of important school outcomes for students, such as academic achievement (Berkowitz, Moore, Astor, & Benbenishty, 2016), learning motivation (Marsh, Martin, & Cheng, 2008), school attendance (Sakız, 2017), school satisfaction (Zullig, Huebner, & Patton, 2011), depressive symptoms (Way, Reddy, & Rhodes, 2007) and aggressive behaviour (Petrie, 2014). There is however a dearth of exploration within Christian education, on the relationship between faith engagement/development and positive school climate. While one might assume this relationship exists, it was not identified as a correlate within studies on school climate.