School vandalism: A case of change management

Abstract

Student vandalism in educational organizations is an acute issue that has to be addressed as part of school training. School vandalism is characterized by high frequency, but small forms (inscriptions, gouging and scratching surfaces, breaking equipment and furniture, etc.). At the same time, vandalism has a certain potential in change management, where the ‘destruction’ of the past is seen as a tool that shapes an orientation to the future, thus making vandalism a certain rite of passage, i.e., allowing vandalism at a certain point localized in time and space that does not include the future. This study was conducted in a school in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The school building was being prepared for a major renovation. On the day before the closing of the building, middle and high school students were allowed to write whatever they wanted on the walls, thus saying goodbye to the old environment. Upon the completion, the changes were photographed. Afterwards, the students volunteered to clean and clear the surfaces with changes to prepare the building for renovation. The launch of the renovated building a year after its closure showed a decrease in children's vandalism due to the readiness to take care of the updated school environment. The act of vandalizing the school allowed 1) to ‘let off steam’ of accumulated negative emotions to the former material and social environment of the school; 2) to strengthen the contrast between ‘old, damaged, vulnerable’ and ‘new, clean, safe’; 3) to make a psychological transition from the former environment (and forms of behavior in it) to the new environment and new forms of behavior implied and designed by the new space and content; 4) to diagnose the hidden zones of tension and conflicts. The recorded vandalized inscriptions and drawings were analyzed by the method of content analysis, which allowed us to identify several categories of text: inscriptions of identification (indicating social network profiles, nicknames, full names, etc.) as well as inscriptions that can be described as political, philosophical (statements about life), communicative, infantile/everyday (children’s drawings), and aggressive/offensive. The obtained data on the images and the case as a whole allows to fine-tune and enhance the effectiveness and targeting of educational work in the educational organization.