The central topic of the master's thesis is the role of schools in preventing and solving sexual
violence and harassment among high school students. In the theoretical part, we presented
violence as a social problem, in particular sexual violence. We then went on to define sexual
harassment and explained the difference between sexual violence and sexual harassment. The
complexity of the area under study was presented in a broader societal context, while at the
same time placing it in a meaningful way in the school context.
We have dealt with sexual violence and harassment primarily in the context of high schools,
and have therefore used (foreign and some domestic) research to present the incidence and
prevalence of sexual violence and harassment in high schools. We have explained the
importance of a formal framework for preventing and solving sexual violence and harassment
for schools and have also shed light on the role of the school through some other aspects of
educational action.
In the research, we first identified through document analysis which documents are relevant at
systemic (state) and institutional (school) level in secondary education for the area of sexual
violence and harassment. Furthermore, we used interviews to determine how familiar
practitioners are with systemic and institutional arrangements in this field and whether and in
which aspects differences emerge between them in their knowledge of the formal framework.
We were interested in the importance they attach to it for successful functioning and what more
is needed at both national and school level. A key interest was how practitioners see their role
in preventing and solving sexual violence and harassment, and how they identify and assess its
prevalence among high school students. We also looked, how school professional workers act
in a preventive manner within a formal framework, how they are trained, how they react to
perceived cases, and in what ways and how they work together inside and outside the school.
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