The Social, Emotional and Educational Competences of Teachers as Predictors of various Aspects of the School Culture

Culture is a very subtle concept which has a great influence on the life of the school. Identifying the school culture and providing guidelines for its improvement reveals factors that promote or hinder students’ progress, their development and achievements and the fulfillment of their objectives. Teachers’ competence is closely linked to satisfaction and self-determination of teachers as human beings, and is a necessary factor in the development of students’ competences, i.e. students’ satisfying their biological, social and self-realization needs. The objective of this research was to identify, on the basis of theoretical assumptions and empirical research, which factors predict the positive culture and success of schools. Potential predictors, demographics, social, emotional and pedagogical competences of teachers were established on the bases of teachers’ self- evaluation, which proved to be associated with the perception of some aspects of a positive school culture. The results of the study conducted among 696 teachers in 30 primary schools in Slavonian counties showed that demographic features were not significant for predicting school culture, but that the characteristics of teachers were significant, in a way that teachers who, by means of self-assessment, reported higher levels of educational and emotional competences, assessed school culture to be positive as well. Pedagogical and emotional competences proved to be the best predictors of all aspects of school culture. Pedagogical, social and emotional competences of teachers and school cultures were connected and one category did not exclude the other, therefore it is necessary, during formal training, to increase the emphasis on teachers’ educational, social and emotional competences that can strongly affect various school segments and school culture in particular