Eureka! Institutional Repository

ABSTRACT Teaching is a complex, pluralistic and demanding activity. Educational practice is a truly multicomplex procedure and its effective exercise requires the coexistence of a series of educational and pedagogical skills and capabilities -”virtues” as Papanoutsos would say- which are hard to find in just one person. Moreover, the educational world does not always come to an agreement as far as dealing with delinquent behavior in the school environment is concerned. The efficient handling of this problem though can effectively lead to the proper functioning of the school unit and to the achievement of its purpose. The characteristics of the people in charge of the administration of the school unit who are responsible for overcoming delinquent behavior, as well as actions which lead to overcoming, play a crucial role in successfully solving the problems resulting from delinquent behavior in the school unit in the daily educational practice. The purpose of this study is the empirical research of the factors which have an impact on the students' delinquent behavior. In order to validate the theoretical hypothesis and the research questions, a local research has been carried out with the completion of a questionnaire by teachers from all secondary schools in the regional unit of Grevena. The findings of the statistical processing firstly reveal a relationship between the research variables and our theoretical hypothesis, and on the other hand they confirm that the phenomena of delinquent behavior and generally antisocial behavior in the school unit are rooted in the family and the broader social environment. The school, mutatis mutandis, - “as far as its educational, pedagogical and social role is concerned”- could act as a catalyst, because education not only does not limit to contributing to the static reproduction of our civilization, but also has a dialectical relationship with every factor of the social life. Juvenile delinquency has been and still is object of extensive research in the European Union and internationally, especially in the last few years increasingly in our country, because it is considered a serious and sensitive social problem in modern societies, as far as the research of the reasons behind its occurrence and its remedy in the every-day educational practice are concerned. This can be successfully achieved, as is also made clear by our empirical research, with the establishment of a creative educational and pedagogical environment among the operators of the school unit (teachers, 8 students, parents) and with open channels of communication with the local society. The school administration plays a significant and defining role in achieving the goals above.