Measuring school climate in majority world countries: A systematic review of concepts and constructs

Most school climate studies to date have focused on Minority World (i.e., high-income) countries. As such, there is limited understanding of the concepts and constructs that encompass school climate in Majority World (i.e., low- and middle-income) countries. We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies that assessed school climate quantitatively in Majority World countries. Out of 4372 initial articles, 172 met inclusion criteria. Of these, only 8.2% were conducted in a low-income country, and the vast majority (91.8%) in a lower-middle income country. A majority of publications are from 2016 onwards, and most (69%) on secondary education. Domains of school climate were well represented across existing frameworks (e.g., safety, teaching and learning, relationships, and institutional environment). The findings indicate a greater need for research in the lowest resource settings and a need to connect school climate to other important policy issues such as school-based violence and gender inequality.