School Happiness: A Grounded Theory

Bu calismada, ogretmenlerin, okul yoneticilerinin, velilerin ve ogrencilerin goruslerine dayali bir okul mutlulugu teorisi gelistirilmesi amaclanmistir. Bu calisma nitel temelli bir teori modelinde tasarlanmistir. Calisma gruplari 18 ogretmen, 14 okul yoneticisi, 13 ebeveyn ve 20 ogrenci idi. Calisma gruplarini belirlemek icin kartopu ornekleme yontemi kullanilmistir. Okulun mutlulugu ile ilgili on iki ana nitelik belirlenmistir. Bu temel nitelikler fiziksel donanim, okul ortami, ogrenme ortami, iletisim ve isbirligi, egitim politikasi, sosyal etkinlikler, okul yonetimi, ogretmen nitelikleri, okulda farkli, ogrenci merkezli olma, ogrenme etkinlikleri ve ogrenci nitelikleriydi. Sonuclar, ana niteliklerin oncelik seviyesinin bir katilimci gruptan digerine degistigini gostermistir. Ogretmenler oncelikli okul ortami, okul yonetimi ve fiziksel ekipman verir. Ote yandan okul yoneticileri okul ortamina, fiziksel ekipmana ve okul mutlulugu icin egitim politikasina oncelik vermektedir. Ebeveynler okul mutlulugu icin fiziksel donanima, okul ortamina, isbirligine ve iletisime oncelik verir. Ek olarak, ogrenciler ogrenme ortamina, okul ortamina ve fiziksel donanima daha fazla oncelik verirler. Bu sonuclara gore, okul toplumunun etkili okul ortami icin isbirligi ve iletisim icinde olmasi, yetenek egitimi icin fiziksel ekipmanin koordine edilmesi, okul mutlulugunu artirmak icin ogrencilerin cok yonlu gelisimi goz onunde bulundurularak ogrenme ortaminin duzenlenmesi gerektigi onerilebilir.


Introduction
Happiness was defined by researchers in different ways. Happiness is defined by Huebner (1991) as the life satisfaction; by Seligman, Parks and Steen (2004), as the meaning of attaching to life. Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schkade (2005), define happiness as the positive feelings about life.
Happiness can also be defined as the feelings of an individual such as joy, gladness, hope, physical and spiritual well-being (Köknel, 1992). Veenhoven (2008), defines happiness as the evaluation of life, as a whole. Similarly, Selim (2008) defines happiness as the satisfaction level of individuals. Diener (1984), describes happiness as the satisfaction generally taken from life, and the more positive emotions than the negative ones. Likewise, Seligman (2011), identifies the happiness as a multidimensional structure that includes meaning of life, positive feelings, responsibility, positive relationships and success. While the happiness of adults depends on many variables such as health, family life, social relations, security, freedom, moral values, income level, working conditions; the children's happiness can be related to the variables such as the meeting level of their basic needs, love, trust, communication, recognition, school success, health and play (Ahn, Garcia & Jimeno, 2004;Clair, 2012;Thoilliez, 2011). Since happy people perceive the world as safer and feel more selfconfident, the happiness of individuals is highly functional for their life skills as well as the work performance (Boehm & Lyubomirsky, 2008;Fredrickson, 2013). In addition, happy people make decisions easily, cooperate more easily, and are more tolerant in their relations (Lyubomirsky & King, 2005;Pan & Zhou, 2013;Schnittker, 2008).
School happiness is expressed as the emotional well-being, which is result of harmony between the personal needs and the expectations of the stakeholders (e.g. students, teachers, school administrators and the other personnel) from school depending on the certain environmental factors (Engels, Aelterman, Petegem, & Schepens, 2004). According to Talebzadeh and Samkan (2011), the school happiness of students is associated with the certain factors such as physical factors, individual features, social-emotional factors, and instructional factors. It is clear that a happy school environment is crucial for revealing the students' talents and providing effective learning (Boehm & Lyubomirsky, 2008). Similarly, Bird and Markle (2012) argue that a happy school environment not only contributes to student's academic success but also improve other life skills, such as healthy communication, lifelong success, and self-fulfillment. The cognitive, emotional, personal and social development occurring during this time period make it the most convenient time for change by creating a strong basis for well-being throughout life (McKabe, Bray, Kehle, Theodore, & Gelbar, 2011). On the other hand, the decrease in school happiness can be able to lead to lower school success, loneliness, depression or drug addiction by weakening of friendship relationships (Yucel & Vogt-Yuan, 2016).
2. What are the qualifications for school happiness frequently voiced by the participants?

Method
This study was designed in a qualitative grounded theory model. The qualitative method is used to obtain in-depth and comprehensive information on a topic (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005;Marshall and Rossman, 2006;Patton, 2014;Singh, 2007). The key philosophical assumption related to all types of qualitative research is that the reality is constructed by individuals via interaction with their social environments (Merriam, 1998). The purpose of grounded theory model is to go beyond description, to provide an integrated theoretical explanation of a process or action, to create or explore a theory (Corbin & Straus, 1990). In the theory building study, the researcher should determine whether the problem is suitable for the theory building research. Grounded theory is a pattern used when there is no theory to explain or understand a process (Creswell, 2015).

Study Group
The study group consists of 18 teachers, 14 school administrators, 13 parents, and 20 students.
The snowball sampling method was used to determine the study group. The snowball sampling is a convenience sampling method which is one of the purposeful sampling. In this method, sampling continues until data saturation (Burns & Grove, 2005). Snowball sampling can be utilized by seeking information from various sample groups to identify primary research reports that are frequently referred to by various stakeholders interested in the phenomenon (Suri, 2011). The chain of recommended informants would typically diverge initially as many possible sources are recommended, then converge as a few key names get mentioned over and over (Patton, 2014). Therefore, school happiness was examined by applying the views of participants having different demographic qualifications, as possible. Twelve of teachers were females and eight were males. Six of them were working in primary school, five were working in secondary school, five were working in academic high school, and four were working in vocational high school. Twelve of school administrators were males and eight were females. Six of them were working in primary school, six were in secondary school, four of them were working general high school, and four were in vocational high school. The average age was 52. The average age was 38.6. Nine of the parents were female and eleven male. The average age was 41.3. Eleven of students were female and nine were male. The average age of them was 17.3. Twelve of them were attending academic high school, eight of them were vocational high school.

Data Collection Tool
Data was collected by using semi-structured interview form developed by researchers. The semi-structured interview form composes two parts. In the first part, there were the questions determining the demographic features of the participants. In the second part there were the open-ended questions to determine the participants' opinions about school happiness. In the first stage, it was asked teachers to write the qualifications that they think as necessity for school happiness. In the second stage, participants differed and different questions were asked them to reveal the main qualifications for school happiness. These stages continued with other participants.

Data Collection
Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the participants, gradually. First of all, it was asked from the participants that they should imagine a happy school. Then, it was asked them to write qualifications that they perceive as the necessity for school happiness. Every interview lasted about in 20-25 minutes. These procedure were conducted each participant group. These process were fulfilled in eight months.

Data Analysis
Data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques. In this process, the forms were separated according to the participant qualifications (e.g. school administrators, teachers, students, and parents) before analysis and coded as P1, P2, P3, P4 ... P20, respectively. Then, all data were inserted in excel table, and the opinions written in the same words were evaluated in the same category. Consequently, the sub-themes were created by considering the opinions which reflect the same content.

Validity and Reliability
Data were interpreted considering associated situation, the internal consistency of the subthemes were supported based on the measures of internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity to ensure the internal validity. The sub-themes were determined depending on the theoretical structure, and all findings were presented without comment to ensure internal reliability (Creswell, 2015).
Additionally, it was applied to the expert opinion in order to verify whether the opinions represent sub-themes. The lists containing each participant group opinions and the sub-themes were given two different faculty members in educational sciences field. It was asked from the experts that they should compare the opinions of the participants with the sub-themes in the lists, and then the matches were compared. It was applied the formula 'Reliability= Consensus/ (Consensus + Dissidence) × 100' to determine the reliability of the coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 64). For the teachers' opinions, the agreement between two coders was calculated as 91%, for school administrators 93%, for parents 94%, and for students 96%, In addition, in order to increase the validity of the research, triangulation was applied. Triangulation can be examined under different titles as data sources, method and researcher variation. The triangulation of data sources is to involve participants with different characteristics. Confirming the data obtained with different methods (interview, focus group interview and document analysis) increases the validity and reliability of the results (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013).

Procedure
This grounded theory study was planned and conducted in four stages respectively, (1) Coding for theory creation (2) Concept development, (3) Comparison of concepts, and (4) Creation of theoretical model (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

Results
Data was analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. As a result of content analysis, 89 sub-themes were determined. Then, 12 main categories were determined related to the sub-themes.
The main categories were created based on the opinions of the participant groups. Seven categories were created depending on the opinions of all participants. However, the views of different groups were influential in the creation of other five categories.
In Figure 1, the main categories according to the participants' views were given. In Figure 1, it is seen that physical equipment, school environment, learning environment, communication and collaboration, education policy, social activities, and teacher qualifications were defined as the main categories for school happiness according to the opinions of all participant groups.
School management was defined as a main category for school happiness according to the opinions of the school administrators, teachers and parents. In addition, student centeredness was defined as another main category according to the opinions of teachers and students. Moreover, school environment was defined as a main category for school happiness based on the opinions of the teachers and administrators. Besides, student qualifications were defined as the main category based on the opinion of the school administrators, and learning activities were defined as the main category based on the opinions of the parents. In addition, school district was defined as the main category based on the opinions of the school administrators and teachers' opinions.
In this section, the most frequent opinions of participants related to the main qualifications for school happiness were presented. The common opinions of each participant group (teachers,  Figure 2, the main components of the school happiness are shown.

Discussion and Conclusion
In this study which aims to develop a school happiness theory twelve main qualifications were identified depending on the opinions of the teachers, school administrators, parents, and students.
Based on the participants' views these main qualifications were physical equipment, school environment, learning environment, communication and collaboration, education policy, social activities, school management, teacher qualifications, school environment, student centeredness, learning activities, and student qualifications. The results also show that the common main qualifications are physical equipment, school environment, learning environment, communication and collaboration, education policy, social activities, and teacher qualifications. The physical equipment, school environment, and learning environment were the main categories that accepted by all participants as the most necessary qualifications for school happiness. It is clear that the physical equipment, school environment, and learning environment are seen as the key factors that affect the quality of life of the school community as well as the quality of education. Similar findings are seen in previous studies. In a study conducted by Engels, Aelterman, Van Petegem and Schepens (2004), the findings show that the atmosphere at school, contacts with teachers, involvement in class and at school, school regulations and infrastructure are among the best predictors of school happiness.
Similarly, in a study by Singh (2014), the findings of teachers' behavior, school equipment, and social activities increase school happiness. In another study by Talebzadeh and Samkan (2011)