Identification and Hierarchical Analysis of Risk Factors in Primary and Secondary Schools: A Novel GT-DEMATEL-ISM Approach

As an important part of public safety throughout the world, primary and secondary school safety has been faced with increasingly diverse and complex risks. Literature mentions different methods to identify and assess safety risks in primary and secondary schools. However, none of these methods help in defining a complete scope. Differently, this study aims to clarify the relationship between risk factors and their impact on school safety by integrating qualitative and quantitative research methods. Firstly, adopting grounded theory as the methodology, data collection entailed from two sources: Semi-structured interviews with experienced primary and secondary school staff (n = 20) across diverse schools, 231 cases of school safety accidents in primary and secondary schools in China from 2011 to 2021. The results show that 76 initial concepts, 19 initial categories, and 8 main categories are obtained through the coding step of grounded theory. Then, the 19 initial categories are defined as 19 risk factors in primary and secondary schools. We employed the combination of Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) techniques for understanding the hierarchal and contextual relationship structure among the 19 risk factors. This present novel model helps the policy and decision-makers to find out a mutual relationship and interlinking with school safety.