Changing School Culture

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Changing School Culture

• Shayne Goodrum, Ph.D
• Sherry Ward,

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Today we will

• Share some research-based understandings about
  how school culture impacts student success
• Share steps for changing a schools culture
• Share 2 tools school leaders can use to surface
  culture issues to start the change process

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Defining School Culture

• The shared beliefs and values of a school
• What people agree is true and right

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However --

• These beliefs become entrenched and can persist
  after changes in the schools environment render
  them irrelevant or harmful
• Therefore culture is both a resource and a risk.

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• . . . school culture is the ultimate ceiling on
  our ability to transform our school and raise
  standards. Other initiatives, whether focusing
  on teaching strategies, leadership development,
  structure, team work or collaboration are wasted,
  doomed to deliver a fraction of their potential,
  without the right cultural supports.
• p. 6, A Culture for Learning

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The most successful schools have cultures that

• Have the highest ambitions for each student
• Put the welfare of students ahead of the comfort
  of staff
• Held teachers accountable to the whole school
  reduce professional autonomy
• Promote teamwork and learning from each other
• Are intolerant of failure and excuses from staff
• Value service delivery

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Culture is transmitted through

• Informal and less conscious channels
• Rites and rituals of school life

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Behavior Generated by Culture

• Operational tasks of running a school or
  teaching (e.g. the way we divide our attention to
  students in a lesson)
• Reinforcing actions that communicate and
  reinforce our actions and beliefs (e.g. rites of
  passage for a new staff member at a school

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Reinforcing Behaviors

• Rituals celebrations, ceremonies, shared
  mannerisms
• Hero Making role models, hierarchies, mentors,
  scapegoats
• Storytelling shared humor, common anecdotes,
  oral and written history
• Symbolic Displays decoration, trophies
• Rules etiquette, taboos, tacit permissions

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Surface Reinforcing Behaviors

• Your biggest celebration this year-what did you
  celebrate?
• Who is the most respected person in the
  school?-Why is that person so highly respected?
• Please name
• The first thing you notice in the school
  reception area
• Something that commonly happens in other schools
  that could never happen in your school
• The behavior in an adult that is most frowned
  upon
• Something that people regularly get away with
  (things you know are wrong but still do e.g.
  late for meetings)
• Something that people worry about a great deal

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Culture changes

• Is difficult through traditional, top-down
  managerial techniques

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Dynamic processes of culture creation and
management are the essence of leadership and make
one realize that leadership and culture are two
sides of the same coin. - Edgar
Schein
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Culture may be a challenge if. . .

• Values and beliefs are no longer suited to the
  challenges the school faces
• You encounter repeated resistance to sensible and
  necessary changes
• You have a nagging doubt that the school is not
  reaching its full potential
• There is conflict, poor communication, vocal
  disagreements
• Lack of a sense of identity
• Culture is so precious and valued that
  opportunities are lost

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Steps to Changing Culture

1. Create a crisis of faith to look with new eyes at
   the world around you and generate some tentative
   theories.
2. Compare these lessons to those implicit in both
   your aspirations for the school and in your
   current behaviors and activities.
3. Create a consensus in terms of aspirations that
   not only addresses the gaps but also builds on
   current strengths.

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Steps to Changing Culture

• Analyze the modes through which culture is
  communicated formal and informal, conscious and
  unconscious and adapt them to your new
  direction.
• Create cultural capacity a particular way of
  working in school which balances the need to
  create a strong shared identity with the need to
  constantly adapt and grow.

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Activity Culture Sort Activity

• 30 statement about possible values and beliefs in
  a school based on research
• In groups of 3-10, sort in order of priority
  using the diamond grid as a template
• Sort once with groups coming to consensus about
  the ideal
• Then sort again about the actual state in the
  school
• Build professional discussion about the gaps

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The Thirty Statements
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Focus on the Highs and Lows

• Top Rows those values for which other parts of
  the culture will be sacrificed
• Bottom row What might be overlooked and lost

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• I recognized the culture my colleagues
  described. I admired the culture they said they
  wanted. I just wish they werent so far apart.

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Lessons and Theories Embedded in the Culture
of Successful Schools- Read Discuss -
Select
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Helps along the way

• Chapter 6 - pp. 49-62 Activities for each step
  of the cultural change process

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Transforming School Cultures

• Six key strategies to develop collaborative
  school cultures
• Strengthen the schools culture
• Stimulate and reinforce cultural change through
  structured collaboration
• Foster staff development
• Encourage direct and frequent communication about
  cultural norms values, and beliefs, resulting in
  shared vision
• Develop leaders at all levels
• Empower staff, give autonomy, build trust

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