Week 26 Our Professional Context
Our Professional Context
'Culture eats strategy for breakfast' - Peter Ducker
As a school we would like to say we pride ourselves on the culture of our school. Werner (2015) discusses climate and culture discussing climate; how does it feel and the uniqueness of each climate and culture; how a school does things, the values and how people feel? When a new family, staff member or person from the community enters our school we want them to feel the 'culture and climate' of our school.
Socioeconomic Status/Characteristics-
Our school was changed from a decile 5 a decile 6 at the last decile changes. The Council website information reports show the predictions for the community to be an increasing +65 years old age group and a declining 0-14 years age group. More recently we have seen an increase in students whose families are leaving Auckland and purchasing houses in our town, most are from professional backgrounds. We have families from many different backgrounds and socio economic levels, we provide breakfast and lunch for a small group of students on a regular basis.
New vision and values and staff -
After being in 'midlife' as described by Stoll (2000) for a number of years we have begun the move to moved to readdress some of the unspoken and spoken norms. Changes in staff who were not teaching at our school during the 'early years' meant the understanding behind some of the culture and climate was missing. The challenges of bringing new staff onboard with values and beliefs of our school is a deliberate act that must be planned for. It has meant taking many of the norms Stoll and Fink's list refers to and reestablishing what they mean to our school community.
Many of our staff would say they 'walk this talk' yet sometimes we find the need to resolve some of the 'inter-group' issues that often appear. Recently we came to the conclusion that many of the staff were not always using one of our values 'respect' when we had visitors come into our school. Addressing this is important to us, Stoll and Morgan note the importance of making a time where people can discuss and re-examine their values. This is a necessity if a school culture is to continue to grow. There is the need to 'promote interrelationships and interconnections and simultaneously develop cultures that promote collegiality and individuality' (Stoll, 2000). We need to stop now and take time to revisit our values that were recently agreed upon by staff and unpacked to have descriptors which staff believed represented these values.
As a leadership addressing issues with climate and culture will require us to work hard to rebuild what has been a successful culture as without this any change management we plan will be unsuccessful. Finding out what beliefs and assumptions staff, students and parents/whanau will be the first steps. By asking each group the same questions we will gather data on the different perspectives which will enable us to focus on some key areas.
References:
Stoll, L. (n.d.). School culture / Understanding school cultures / Culture / Home - Educational Leaders. Retrieved June 9, 2017, from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-culture
'Culture eats strategy for breakfast' - Peter Ducker
As a school we would like to say we pride ourselves on the culture of our school. Werner (2015) discusses climate and culture discussing climate; how does it feel and the uniqueness of each climate and culture; how a school does things, the values and how people feel? When a new family, staff member or person from the community enters our school we want them to feel the 'culture and climate' of our school.
Socioeconomic Status/Characteristics-
Our school was changed from a decile 5 a decile 6 at the last decile changes. The Council website information reports show the predictions for the community to be an increasing +65 years old age group and a declining 0-14 years age group. More recently we have seen an increase in students whose families are leaving Auckland and purchasing houses in our town, most are from professional backgrounds. We have families from many different backgrounds and socio economic levels, we provide breakfast and lunch for a small group of students on a regular basis.
New vision and values and staff -
After being in 'midlife' as described by Stoll (2000) for a number of years we have begun the move to moved to readdress some of the unspoken and spoken norms. Changes in staff who were not teaching at our school during the 'early years' meant the understanding behind some of the culture and climate was missing. The challenges of bringing new staff onboard with values and beliefs of our school is a deliberate act that must be planned for. It has meant taking many of the norms Stoll and Fink's list refers to and reestablishing what they mean to our school community.
Source: Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London.
Many of our staff would say they 'walk this talk' yet sometimes we find the need to resolve some of the 'inter-group' issues that often appear. Recently we came to the conclusion that many of the staff were not always using one of our values 'respect' when we had visitors come into our school. Addressing this is important to us, Stoll and Morgan note the importance of making a time where people can discuss and re-examine their values. This is a necessity if a school culture is to continue to grow. There is the need to 'promote interrelationships and interconnections and simultaneously develop cultures that promote collegiality and individuality' (Stoll, 2000). We need to stop now and take time to revisit our values that were recently agreed upon by staff and unpacked to have descriptors which staff believed represented these values.
As a leadership addressing issues with climate and culture will require us to work hard to rebuild what has been a successful culture as without this any change management we plan will be unsuccessful. Finding out what beliefs and assumptions staff, students and parents/whanau will be the first steps. By asking each group the same questions we will gather data on the different perspectives which will enable us to focus on some key areas.
References:
Stoll, L. (n.d.). School culture / Understanding school cultures / Culture / Home - Educational Leaders. Retrieved June 9, 2017, from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-culture
Warner, E. (2015, April 28). Why is a positive school culture and climate important? [video file].
Though often we believe our culture is well embedded we need to be vigilant in keeping it to the forefront of everyone's thinking. I was interested in your comments about people who say they 'walk the talk yet their actions defy this. I was also interested in Stoll's belief that leadership is crucial. I enjoyed your blog and thought it well constructed.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post. I do believe it is hard to change a cultural environment between staff, whanau and students if people are not open to change, or listening to a different perspective that is different from one's own. A positive, collaborative staff environment is pivotal if any change is to come. At the end of the day staff have to share new changes and perspectives with wider communities. Your blog post was very interesting, thank you for sharing.
ReplyDelete