‘Issues in my professional practice’

As in any organisation, a school has a complex interaction of people, policies and processes.  There are the surface first impressions of what each school is about, however, in all schools, spend a little time and look below the surface and you will see the true culture and attitudes.  A good analogy of the school culture was described by Stoll (1998) as it being like an iceberg.  School culture – or “the way we do things here” is described by Schein as, “the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic ‘taken-for-granted’ fashion an organisation’s view of itself and its environment” (as cited by Stoll, 1998).

So what really influences the culture of a school and if it is a negative culture, what can we do to change that culture?

The culture of a school is said to be influenced by not only the teachers in the school but by the non-teaching staff, management, pupils and parents – in fact the community surrounding a school can be one of the main influences on the culture of a school (Stoll, 1998).  The school I work in draws students from a large catchment covering two cities and their surrounding districts.  My school is a special needs school so only high and very high needs students are enrolled.  Of these students approximately 67% are Maori, 21% New Zealand European, 6% are from Pacific Islands and 6% are Asian.  We are a decile 2 school which means that when the Ministry of Education ranked all of the schools in order of the socioeconomic status of the families in them, we sit in the lower 20% of them.  In terms of influence on the culture this means that we have a lot of families living below the poverty line.  Gargiulo (2014) describes the influence of poverty on education in not only terms of readiness for learning – for example children hungry, fatigued, unwell and unprepared – but also in terms of the differing mindsets that people who are in poverty have compared to the often middle class teachers.  Teachers in Gargiulo’s school underwent professional development to examine the differing mindsets and develop empathy and understanding of the communities view point.  At my school I think that this could also be of benefit so staff can understand a differing world view.

My school has also had recent struggles in terms of its culture.  We had a very negative culture with work place bullying and a terrible Education Review Office report.  A limited Statutory Manager was brought in and his position was later bumped up to being a Commisioner who replaced the Board of Trustees.  The effect of this was reassuring for some staff as they felt problems could be sorted, whereas others misunderstood the role of the Commissioner and faired for their job, thinking the school was being closed down.  We have had some really positive outcomes in the past year.  Communication between management and staff has improved, policies have been put in place which help to clarify processes and expectations for staff.  We are now at the stage where we are looking to form a new Board of Trustees soon.  The community is more involved in the school now with the introduction of Whanau Huis and our Maori staff members have been utilised to help make these more comfortable for our families by having some correct tikanga in place.  Some of our staff are also locals who either went to school with some of the parents or are from their Marae or neighbourhood.  These connections are being recognised as valuable to help broker a relationship between school and home.  Overall, we are in the middle of a long journey of re-culturing our school, but it is a journey that will benefit the whole school community.

References

Gargiulo, S. (2014). Principal sabbatical report. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Professional-information/Principals-sabbatical-reports/Report-archives-for-2007-2014/Secondary-award-recipients-2014/Gargiulo-Salvatore

Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture