IntroductionCulture is a broad, complex concept that can mean different things to different people. One way we think of a school's culture is as the personality of the building. Organizational culture expert Edgar Schein notes that all people are "a conglomerate of the beliefs and values of the groups they were members of. … [W]hen these beliefs and values are basically the same for a bunch of people, the term culture becomes a convenient word" to describe that convergence (personal communication, Jan. 31, 2019). Culture is who we are, not what we have. This is why it is difficult to change. Another way we think of culture is as information passed from one generation to the next explaining how to survive the environment. When the environment changes, some of this information can become obsolete. Yet—perhaps out of pride, ego, or the wish to prevent the younger generation from making the same mistakes they did—the older folks keep pressing what they learned, even if it is no longer relevant or helpful. As we dig deeper into the concept of culture, we find that the stories told and the language used among a group of people convey their collective values and beliefs; they are the conduits and, eventually, the vehicles of change. In positive school cultures, the stories told by administrators, teachers, and support staff revolve around what has worked to support student success. In toxic schools—which may look similar to positive schools in at least some respects—the stories being told are more about survival, what does not work around here, and how the lack of support from outside the school has forced members of the culture to become stronger (in the wrong ways). School leaders who seek to shift their toxic culture to a more positive culture will be more successful when they address the stories being told. In this book, we aim to provide school leaders with ideas for shifting their cultures to be more positive and supportive of those who wish to become the best they can be. Keep in mind that tackling school culture means you are going for it. You are not looking for behavioral compliance from faculty and staff; you are reaching for every ounce of commitment they have to give. If that level of commitment is not your goal, then you might consider leaving culture alone for now and beginning with shifting attitudes or the school climate. There is nothing wrong with focusing on the climate, at least initially, but keep in mind that eventually, all roads lead to the culture. Why Is the Building-Level Culture So Important?There are many layers of culture in education: the classroom, the building, the district, the state, and the nation. In this book, we focus on the building layer of culture because it has the greatest effect on student achievement and overall school performance. Why not the other layers? First, the classroom layer is too narrow, and class composition usually changes from year to year; it's less a culture than a community of learners, without the intense ownership that comes when we invest our identity into a group. And the district, state, and national layers are too broad. Although all the schools in a given district are overseen by a single school board that provides policies, financial support, and other resources, the board's influence on school culture is not as strong as you might think. Visit any two schools within a school district and you'll see what we mean. They may have the same grade levels, serve the same community, receive the same funding, and teach the same curriculum, but they will be very different in how they "do" education. Similarly, the state and national layers affect funding and influence what can or cannot be done in schools, but whatever "speed limit" they try to impose, each school will have its own flow of traffic. Which brings us back to the building layer. Here's a step-by-step look at how the culture of the school building ultimately affects student achievement: The school culture determines the types of conversations faculty members have. Faculty conversations determine the level of faculty commitment. Faculty commitment leverages faculty efficacy. Faculty efficacy affects individual teacher efficacy. Individual teacher efficacy affects the quality of instructional delivery. The quality of instructional delivery affects student efficacy. Student efficacy drives student academic performance and behavior in the classroom.
What's in This BookBefore plunging in, it's important to be aware of two facts about culture. First, we rarely, if ever, start at zero when we set out to build or transform school culture. Where there are people hanging around one another for a significant period, there is a culture. Second, whenever we try to shape a new culture, we take pieces of the old one with us. The emerging culture will inevitably be a hybrid that blends successes and challenges of the past with visions of the future. Before any of us became school employees, we attended school. Some of us never quit attending school. And all of us bring our experiences and dispositions with us to the next setting. If the new culture is too distant from the old one, we may struggle to find an identity—our social home. The deep commitment required to make significant cultural shifts, coupled with our tendency to cling to the past and bring pieces of it wherever we go, may help us understand why cultures can be so resistant to lasting change. In this book, we unpack these and other questions around what inhibits and what fosters sustainable culture change that withstands fads, toxic mindsets, and other threats. We begin in Chapter 1 by exploring deep questions around the nature of culture, including the importance of vision and climate and how the tension between the past and the future can keep a culture stagnant. In Chapter 2, we examine the factors that contribute to stubborn toxic cultures, how not to change those cultures, and whether your school culture needs to change. In Chapter 3, we discuss how to create positive culture change through trust, collaboration, and commitment rather than fear, competition, and compliance. Finally, in Chapter 4, we offer advice on the difficult task of ensuring sustained culture change. Throughout the book, we provide scenarios drawing from our own experiences in schools, although names have been changed. We hope these vignettes give some sense of how our ideas and approaches work in practice and demonstrate that every school has stumbling blocks along with successes on the journey to culture change. We're all in this together. Now let's get started! Printed by for personal use only |
