The Need for Cultural Change to Support Structural Change

This research provides compelling evidence that the PLC process offers a highly effective environment for successful virtual, hybrid, and traditional face-to-face teaching practices. This centralized process to address student learning as the primary focus is necessary for school- and districtwide improvement. When individual schools do not have alignment, and all the schools within a district aren’t aligned, the quality of education suffers, especially during institutional change caused by a pandemic. Providing clarity and common practice within the school system allows for common support, common vocabulary, and common learning based on the school or district’s foundational beliefs.

Students’ and faculty members’ safety and well-being were at the forefront of school leaders’ thoughts as their school doors were forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The immediate impact of this structural change created a multitude of challenges as school districts raced to ensure students had electronic devices and internet access in order to reach curricular materials and their teachers and have a successful virtual learning experience and a quality education. Districts rapidly addressed structural change; however, in many cases, they ignored cultural change. The culture within individual schools provides the foundation for both student and teacher success. During the pandemic, non-PLC schools and districts focused on structural needs, which outweighed the need to investigate effective learning practices as they were forced to shift from face-to-face instruction to some kind of virtual education. PLC schools could more easily adapt, but for other school districts and schools, structural elements dominated their focus. The rush to implement an online curriculum mandating students participate through assignment completion and that teachers attempt to adapt face-to-face practices via virtual processes failed. The PLC process supports the cultural change that allows student learning to remain at the forefront during structural change. Anthony Muhammad (2018) differentiates between culture and climate, stating culture refers to the way a system operates while climate is based on how people feel about the place The rush to implement an online curriculum mandating students participate through where they work and the things they do. Muhammad (2018) writes, “In my work, I hear people use the terms culture and climate synonymously, and they are very different. In short, culture is how we behave, and climate is how we feel” (p. 19). Culture is “the way we assignment completion do things around here” while climate is “the way we feel around and that teachers here” (Gruenert & Whitaker, 2015, p. 10). Service organizations attempt to adapt face- with a strong culture based on their fundamental purpose navigate to-face practices via challenges to fulfill the mission; those organizations with a weak or virtual processes failed. less-defined culture will allow negative behavior to permeate, forcing the mission to stall.