Why good school culture matters

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Hannah Calcino

Boarding House Supervisor and Secondary Teacher

Culture is not easily defined, nor is it a phenomenon that is simple to understand. Culture is not a cookie cutter practice that can be picked up from one organisation and easily transferred to the next. Even anthropologists grapple with this idea and cannot universally agree on a specific definition of culture (Alvesson 2013). What they do agree on though is this: culture is an ambiguous blanket term; culture is entrenched in history and tradition; and culture is holistic, intersubjective and emotional, rather than rational and analytical (Alvesson 2013). What this means is that culture is naturally going to form, and how we intentionally react to it or mould it will influence its outcomes.

However, positive school culture is not an organic product; it takes effort to create. The process of developing a positive culture is like growing a vine. Imagine the growing frame as strategy and the water and fertiliser as culture. While we can put structures and frames in place to dictate the vine’s growth pattern, it is the water and fertiliser that helps a vine to flourish. Similarly, while an organisational strategy is important, it is the culture of an institution that influences its outcomes.

How many people do you think would influence a school culture? Deal and Patterson (1999) defined school cultures as ‘a collection of traditions and rituals that have been built up over time as teachers, students, parents, and administrators work together and deal with crises and accomplishments.’. This definition highlights the importance of various stakeholders within a school and speaks to the notion that culture is an all-encompassing, evolutionary process. School cultures are shaped and re-shaped time and time again by many people within the same context (Hongboontri & Keawkhon 2014). The interaction between individuals and the social environment is a powerful agent in the creation of organisational behaviour (Owens & Valesky 2015). The behaviour of people, individually as well as collectively, is not simply a reflection of unique personalities but is moulded by social norms and expectations. This is where the ideology of ‘unwritten ground rules’ comes into play. Unwritten ground rules are the things within an organisation that people do, or ‘get away with’, that no one discusses (Du Plessis & Simpson 2019). Unwritten ground rules can be both positive and negative. An unwritten ground rule could be that someone buys someone else in their staffroom a coffee on their birthday, or it could be that only negative things are discussed at staff meetings. Typically, when strong affirmative culture exists, and stakeholders are largely onboard with the culture, vision and ethos, unwritten ground rules are going to be positive. If you need to identify a school’s culture, look to the unwritten ground rules and where the boundaries are being pushed. Where do people stay in their lane and within the line of instruction and where do they push the limits slightly to see how far it will stretch? Unwritten ground rules are a pivotal example of the importance of good culture over good strategy. Culture has a human dimension that strategy cannot emulate. While an institution can have pristine policies and strategies to reach success, strategy alone cannot create a successful working environment. If the culture within the organisation is not positive, the unwritten ground rules will undermine the strategy. While all stakeholders are important in the development of a positive school culture, teachers, from a collective perspective, would arguably be the stakeholders that have the most influence upon culture. While

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a principal or school council might enforce structures to promote a certain culture, it’s those in the classroom and in the trenches that are going to ultimately influence a school-wide culture. Gorrell and Hoover (2009) suggest that while you cannot coach a culture, you can coach individuals to create a positive culture. Southworth (2011) corroborates this principle and believes that collaboration creates a school culture that prizes professional and pupil learning alike. Teachers are on the frontline in more aspects than one, so if a school is striving for a positive organisational culture, it is imperative that teachers are onboard and considered in the process. The role of the teacher is an important one, and educators, irrespective of which level of the hierarchy they perch, are the heart and soul of schools. It is identified that while being unique is important, aligning one person’s self-interest with the organisation’s interests provides a stronger framework for a successful organisational culture (Shahzad, Lugman, Khan & Shabbir 2012). Research has found that the more teachers collaborate in evaluation and faculty goal setting, the more teachers present a positive attitude towards their workplace and take pride in their pedagogy (Hongboontri & Keawkhong 2014; Thompson 2010). This pride then transfers into the creation of high care environments that put students at the centre and results in higher rates of positive student outcomes (Department of Education 2016). So, what does a positive school culture look and sound like? We know that culture is not a one-size-fits-all process, and it takes more than someone simply saying ‘This is our culture’ to embed a culture within a school. Schools are unique organisations. Where other organisations may be filled with people, the point of a school is the people. Schools are unique because their purpose is to provide a safe and holistic learning space to encourage growth, development and learning. A positive school culture looks like care and respect. It looks like safety, and there is the utmost concern for the whole student, from personal wellbeing to moral and social development (Department of Education 2016). A positive school culture sounds like laughter. It sounds like ‘Here, let me help you’ and ‘I trust you’. Yes, the aim of a school is to pursue academic objectives, and it is these objectives that ultimately steer the ship, but that does not mean that these objectives cannot be delivered in an environment of care and respect for staff, students, parents and the community. Community plays an important part in creating a positive school culture. Think of all the things schools rely on a community for: bake sales, school fetes, fundraisers, reading group volunteers, the list goes on. Community is woven into the fabric of the school, and community is more than just the P&F Association. Community is the collective response in both celebrations and crisis, and the culture of the school effects how the community responds. Culture is not a stagnant phenomenon; rather, it is a living breathing organism. And if there is the desire to stimulate a positive school culture, it is up to the stakeholders to breathe life into it. Let’s cast our minds back to the vine mentioned at the beginning of this article. Strategy, just like a climbing frame, dictates the vine's path. It may provide a climbing frame, but it does not stimulate growth. It is the care taken in watering and fertilising that helps the vine flourish, just like it is the positive culture within a school that cultivates a unique and thriving community.

References

Alvesson, M 2013, Understanding Organisational Culture (2nd Ed.), SAGE Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks. Beare, H Caldwell, B & Milikan, RH 1989, Creating an Excellent School – Educational Management Series, Routledge, England. Deal, TE & Peterson, KD 1999, Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Department of Education 2016, Building a culture of high performance and high care in every school, viewed 7 April 2021, http://det. wa.edu.au/policies/detcms/policy-planningand-accountability/policies-framework/ director-generals-statements/building-aculture-of-high-performance-and-high-carein-every-school.en?cat-id=6317484 Du Plessis, S & Simpson, S 2019, Unwritten Ground Rules, viewed 7 April 2021 https://ugrs.net Gorrell, P & Hoover, J 2009, The Coaching Connection: A Manager's Guide to Developing Individual Potential in the Context of the Organization, Amacom, New York. Hofstede, G 1980, Culture’s Consequences, Sage, London. Hofstede, G & Bond MH 1998, ‘The Confucius Connection: from Cultural Roots to Economic Growth’, Organ Dyn, pp. 5-21. Hongboontri, C & Keawkhong, N 2014, ‘School Culture: Teachers Beliefs, Behaviours and instructional practices’, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 39, no. 5. pp. 65-88. Owens, RG & Valesky, TC 2015, Organisational Behaviour in Education, Pearson Education Inc, New Jersey. Shahzad, F, Luqman, RA, Khan, AR & Shabbir, L 2012, ‘Impact of Organisational Culture on Organisational Performance: An overview’, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 975-985. Southworth, G 2001, ‘Connecting Leadership and Learning’, in H Timperley & J Robertson (eds), Leadership and Learning, pp. 71-85, SAGE Publications Ltd, London.

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