School Culture and Climate

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School Culture and Climate
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Culture

• Tells people what is truly important
• Tells people how they are to act
• Norms
• Beliefs
• Values that make up the
• Rituals persona of the school
• Ceremonies
• Symbols
• Stories

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• The unwritten expectations that build up over
  time
• The sum of the formal and informal behaviors,
  norms, beliefs, values and assumptions of the
  school community

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Culture
Norms
Values
Assumptions
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The Principal Is the C.C.S.

• Chief
• Culture
• Shaper

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Principals of Stuck and Moving Schools

• See Handout

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The Principal Is The Key

• What does the principal plan for?
• What does the principal monitor?
• What does the principal model?
• What does the principal reinforce through
  recognition and celebration?
• What behavior is the principal willing to
  confront?

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Principals in Healthy Cultures

• Are visible to all stakeholders
• Communicate regularly and purposefully
• Never forget that they are role models
• Are passionate about their work
• Accept responsibility for the schools culture
• Are organized
• Exhibit a positive outlook

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Principals In Healthy Cultures

• Take pride in the physical environment of the
  school
• Empower others appropriately
• Demonstrate stewardship they protect their
  school and its people

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Principals in Unhealthy Cultures

• Are rarely seen outside their office
• Find little time for communication
• Feel that other people are responsible for their
  school buildings physical needs
• Take passive roles in decorating or furnishing
  their schools

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Principals in Unhealthy Cultures

• See themselves as the lone leader or boss of
  the school
• Never empower teachers to lead
• Are poorly organized
• Habitually make excuses for their schools
  shortcomings
• Blame inadequacies on outside influences
• (Fiore, 2001)

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Every school has

• A Formal Culture (job descriptions, traditions,
  mission statement values, defined by
  symbolsschool mascot, song )
• An Informal Culture how people interact with
  each other, share information, how work gets done
  and by whom
• Subcultures grade levels, departments, young
  teachers, old teachers, jocks, fine arts, PTO

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So..

• Identifying school culture is a complex
  undertaking.
• It cannot be reduced to merely having members of
  the community list their beliefs, values, and
  assumptions.
• Each school context is different. The
  differences should dictate how the principal
  responds to the subcultures.

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The Markers of School Culture

• The mission statement
• Student programs
• Programs for teachers
• The physical building (the learning environment)
• Principals identify the markers of school
  culture by walking around, examining school
  documents, talking with internal and external
  stakeholders, and observing people, rituals, and
  customs of the school.

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The Toxic Culture

• Marked with dysfunctional patterns of behavior
• Toxic cultures deplete members energy, damage
  the members, make it impossible to be
  collaborative
• Reinforce negativity (values beliefs are
  negative
• Rituals and traditions are phony, joyless

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Toxic Cultures

• Evolve over time
• Have staffs that are fragmented
• Serve the adults in the schools rather than the
  students
• Are places where negative values and hopelessness
  reigns
• Are a wasteland for students, teachers, and
  others, both internal and external constituents

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Characteristics of a Healthy Culture

• A Healthy Culture can
• Unify people within the school and its many
  communities
• Assist with establishment of a plan for school
  improvement
• Focus people on the future and point to what the
  school wants to become
• Promote growth in the folks who work there

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Healthy Cultures

• Marked by professional collaboration
• Teachers and administrators share their knowledge
  and develop plans together to achieve
  organizational goals
• Principals work with teachers they have a
  shared mission and vision
• Principals and teachers focus on student learning
• The school is aligned.goals and objectives are
  consistent with the mission

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Difference Between Culture and Climate

• Both are related to organizational behavior and
  productivity
• Personality is to the individual what climate is
  to the organization.
• School climate is the social atmosphere in which
  people interact with others and the school
  environment
• Climate includes perceptions that people have of
  the environment (safety, high expectations,
  relationships with teachers, students, parents,
  and administrators)

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Climate continued.

• The quality of interactions in the teachers
  lounge
• The noise levels in the hallways and cafeteria
• Physical comfort levels (heating, cooling,
  lighting)
• How safe people feel
• How easy it is for students, teachers to interact
  with one another informally (size of school
  affects this)

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Two Dimensions of Climate

• Academic Climate
• Social Climate

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Academic Climate

• Results from how the school uses rewards and
  praise
• Results from the effectiveness of the teachers
  and principal
• Results from the collaborative processes that
  exist within the school

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Social Climate

• Results from the appearance, comfort, and
  orderliness of the school facility
• Results from the opportunities students have to
  participate in the school programs
• Results from the peer norms that are present
• Results from the nature of the administrative
  staff-student cohesion and support systems

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Leadership Builds the Culture and Climate

• Healthy cultures and positive climates do not
  magically occur!
• Strong cultures emerge due to the efforts of the
  principal to
• - support and nurture people
• - connect and align people and programs
• - launch a vision rooted in the belief that all
  
• children can learn
• - empower teachers

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The Twelve Norms of School Culture

• Collegiality
• Experimentation
• Reaching Out To The Knowledge Base
• Appreciation and Recognition
• Caring, Celebration Humor
• Traditions

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• High Expectations
• Protecting Whats Important
• Tangible Support
• Trust, Respect Confidence
• Involvement in Decision Making
• Open and Honest Communication

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• Do you have questions about any of these 12
  characteristics?

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Cultural
Symbolic
Educational
Human
Technical
Sergiovannis Leadership Skills That
Build Good Schools
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