Impacting School Culture: Examining Rituals, Traditions,

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Impacting School Culture Examining Rituals,
Traditions, Ceremonies
Character Education Partnership Conference 2006

• Betsy Arnow, M.Ed., M.S.
• Stephanie Schneider, Ph.D.
• Lucy Vezzuto Anderson, Ph.D.

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Session Goals

• Learn about the impact of a culture of community
  on learning and student well being
• Gain knowledge of how student connectedness and
  student voice fosters learning
• Examine how rituals, ceremonies, and traditions
  send messages about core ethical values
• Assess the intention of your own
  classroom-school, rituals, traditions, and
  ceremonies

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Whos In the Room?

• Please introduce yourself and tell us
• Your organization
• Your role
• Why you came to
• this session

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Building Cultures of Community Through
Professional Development Research

• Cohorts of teachers and administrators
• School wide and classroom practices
• Practices that actualize social-emotional-characte
  r development and build community
• Coaching and networking
• Teacher efficacy research

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Professional Development Program Content

• Professional Ethical Learning Community (PELC)
• Intentional caring classroom community
• Infusion into academic curriculum
• Cooperative learning
• Perspective taking
• Reflective thinking on social-moral issues
• Authentic student voice opportunities
• Social-emotional learning

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Teacher Efficacy What We Did

• Used Character Education Efficacy Belief
  Instrument (CEEBI)
• Administered CEEBI three times from 2004-2006
• Examined scores for general and personal teacher
  efficacy each year

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Teacher Efficacy What We Found

• First year significant gains in personal
  efficacy (not in general efficacy)
• Second year increase in confidence regarding
  how to use specific strategies that might lead to
  positive changes in students character (personal
  efficacy stays high)

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• School culture is a broader term than climate
  and provides a more accurate way to help school
  leaders better understand the dynamics of human
  behavior expressed in the schools own unwritten
  rules and traditions, norms and expectations that
  seem to permeate everything the way people act,
  how they dress, what they talk about or avoid
  talking about, whether they seek out colleagues
  for help or dont, and how teachers feel about
  their work and their students.
  Deal and
  Peterson 1999 p2-3

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A Culture Of Community

• Engages students in learning
• Develops and models caring relationships
• Increases prosocial skills
• Decreases aggressive and at-risk behaviors
• Improves academic achievement
  
• Gardner 1991, Noddings 1992, Sergiovanni 1994,
• Berkowitz Bier 2003 and others

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• Strong, positive cultures are places with a
  shared sense of what is important, a shared ethos
  of caring and concern, and a shared commitment to
  helping students learn
• Ken Peterson and Terence Deal, How Leaders
  Influence the Culture of Schools. Educational
  Leadership

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Research Supports

• What many educators have always understood
  intuitively academic performance is strongly
  linked to whether students basic developmental
  needs are met---needs such as health, security,
  respect, and love.
• R and D Alert, A publication of WestEd, 2003,
  Vol. 5, No. 2

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When students basic developmental needs are met...

• they feel more connected to school.

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A Foundation for Learning

• School connectedness refers to the belief by
  students that adults in the school care about
  their learning and about them as individuals.
• National Training and Technical Assistance
  Center for Drug Prevention
• and School Safety Program Coordinators

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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Like School Feel Engaged in Learning
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Feel They Belong and Are Respected
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Believe Teachers Care About Them And Their
Learning
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Believe That Education Matters
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Have Friends At School
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Feel Safe At School
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Have a Voice in School Decisions
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness
Believe That Discipline Is Fair
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Students Who Experience School Connectedness

• Have Opportunities to Participate in Extra
  Curricular Activities
  Robert Blum, Educational
  Leadership, April 2005

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Say Something
Turn to a partner and say something about how a
school builds a culture of community and
connectedness.
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Time Out for Reflection

• Please complete the survey Your School
  Culture.
• When completed, jot down two things you notice
  about your responses.

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• School cultures are complex webs of traditions
  and rituals that have built up over time as
  teachers, students, parents, and administrators
  work together and deal with crises and
  accomplishments. Schein, 1985 Deal and
  Peterson 1990 as quoted in Deal and Peterson
  1999 p. 4

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In the past few decades, in the name of
educational reform, we have managed to sterilize
schools of the symbolic acts that help culture
survive and thrive. More than ever, we need
to revive ritual and ceremony as the spiritual
fuel we need to energize and put more life back
into our schools. Learning is fostered in large
part by strong traditions, frequent ritual, and
poignant ceremonies to reinvigorate cultural
cohesion and focus. Shaping School
Culture by Terrence E. Deal and Kent D.
Peterson

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What Messages Are We Sending?

• Rituals
• Traditions Ceremonies

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Rituals

• Rituals are procedures or routines that are
  infused with deeper meaning. They help make
  common experiences uncommon events. Every school
  has hundreds of routines, from the taking of
  attendance in the morning to the exiting
  procedures used in the afternoon. But when these
  routine events can be connected to a school's
  mission and values, they summon spirit and
  reinforce cultural ties.
• Deal and Peterson 1999

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Traditions

• Traditions are significant events that have a
  special history and meaning and that occur year
  in and year out. Traditions are a part of the
  history they reinvigorate the culture and
  symbolize it to insiders and outsiders alike.
  They take on the mantle of history, carrying
  meaning on their shoulders. When people have
  traditions that they value and appreciate it
  gives them a foundation to weather challenges,
  difficulties, and change.
  Deal and
  Peterson 1999

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Ceremonies

• Ceremonies are complex, culturally sanctioned
  ways that a school celebrates successes,
  communicates its values, and recognizes special
  contributions of staff and students. Successful
  ceremonies are carefully designed and arranged to
  communicate values, celebrate core
  accomplishments, and build a tight sense of
  community.

Deal and Peterson 1999
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Rituals
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Say Something
Turn to a partner and share your ritual,
tradition, or ceremony and the messages it sends.
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Session Goals

• Learn about the impact of a culture of community
  on learning and student well being
• Gain knowledge of how student connectedness and
  student voice fosters learning
• Examine how rituals, ceremonies, and traditions
  send messages about core ethical values
• Assess the intention of your own
  classroom-school, rituals, traditions, and
  ceremonies

34
Resources

• Building Community In Schools by Thomas J.
  Sergiovanni. San Francisco Jossey-Bass, 1994.
• Building Learning Communities with Character How
  to Integrate Academic, Social and Emotional
  Learning by B. Novick, J.S. Kress, and M.J.
  Elias. ASCD 2002.
• Evaluating Character Development 51 Tools for
  Measuring Success by Edward F. DeRoche. Character
  Development Group, Inc. 2004.
• Shaping School Culture the Heart of Leadership
  by T. E. Deal and K. D. Peterson. Jossey-Bass
  1999.
• The Challenge To Care In Schools An Alternative
  Approach To Education by Nel Noddings. In
  Advances in Contemporary Educational Thought
  Series v. 8. New York Teachers College Press,
  1992.
• The Intentional School Culture Building
  Excellence in Academics Character by Charles
  Elbot and Dave Fulton. Office of Character and
  School Culture, Denver Public Schools 2005.
• What Works In Character Education A
  Research-based Guide For Practitioners by M. W.
  Berkowitz, M. Bier, Washington, DC Character
  Education Partnership 2005.

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• Please complete

The Minute Review
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Contact Institute for Character Education
http//charactered.ocde.us

• Betsy Arnow, M.Ed., M.S.
• Project Director
• 714. 327.1055 barnow_at_ocde.us
• Stephanie Schneider, Ph.D.
• Coordinator, Assessment and Accountability
• 714.966.4268 sschneider_at_ocde.us
• Lucy Vezzuto Anderson, Ph.D.
• Coordinator, Research Development
• 714.327.1081 lvezzuto_at_ocde.us

Orange County Dept. of Education 200 Kalmus Costa
Mesa, CA 92628-9050