Shaping School Culture

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Shaping School Culture

• The Heart of School Leadership
• Kent D. Peterson/Terrence E. Deal

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Need for School Culture

• All organizations, especially schools, improve
  performance by developing a shared system of
• Norms
• Folkways
• Values
• Traditions
• These instill the atmosphere with
• Passion
• Purpose
• A sense of spirit

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What Contributes to Culture?

• Collegiality
• Experimentation
• High expectations
• Trust and confidence
• Tangible support
• Reaching out to the knowledge bases
• Appreciation and recognition
• Caring, celebration and humor
• Involvement in decision making
• Protection of what's important
• Traditions
• Honest, open communication

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Why Is Culture Important?

• As we make schools better we need to
• Tighten up structures and increase accountability
• Increase curriculum standards
• Test student performance
• Provide rewards to schools that measure up
• Sanctions to those that dont measure up.

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People count.

• The key to successful performance is the heart
  and spirit instilled into relationships among
  people.
• Promote effort to serve all students, and share a
  sense of responsibility for learning.
• A shared sense of purpose
• Norms, values, beliefs and assumptions
• Rituals, traditions and ceremonies
• History and stories
• Architecture, artifacts and symbols

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Can culture be shaped by leadership?

• One of the key tasks of leaders is shaping
  culture by
• Daily interactions
• Careful reflections
• Conscious efforts

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Leaders must.

• Read the culture
• Assess the culture
• Reinforce or transform the culture
• Most importantly we must
• rely on shared values to shape culture.

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Assessing and Transforming Toxic Cultures

• Shaping School Culture
• School culture influences
• How people think, feel, and act.
• Culture is a key determinant of staff
• focus, commitment, motivation, and
• productivity.
• Dr. Kent Peterson

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• Shaping School Culture
• The Gray School

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• In your opinion, what are the elements of the
  Gray Schools culture that are the most
  destructive to student achievement ?

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Toxic Cultures or subcultures dampen enthusiasm,
reduce professionalism, and depress
organizational effectiveness.
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The Origin of Toxic Cultures and Subcultures

• In part, negative cultures develop because there
  is no leadership to help staff members overcome
  adversity, avoid negative rationalizations, and
  provide positive closure to conflict.

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Toxic Cultures

• Most schools are not universally toxic rather,
  they have pockets of negativity. There may be a
  grade level, department, or group of people who
  are keepers of the negative.

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Toxic cultures have these characteristics

• A lack of shared purpose or a splintered mission
  based on self interest
• Staff members who find most of their meaning in
  activities outside work, negativity, or
  anti-student sentiments.
• Viewing the past as a story of defeat and failure

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Toxic Cultures (continued)

• Norms of radical individualism, the acceptance of
  mediocrity, and an avoidance of innovation
• Little sense of community where negative beliefs
  about colleagues and students abound
• Few positive traditions or ceremonies to develop
  a sense of community

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Toxic Cultures (continued)

• A cultural network of naysayers, saboteurs,
  rumormongers, and antiheroes, where communication
  is primarily negative
• A dearth of leadership in the principals office
  and among staff
• Positive role models unrecognized in the school
  and community

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Toxic Cultures (continued)

• Social connections that have become fragmented
  and openly antagonist
• Rather than hopes, dreams, and a clear vision, a
  sense of hopelessness, discouragement, and despair

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How toxic is your workplace?Are there
potential leaders who can pull the school
together?
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Identify Toxic Subcultures

• Who are the members of the negative group?
• What is the focus of the negativity?

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Shaping School Culture

• Positive and Transforming Cultures

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ShapingSchool Culture

• The Heart of Leadership
• By Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson

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Vision and Value

• Importance of. . . . . in school culture
• Mission Purpose - at the heart of schools
  culture- focus of what people do
• Values- deep sense of what is important
• Beliefs- how we deal with world around us
• Assumptions- preconscious system of beliefs which
  guide behavior
• Norms- unstated group expectations
  (behavior, dress, language)

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Reading School Culture

• Listen to echoes of school history, look at
  present, what are dreams and hopes of school,
  what does architecture convey, how is space
  arranged, recognize heroes and villains, what
  does it stand for?
• What is culture now?
• What can I do to strengthen aspects of culture
  that fit my idea of ideal school?
• What can be done to reshape/change the culture?

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Elements of Positive Cultures

• Mission focus on student and teacher learning
• Rich history and purpose
• Core values of collegiality, performance, and
  improvement for quality, achievement and learning
  for all
• Belief in potential
• Improve practice
• Foster communication
• Shared leadership, balance continuity and
  improvement
• Rituals and ceremonies reinforce core values
• Stories to celebrate
• Physical environment of joy and pride
• Respect and caring

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• Starbucks Coffee I pour my heart into
• every cup of coffee, customers sense that
• and respond in kind.

Southwest Airlines Giving people the freedom
to fly is our higher purpose.
In Education Our higher purpose is giving young
people the chance to thrive and succeed in this
world!
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Core Leadership Challengeof the Future

• Build schools in which every child can grow, and
  in which every teacher can
• make a difference.

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Shaping School Culture Assessing and
Transforming Culture It is important to clarify
the beliefs of staff A way of transforming to a
positive culture is to determine core beliefs.
What are some of the beliefs in your school ?
How can you find out what they are ?
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An activity that contributes to assessing and
cultivating beliefs is Interview Design
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Key Roles of Cultural Leaders

• School principals take on many different roles.
  They are managers, working to keep the school
  running smoothly by attending to the schools
  structure and activities, policies and
  procedures, resources and programs, and rules and
  standards.
• (Deal and Peterson, 1994)

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Cultural leaders use practices that

• Bring community together
• Promote shared understanding
• Encourage all community members to become a
  productive part of the whole

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They are Bifocal

• Combining their roles
• Managerial
• Symbolic

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Managerial Roles

• Organizational planners
• Resource allocators
• Coordinators of programs
• Supervisors of staff and outcomes
• Disseminators of ideas and information
• Jurists who adjudicate disagreements and
  conflicts
• Gatekeepers at the boundaries of the school
• Analysts who use systematic approaches to address
  complex problems

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Symbolic Roles

• Historians delving into stories of the past
• Anthropologists detectives uncovering current
  norms and values
• Visionaries articulating deeper purposes
• Symbols communicating core values through action
  and attention
• Potters shaping culture by attending rituals,
  traditions, and ceremonies
• Poets using language to articulate core values
  and purpose
• Actors taking on key roles in social dramas
• Healers ministering to wounds that occur during
  loss, conflict, or tragedy

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Historians seek to understand the social and
normative past of the school
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Anthropological detectives probe for and analyze
the norm, values, and beliefs that define the
current culture
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Visionary works with others to define a deeply
value-based attention and routines
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Potter shapes and is shaped by heroes, rituals,
traditions, ceremonies, and symbols encourages
the staff to share core values and dreams
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Poet uses language to reinforce core values and
sustain a positive image
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Actor improvises in a school inevitable dramas,
comedies, and tragedies
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Healer oversees transitions and change in the
life of the school heals the wounds of conflict
and loss.
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A Sunny and Bright School Culture
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Culture is a Powerful Force

• School culture influences
• How people think, feel, and act.
• Culture is a key determinant of staff
• focus, commitment, motivation,
• and productivity.
• Dr. Kent Peterson

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Creating a High-Performance Learning Culture
Begin With the End in Mind
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A Framework for a High-Performance Learning
Culture

• Distributed Accountability
• Mission
• Vision
• Core Beliefs

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Cultivating Beliefs that Produce High-Performance
Learning

• How can leaders facilitate learning in these
  spheres?

Ability Achievement
Effort Efficacy
Power Control
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Change

• Change will always fail until we find some way
  of developing infrastructures and processes that
  engage teachers in developing new
  understandings.
• --Fullan, The New Meaning of Educational Change
  (3rd ed., p. 37)

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Using Strategic Structures

• How can leaders design and implement structures
  that support a high-performance learning culture?

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Examples of Strategic Structures That Support a
Core Belief

• Belief All children can learn, and its my job
  to see that they do.
• What structures can we strategically create in
  schools to support this belief?

Flexible scheduling Advisories Looping Cross-curri
cular program Extra help sessions Peer
tutoring Learning Communities
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Core Beliefs
Reflection
Inquiry
Effort Efficacy
Ability Achievement
Dialogue
Power Control
Strategic Structures
Distributed Accountability
Norms
Behaviors
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Implementation of Structures That Support Core
Beliefs
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Extra Help Sessions
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Cross Curricular Planning
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Learning CommunitiesInner Outer Circle
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Next Steps
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FISH! Wisdom

• When a community of people commit to work
  together, the effect is powerful, creating a
  higher quality of life at work.

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Fish-isms

• Transform your environment from conflict and
  pressure to support and opportunity
• People are inspired because they are given the
  chance to take ownership of their environment.
• The leader must live the four principles.
• Play (is a spirit! An invitation to have fun)
• Make Their Day
• Be There
• Choose Your Attitude
• New relationships must be built on listening,
  clear accountabilities and trust.

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Play.

• Makes your job fun
• Energizes your creativity and problem-solving
  abilities within you
• Pleases customers and team members
• Makes boring task easier to do
• Makes time pass more quickly

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Make Their Day

• You have the possibility of making a positive
• impact on everyone you meet
• When someone makes your day, you want to
• do the same
• What about the person who tends to suck the
• energy out of the room whenever they enter?
• Everyone wants to feel valued

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Be There

• Going through the motions without really paying
  attention?
• Engaging in an out of body experience called
  Work?
• How are you being on the job?

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Choose Your Attitude

• How did you start your day? What state of mind
  did you choose?
• What will you choose tomorrow?
• Make the best of every moment and find dozens of
  little things to celebrate each day.

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Organizations are driven by conversations.

• Some are helpful.
• Some are negative or draining.
• How we speak about our work influences How we
  work.