Saturday 27 February 2016

We need to talk about: Culture - Part 2

This is the second part of a double post on culture. The focus of this post is on how schools can create a positive culture to improve staff well being and student outcomes. 

Why culture? Culture matters because it exists in every school, whether it is consciously acknowledged or not. (Bulach, Lunenberg and Potter, 2008) Culture is essential to great schools, as Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote: "that which is essential is invisible to the eye". There is no better way of capturing the importance of school culture.

To pick up from my previous post, found here, the starting point for the promotion and realisation of culture is through the development and sharing of a vision. Jerald (2006) argues that culture is created by vision. The logic follows that vision determines actions determines culture.

There is huge abundance of literature that cites the impacts of a positive culture. It has been shown a strong school culture can a) influence the motivation to learn (Eccles et al., 1993) and b) reduce the impacts of socioeconomic background on educational success (Astor, Benbenisty and Estrada, 2009). Furthermore, studies have shown the impact of a positive school culture extends beyond academic outcomes and enhances students well-being. (Haahr, Nielsen, Hansen, & Jakobsen, 2005; OECD, 2009)

The real challenge when it comes to culture is the question of how to make it positive and sustain it. What follows is a brief overview of my thoughts on the means to creating a great school culture:

1. Secure buy in to the vision


The previous post discussed the importance of creating and sharing a vision. To create an effective culture, all levels of the school community should feel a part of this culture and should feel ownership of this. 
To ensure this - the vision should be promoted and shared. Everyone should be singing from the same hymn sheet, as it were. 
The way in which this buy-in is secured varies, institutions can actively seek the views of members or it can be secured by allowing colleagues to inform their practice with the vision. The key to this, whichever approach is taken, is clarity. Your vision must be understood and shared by all stakeholders - students, teachers, parents. If you have buy in, it reduces conflict and upset and allows the real focus to be about the business of educating young people.
The best way to secure buy in? Sweat the small stuff - Be humble and follow your own expectations. Model the behaviors you would expect to see, a lot is learnt from actions.

2. Ensure shared understandings

Building on point 1, an effective culture must have shared norms. A shared set of languages and routines adopted across the institution. All teachers should be clear on expectations of student behavior, and enforce the same consequence in defiance of these expectations. Only by reinforcing expectations constantly and cleary can buy in be secured. By removing inconsistency and indecision, it frees teachers, and students, to fulfill their role fully - teaching and learning, without fear or misunderstanding. 
A shared understanding of quality cannot be ignored. The external measures by which schools are held to account, most notably student results and Ofsted reports, are an indicator of a schools quality. If teachers and leaders do not share the same vision of quality (from a teaching and learning perspective) you can be almost certain there will be an unbalance in the aforementioned external measures. Only through a shared definition of quality can we ensure that students are always receiving a high quality learning experience and that all teachers are able to develop and reflect on their practice.

3. Develop tolerance and acceptance

Great school cultures are those in which difference is accepted and celebrated. Schools are often so multicultural and diverse that we take this as a given and do nothing to encourage students to actively engage with this. We need to be brave in challenging difficult views and instead expose our students to as many different cultural experiences as possible - it is our duty as educators to create the safe spaces in which students examine, question, affirm and integrate cultural difference into their wider world view.

The development of a positive culture that can allow staff to feel valued and deliver their best work is a challenge, especially in the seemingly ever-changing English education system, but it is a challenge to meet head on. 

The best, and happiest, institutions are those with great cultures. They are defined by their willingness to face down challenge and use it to inform their work - staff and students are valued and empowered. As the expressions goes: "None of us is smarter than all of us." Collaboration and shared understandings are at the heart of great cultures.



Bibliography

-       Astor, R. A., Benbenisty, R., & Estrada, J. N. (2009). School violence and theoretically atypical schools: The principal’s centrality in orchestrating safe schools. American Educational Research Journal, 46, 423–461
-       Bulach, C., Lunenburg, F. C., & Potter, L. (2008). Creating a culture for high-performing schools: A comprehensive approach to school reform. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
-       Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., Midgley, C., Reuman, D., MacIver, D., & Feldlaufer, H. (1993). Negative effects of traditional middle schools on students’ motivation. Elementary School Journal, 93, 553–574
-       Haahr, J. H., Nielsen, T. K., Hansen, M. E., & Jakobsen, S. T. (2005). Explaining student performance. Evidence from the international PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS surveys.
-       Jerald, C.D. (December, 2006). Issue Brief. School Culture: "The Hidden Curriculum." Washington, DC: The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. 

-       OECD. (2009). Creating effective teaching and learning environment: First results of Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)

Monday 22 February 2016

We need to talk about: Culture - Part 1

This is the first part of a double blog post on culture - the second intends to consider how we can create positive cultures in school.

Having browsed through various educational news articles over the past few weeks, I am struck by the number of stories detailing the teacher numbers crisis we currently face, illustrated most recently (and most significantly) in the NAO Report on teaching recruitment. It is important to note, however, it's not just about recruitment - it's about retention too!

These news stories always get me wondering, just why are teachers leaving (or just plain not joining) the profession in such numbers? I see this attributed to large scale structural issues of workload and Ofsted pressure, and believe me, I sympathize with these issues. However, I feel that many of these issues can be countered at the school level.


School cultures are like icebergs - lots beneath the surface!
Photo: Icebergs by Angsar Walk 
 


So, what's the cause?


I believe, for many teachers, what it comes down to is the culture of their school. I believe culture has a huge say in how teachers feel about their role and the work they are doing. It is easy to read an article about the increasing disillusionment of the teaching profession and use this as a prism through which to analyse on'es own experiences and reach the same conclusions the author discusses: workload, Oftsed, new accountability measures, Performance Related Pay. 


Whilst I appreciate these are very real concerns, I think the real issue is right in front of us: look to what's happening in your own school.


I accept that what happens in your school may well be a magnification of these national issues, but be critical, what is it, in your own school, that you really dislike? However you choose to answer this question (let me know!), I believe, that issue comes back to the culture of the school in which you work.


What is school culture? 


"School culture is the set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the 'persona' of the school." (Peterson, 2002) At its heart, school culture deals with the things that happen in our schools everyday. Culture is that intangible 'thing' you feel when you walk into a school or a classroom. It is that 'thing' which tells you whether you are going into a school where staff and students are happy, or not so happy...


We are regularly reminded of our duty as educators to create a culture of high expectations for our students. A culture where success is normalized and celebrated, where the achievements of our students are shared, where every student can succeed and barriers to learning are removed. 


I am fortunate to have worked with some amazing practitioners, and am fortunate to work with some amazing practitioners now.. The kind of practitioners where this culture is the norm. These practices are happening in classrooms everyday.


BUT


What I see much less often, is the implementation of this culture school-wide. For many teachers, schools have started to become a repressive environment underpinned by aggressive government rhetoric, individualism, hostility and fear. This dangerous neglect of culture, by school leaders and government alike, is, I believe, a major contributory factor to the disillusionment currently felt by many teachers.


I'm sure many teachers are feeling deeply unhappy with their work because the school culture is one where they are not feeling valued and supported. When these basic support mechanisms go out the window, teachers start to resent the more time consuming elements of the job.


A negative school culture infiltrates every element of the work educators do - it impacts on student behaviour, attendance, the attitude of students to learning, the motivation of staff, the outcomes of our students - so we need to be aware both of culture and how we can change it. 


It's all about vision


I see lots of school talk about 'their values'. These are often a selection of inspirational words amalgamated to form a vision. 


Resilience. Collaboration. Achieve. Believe. Succeed. Responsibility. Tolerance. Honesty. Integrity. Fairness. Learning.


(A quick search for school values enlightened me with some of the gems above.) Such words are lovely and look great on the side of the school building but, if the moment you step into the classroom, they are forgotten, then what's the point? The most successful schools, the ones with the most successful and positive cultures, are those where these values are understood and articulated by every member of the school. The most effective way of delivering and embedding these values is to have a vision. 


I have been encouraged, since my earliest days in the classroom, to have a vision. To have something which I am striving to achieve. The key with a vision is thinking about how you get there, what is the route to success. It is here that many fall down, if we are unable to clearly articulate what success looks like for our vision, we cannot expect people to buy into it.

Let's study an example: Headteacher X has said that her vision for her school is:



"To be outstanding in every category of an Ofsted judgement within 5 years."

Certainly an ambitious vision. My immediate question would be: How? How will you achieve this? What are the steps to success here?

This is what differentiates great school cultures from bad ones. I don't doubt all schools have a headteacher, SLT, board of governors and body of staff who want success for their students. I do, however, have doubts about how many can get there. Have a vision, absolutely have a vision, BUT make sure you know what success looks like and how you can get there.

Take Headteacher X - to achieve her vision, she must empower her staff, and students to succeed. This comes down to getting the basics right. Establishing and maintaining routines at every level of the school. It comes down to having high expectations and not reneging on these. It comes down to great professional development, where staff feel listened to and valued. It comes down to supporting middle leaders to great cultures in their departments and supporting individual teachers to teach. 

We talk about removing the barriers for learning for our students, great school cultures are those where the barriers to outstanding teaching are removed. That, at the end of the day, is what we are employed to do!


Bibliography

- Peterson, K. (2002) Positive or negative?, Journal of Staff Development, vol.23, no.3. pp.10-15.