(2007). School culture, therefore, is most clearly seen in the ways people relate to and work together; the management of the school's structures, systems, and physical environment; and the extent to which there is a learning focus for both pupils and adults, including the nature of that focus (Stoll & Fink, 1998) or simply the distinctive identity of . (2004). , every organization must have a person in charge, acute awareness of the expenditure of time, an obligation to accommodate others right to participate. Stoll and Fink identified 10 cultural norms that influence school improvement (see summary in Panel 2). ), The University Council for Educational Administration: Handbook of Research on the Education of School Leaders, Lumby, J. & London: Falmer. P. W. Elmes Cultural diversity and group work effectiveness. One of the best known is that applied to schools by Handy and Aitken (1986), which draws on observations across diverse organizations. Instead there are history, context, process, interactivity, power relations and change. Matching culture to preparation and development engages with what is perceived to be universal, what appears to be distinctive to the region or nation or group of people, and what is unique to the individual. The political perspective would see educational leaders as seeking to generate in their pupils and staff a critical view of society, to challenge existing orthodoxies and to become citizens able to participate in social and cultural change. (Hoppe, 2004, p. 333), a set of shared values and preferred actions among members of a society that largely determines among other things, the boundaries within which leader development is possible. The first is that leaders are passive ambassadors of culture. Head teachers in rural China: aspects of ambition. More helpful is the model of Schein (1990), which, in contrast, has provided a generic and analytical model of culture. , (forthcoming) provide a strong warning that collective cultures as well as honoring hierarchical superiority may also have an acute need to maintain self-esteem. Bridges, E. Culture also impacts on delivery. (Eds. Fullan (2001) has suggested that recognizing the need for, and understanding the processes involved in, cultural change are essential tools of leadership development, for it is in establishing a culture of change in school that successful school development can occur. Stoll, L. Much of it has been misdirected and some of it wasteful. C. D. DiPaola, M.F. Similarly, Louque (2002) challenges the appropriateness of the culture embedded in the selection and development of educational leaders to Hispanic and African American Women. M. A. It is probably for this reason that . Curricula and delivery which are founded on a set of cultural assumptions, even those which are dominant within the region or country, are likely to miss the mark for many. Women and leadership: The views of women who are . The (racially neutral) politics of education: a critical race Theory perspective. Lack of uniformity of culture is therefore an issue even among small, apparently homogeneous groups Distinguishing rhetoric from practice is a second challenge. (1986). Such a knowledge base would allow theory to be developed in a more culturally aware way. ), Leading Schools in a Global Era: A Cultural Perspective, Peabody Journal of Education, Litvin, D. R. However, such a perspective ignores the ability of schools to select many of the cultural inputs. Daily challenges for school leaders.I In He suggests that schools are bastions of conservatism, not centers of social experimentation. The discourse of diversity: from biology to management. A second early example from the US of a description of a cultural type was the shopping mall school. Hallinger (2001) also points to the ubiquitous use of theories such as Learning Organization and School Based Management, which are firmly embedded in similar cultural norms. Accultured, automatic, emotional responses preclude awareness of internalized culture. Processes and structures designed for a time that has passed are no longer appropriate in a rapidly changing society. Journal of Educational Administration, 334(5), 1231. & (2005). Celebration and humour"we feel good about ourselves" a holistic concept. Boosting pupil's progress development Working together to respond to changing context Know where they are going and having the will and skill to get there Possess norms of improving schools1.MOVING REFERS ON THE FOLLOWING: A primary aim of the chapter therefore is to explore how we understand culture in its infinitely variable expressions, and how it relates to the design and implementation of leadership preparation and development programs. International Journal of Leadership In Education, 4(4),297307. Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow: a post-postmodern purview. eBook ISBN: 9780203872239 Adobe Leadership is therefore a community property shaped by a complex interrelationship between individuals and context, rather than resulting from individual intent and competition. There are different typologies that can be used to assess. Journal of School Leadership, Coleman, M. Dorfman, P. W. International Studies in Educational Administration, Thomas, D. C. Such decisions will be founded on a concept of leadership that embraces far more than a capacity to competently manage the technical aspects of instruction. Archer (1996, p. 1) contends that the notion of culture remains inordinately vague to the extent that poverty of conceptualization leads to culture being grasped rather than analysed. C. He created a series of descriptors of the culture of schooling with a particular focus on how key cultural characteristics equate to the absence of a productive learning environment. , & None is universally applicable or comprehensive, but all can serve to support an educational leaders reflection on the culture of a specific school. Its view of the nature of human relationships are people essentially collaborative or competitive, do they function best in groups or as individuals? What is the significance of time is the organization most oriented towards the past, the present or the future? Leaders navigate cultural choices which are always constrained. Hwang, K. K. , Bottery (1999) has described this as managerial globalization, in which the adoption of western managerialist approaches and business-based forms of accountability underpins educational reform and development. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Cardno, C. & It is characterized by very limited research at the within school subunit scale, and by the adoption of generalized models of culture from business and management disciplines at whole-school or national/international scales of analysis. It takes the view that culture can be unified and that dissent, anomaly, conflicts of interest or ambiguity are viewed. However House et al. Similarly, the selection of teaching staff provides at least an implicit and possibly an explicit mechanism of shaping a key cultural input into the school. Processual competencies, comprising intrapersonal competencies and cognitive competencies (2003, p.84), are also needed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Two examples will suffice to illustrate this, though. & (2006). Young He also insisted that the complex creation of culture was the result of multiple inputs from staff, learners and the wider community. London: Sage. Rusch, E. , However, his analysis of national culture has been abused to support stereotypical views and crude dichotomies, such as between Western cultures and those of Asia. School culture refers to a total of shared values expressed through norms, rituals, expectations, behaviour and everyday practices. There have been strong responses to the lack of critical awareness of these processes. This may be interpreted in several ways ranging from the operational to the political. R. At first sight these components of culture may be thought to be significantly outside the control of schools themselves. , Similarly, Bajunid (1996, p. 56) argues that the richness of Islamic teaching is absent from concepts of leadership. Buckingham: Open University Press. Ranade, M. (Litvin, 1997, pp. Lumby, J. The dynamic culture of Dalin's(1995) typology of schools. Our intent in this paper is to provide a retrospective of the past few years to provide some helpful insights into the change process in school systems. Archer, M. Good schools of this were 1965 the context of change a story of change - the Halton effective school project school effectiveness can inform school improvement the possibilities and challenges of school improvement school . Lopez, G. R. These elements are but the tangible appearance of the underpinning set of values and beliefs, which shape the intended outcomes of the educational enterprise within a school. Revisiting the Culture of the School and the Problem of Change. But the real purpose of schools was, is, and always will be about learning. & Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. This paper aims to explore how the formation of Palestinian teachers' professional identity was affected by their experiences during the violent conflict known as the Second Intifada (2000-2005) and its impact on the school social culture. Changing the culture of a school or of a leadership development program is therefore not a finite endeavor. M. (1996). Hallinger, P. Chan, B. Shah, S. J. This book assists people inside and outside schools to . Preparation and development programs therefore face a twofold challenge: In the next section we shall examine the issues of culture and leadership preparation and development. While there may be commonalities within a whole school, in practice each of these levels will differ in the detail of its culture. Salaman 143158). Mabey ), The Life and Work of Teachers (pp. International Journal for Leadership in Education, 4(4), 401414. In an increasingly complex, diverse and unpredictable world, it is necessary for schools and those working with them . We need to work in organisations, collectively developing an understanding of where they are going and what is important. & M. However, these may be taken-for-granted, and only apparent to those designing and delivering development when a lack of fit is pointed out by specific groups. Washington Middle School 716 E. La Habra Boulevard La Habra, CA 90631 Phone: 562-690-2374. By continuing to use the site Gender and race in leadership preparation: a constrained discourse. Prosser, J. Metaphorically culture is like the air we breathe; all around us, vital, and yet difficult to discern and to change. London: Sage. Panel 3. There are no essential, innate and immutable characteristics of race, age, gender, disability or other demographic categories. Rather, in leadership every person has a role to play (Bryant, 1998, p. 12) undertaking a leadership act as need and personal understanding or skill require. (2001). House, R. J. . Organisational Culture and Leadership. All leadership development has embedded cultural values. In the education sector, the PLC provides a pathway to a learning organisation: one which comprises 'a group of people who take an active, re ective, collaborative, | Free trial Skip to page content. Gupta Towards a framework of investigating leadership praxis in intercultural. , Hargreaves (1995) developed a different typological model in which he distinguishes formal, welfarist, hothouse, and survivalist school cultures based on the educational priorities of the school in the context of external market environments. Watch Events 3 Live Search by typing your school, event, association. Cultural processes, the second element of a systems perspective, will be reflected in almost every dimension of the operation of the school. Litvin (1997) attacks such essentialism, ascribing the taxonomy of groups to a Western Platonic purportedly scientific paradigm. Lumby et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. There is relatively little attention paid to middle leaders such as department heads and teacher leaders (Bush & Jackson, 2002). London: Penguin. Those undertaking preparation for development may have differing value priorities which are culturally shaped. Those attempting to loosen the bonds of dominant cultures implicit in preparation and development programs research and write within the very dominant orientations they are trying to question (Gronn, 2001). Goddard, T. As we shall demonstrate later in the chapter, it is getting to understand these values and beliefs that is a critical first step for educational leaders in developing the skills to manage, develop and evolve culture in their school. Walker, A. (2001). The organization's relationship to its environment. Decisions to encourage acceptance or critique of the dominant culture and its effect lie at the moral heart of supporting the education of leaders. Mapping the conceptual terrain of leadership: a critical point for departure for cross-cultural studies. Cultural sensitivity demands consideration of how leadership is dispersed amongst the players within schools and the regional administration in a specific context before designing national and local systems in response. (1997). School culture . In China the relatively low contact hours enjoyed by teachers combined with a culture of comfort with peer critique has resulted in teacher groups working together for a considerable proportion of their time to achieve change (Bush & Qiang, 2000), while principals spend much of their time on operational administration (Washington, 1991). Cultural complexity offers only multiple complications in assessing fit, not safe generalized conclusions. Research has shown the principal to be a significant factor in school effectiveness (Hallinger & Heck, 1999). Nick Foskett, Print publication date: July 2008 (2001). Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Hofstede, G. Sparrow, P. (Eds. International Studies in Educational Administration. 206207), There are no essential, innate and immutable characteristics of race, age, gender, disability or other demographic categories. In (1985). , Leader development across cultures. & Ribbins Tuition is $13,400 for the highest grade offered. Cultural isolation is difficult, even in societies which seek strongly to conserve traditional cultural values within their educational systems. The product will be a mosaic of sub-cultures, which may reinforce the cultural objectives of the whole school or, in some cases, appear as counter cultures that challenge the organizational hegemony. In relation to leader preparation and development culture has been framed largely as an issue of diffusion, particularly of Western values and practice applied to the development of leaders in all parts of the globe (Leithwood & Duke, 1998). Its view of the nature of truth and reality how does it define what is true and what is not and how is truth defined in the context of the social or natural world? (2005). In this line, a study . 420421). Throughout the world a great deal of effort and money has been expended in the name of educational change. 8-9; Stoll and Fink 1995). (Eds. A welfarist culture, alternatively, emphasizes the individual needs of pupils. In In fact, Hofstedes work shows very great variation within regions. Such reculturing (Fullan, 2001) is perhaps the biggest challenge to school leaders, though, for it will certainly generate conflict, contradiction and destabilization as part of the process as DiPaola (2003, p. 153) has indicated: (1990). Choices will continue as culture evolves and the perspectives of all players mutate over time. The GLOBE project was undertaken in a business context. Bryant, M. Schools with strong, positive cultures feature service-oriented staffs, a collegial ambience, celebratory rituals, supportive social networks, and humor. The dynamic culture of , Stier insists that the latter cannot be achieved by content competencies alone. Dorfman C For example, North American and European development assert a cultural commitment to inclusion and equality for all. Conceptualizing the schools culture through such a systems approach helps clarify the challenges for school leaders in relation to culture. A more flexible and subtle shaping will be needed. The second is that cultural plurality is the norm in many educational systems and within most individual schools and colleges. The Place of Culture in Social Theory. Bhindi P. International Journal for Leadership in Education, 4(4), 309319. (1986). Such simple categorizations provide briefly interesting analytical tools to assist school leaders in gaining an initial understanding of their school culture, but are of limited wider utility. Bjerke, B. (Eds. Dorfman and House (2004) suggest three competing propositions: that cultural congruence in development and leadership is more effective; that cultural difference can be stimulating and bring about positive change; that leadership is universal activity. Sapre, P. J. Speci cally, many scientists believe (Henting, 1997; Bruner, 2000; Stoll & Fink, 2000; Faulstich, 1999) that high-quality and successful changes in education can be achieved by introducing a culture of learning which espouses the holism and integrity of human beings. Iles, P. However, Lumby et al. A similar situation is the case in Norway and in Japan (Moller, 2000). Deal, T. Hooijberg, R. Zhang, J. H. For example, Bryant (1998), researching the leadership culture of Native Americans in the United States, suggests a number of cultural assumptions embedded in American leadership: The result is a simultaneous requirement for a task and people orientation. In the absence of a similarly complex or authoritative study of the cultural factors in educational leadership, the design of much preparation and development seems to adhere to an assumed commonality and to avoid detailed engagement with the culturally contingent (Lumby et al., forthcoming), resulting in an international curriculum for school leadership preparation (Bush & Jackson, 2002, pp. , & Develops two "ideal culture" typologies (traditional and collegial) and discusses each for its heuristic, conceptual, methodological, and explanatory potential in school effectiveness and school . Wong, K. The processes of globalization have been a significant feature of all dimensions of society and economy over the last three decades. , ), Effective educational leadership (pp. Ali (1996, p. 7) argues that the Jabria school of Muslim thought, influential in the Arab world, might rule out systematic planning as to plan is in conflict with predestination. School leaders work within pressing cultures which sustain themselves by multiple conscious and unconscious mechanisms (Lumby with Coleman, 2007). (2001, October). , V. International Journal for Leadership in Education, 4(4), 367381. Hofstede, G. (2001). Spicing it op: Blending perspectives of leadership and cultural values from Hispanic American and African American women scholars. ISBN: 9781135277017. & Leader and leadership development may therefore be as effectively focused on teacher leaders as on principals in these two countries. M. & International Studies in Educational Administration. org/10.4135/9781446219362 Keywords: In Saudi Arabia a command system is accepted by culture and tradition and schools have, in any case, little power to take decisions. The school leader is therefore at the fulcrum point, subject to exogenous effects of culture, refracted in part through his or her leadership development and personal cultural locus, and in turn engaging with endogenous culture in the school and its community. Cultures consequences: management in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, although there is relatively little empirical data on which to draw, the issue of fit between culture and the conception, development and enactment of leadership has become a key concern. 206207). Walker, A. (2002). Mansour, J. M. Notwithstanding these different positions, knowledge of how leadership is conceptualized and enacted locally is a sine qua non of successful design. Imperial Middle School 1450 S. Schoolwood Dr. La Habra, CA 90631 Phone: 562-690-2344. (1991). Sarason, S. (forthcoming) distinguish transmission models, where experts pass on theoretical knowledge (often indiscriminately, as discussed earlier), and process models which use more community based styles of learning. School culture, therefore, is most clearly "seen" in the ways people relate to and work together; the management of the school's structures, systems and physical environment; and the extent to which there is a learning focus for both pupils and adults, including the nature of that focus. 178190). Lakomski, G. (2001). Trond Thirdly, it offers an international perspective by looking at the micro relationship of culture to the multiple identities and cultures of individuals and organizations. and 'learning school'; and contacts with leading experts in this area of work which led to identification of additional literature. For the purposes of this chapter, these two snapshots highlight issues that result from consideration of culture, such as who are the primary leaders and how might the leadership theory used in their development be shaped in response to differing ontological, epistemological and axiological assumptions? Aitken, R. This may be due in part to the fact that understanding culture and its connection to leadership in education is a poorly researched field. , While the former classroom and lecture based model is widespread, they suggest that the process model of problem solving, mentoring and internship holds more hope of reflecting indigenous cultures. Foskett, N. Stier, J. C+. Corporate rituals: The rites and fituals of corporate life. In this set article, Professor Louise Stoll explores the relationship between school culture and school improvement. (1996). Bell Fink, D. They begin by discussing the historical, social and organizational forces that create continuity in education; which . Culture can then be viewed in shorthand as: They suggest the spiritual values embedded in the teaching of Vivekananda, Tagore and Ghandi would provide a more culturally appropriate basis for the leadership of education than the currently Western values which relate in part to the colonial history of the nation. (2004), Understanding valuation processes; exploring the linkage between motivation and action. Cranston, N. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 1(2), 95117. These may be through processes of exclusion or processes of inclusion, resulting in a relatively homogeneous or diverse student body, but in either case the outcome will be a pupil profile which reflects a particular set of cultural characteristics. Essentially it makes a questionable assumption. Bjork, L. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, v6 n1 p23-46 1995 Explores the relevance of culture to school effectiveness and school improvement. In part this reflects a revolt against the perceived global homogenization of leadership. In the context of education this is seen through the promotion of policies and practices around the globe that have been initially developed in the west, based often on western approaches to educational management and the key concept of economic rationalism. ABSTRACT The relevance of the concept of culture to school effectiveness and school improvement is explored. 17). (1996). Stoll and Fink (1996) created a typology of five types of school culture: moving (dynamic and successful determination to keep developing), cruising (rather complacent, often with privileged learners who achieve despite little school dynamism), strolling (neither particularly effective or ineffective, but long term not keeping pace with change), struggling (ineffective but trying to address issues), and finally sinking (ineffective and not improving). One dimension of fit may relate to ease with receiving positive and negative feedback and from whom. No one theory of leadership is implied. It will therefore involve engagement with the moral choices which lie at the heart of leadership. The former has received very little and the latter a good deal more attention (Gronn, 2001; Heck, 1996). It may be limiting, ineffective and ethically dubious, particularly in those countries with a history of previous colonization and suppression of indigenous cultures. Culture is the set of beliefs, values and behaviors, both explicit and implicit, which underpin an organization and provide the basis of action and decision making, and is neatly summarized as the way we do things around here. The first is the blending of western (or, more correctly, exogenous) cultural values with existing cultures to generate a new cultural environment, a model sometimes described as the melting pot perspective.