Thinking About School Culture
School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It
by Steve Gruenert & Todd Whitaker
The authors state, “This book is intended to help you better understand the general concept of school culture, learn the strengths and weaknesses of your specific school culture, and –perhaps most important – influence your school culture or, if necessary, shape a new one.” This book is the first book I’ve read on school culture. It is short in length and long in wisdom! I’d love to participate in a book chat using this book.
Some takeaways for me:
Culture is the group’s personality whereas climate is the group’s attitude.
Culture is the way we do things around here whereas climate is the way we feel around here.
Culture determines whether or not improvement is possible whereas climate is the first thing that improves when positive change is made.
Morale: The authors state, “Morale- the degree of happiness among school staff – is particularly reflective of a school’s culture and has a strong effect on school climate.”
Types of school cultures:
Collaborative: The authors refer to this as the “nirvana” of school culture. This culture embraces learning for all adults and students. The focus is on student achievement and teachers are committed to improvement in teaching and learning.
Comfortable-Collaborative: In this culture teachers are focused on being happy. They avoid sharing feedback or alternative viewpoints in favor of remaining nice to each other. The authors state, “In the same way that good is the enemy of great (Collins, 2001), comfortable is the enemy of true collaboration."
Contrived-Collegial: The Contrived-Collegial culture is meant to support new approaches and places teachers together in the hopes of getting them to collaborate. These relationships can become very superficial if the push to change happens too quickly.
Balkanized: A Balkanized culture encourages competition among small groups. In a Balkanized culture collaboration only occurs with cliques of like-minded staff. The authors state, “If there is a conflict between what the principal says to do and what the clique says to do, the latter will tend to win out.”
Fragmented: In the Fragmented culture teachers do their own thing. The authors state, “Meetings may feel like meaningless rituals, with most teachers watching the clock so that they can get back to their silos.” In the Fragmented culture teachers are friendly to each other but have no desire to interact professionally to discuss best practices or student achievement.
Toxic: As I read through the description of a toxic school culture I was very surprised to learn that a toxic school may appear to be a very happy place and toxic teachers may be very self-confident. The authors state, “…when teachers in a toxic culture collaborate, their purpose for doing so might not align with the goal of foster student achievement. Instead, their purpose may be simply to protect what they value most: themselves.” Teachers in a toxic school will avoid professional development to avoid the personal responsibility of changing their ways.
The remainder of the book focuses on how to assess a school’s culture and how to transform it. There are a number of “culture busters” listed throughout the book that I want to keep in mind including:
*If you want to bust a culture celebrate Mondays.
*If you want to bust a culture praise and compliment risk taking.
*If you want to bust a culture have fun in meetings that aren’t supposed to be fun.
The following quote is my biggest takeaway from the book: “Once we learn about our culture, we can no longer be its victims because we have choices-comply with it, change it, or leave.” For me this is such an empowering statement. No matter what I have choices. I can go along, make some waves, or walk away. The choice is mine.