School Culture

Prepared by :Mohd Raimi ( GS 37388 )Nur Haziqah (GS 39183)Noris Shaheraa (GS 39493 )

What is school culture????

“The way we do things around

here.” Jennifer James. International Confederation of Principals World

Conference Address. August 16, 2011.

What is School Culture?

Paul E. Heckman (1993), school culture lies in the beliefs of the teachers,

students, and principals of the school.

Historical patterns that include the norms, values, beliefs, ceremonies,

rituals, traditions, and myths understood by members of the school

community (Stolp & Smith, 1994).

School culture refers to the way people perceive, think, and feel

about things of a school (Erickson 1987).

Phillips (1993), characterizes school culture as the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that

characterize a school in terms of: how people treat and feel about each other, the extent to which

people feel included and appreciated, and rituals and

traditions reflecting collaboration and collegiality.

Example of School Culture

Example of School Culture

Example of School Culture

Example of School Culture

CHARACTERISTICS OF SCHOOL CULTURE

NORMS

BELIEFVALUES

TRADITIONS

NormsIdea that can be put into the form of a statement

specify what member should do, unwritten of shared belief of most group members.

Belief Conviction of the truth of some statement or phenomenon especially of based on evidence

ValueThe commonly held standard of what is acceptable or unacceptable, right or wrong in community or

society

Consist of believe and practices health or observe by specific human group that have been past down

from previously environmentTradition

Difference Characteristics of School Culture

Health School Culture Characteristics

Toxic School Culture Characteristics

Faculty and staff feel valued and esteemed by the principal,

students, parents, and central office administrators

Staff feel as if they are treated poorly, disrespected, and as if they were part

of the furniture.

Every faculty and staff member feels responsible for every student’s learning to high levels.

Faculty and staff blame students for their lack of progress and achievement

Underlying norms are collegiality, collaboration, continuous

learning, openness to new ideas, problem solving, improvement,

and hard work

Administrators and faculty are unwilling to change. Interpersonal tone

is oppositional and prickly. Collaboration is discouraged

CONTINUE…Data, problem solving, and decision making are shared with faculty, staff, students,

and parents.

Principals see all data and make all decisions.

Faculty and staff feel motivated, productive,

successful, and mutually supportive.

Faculty and staff feel exhausted, unproductive, frustrated, and

unhappy, unsupportive of colleagues with occasional hostility

among staff

Rituals and traditions celebrate student

accomplishment, teacher innovation, and parental

commitment

Individual and group innovations and achievements go unnoticed

Robert E. Quinn (1988)

CLAN ADHOCRACY

HIRARCHY MARKET

Robert E. Quinn & Kim S. Cameron (1999)

Hierarchy Market Clan Adhocracy

04/28/2023 Competing Values Framework 17

Clan(Collaborative)

Adhocracy(Create)

Hierarchy(Control)

Market(Compete)

Stability & Control

Flexibility & Discretion

Inte

rnal

Foc

us &

Inte

grat

ion

Exte

rnal

Foc

us &

Diff

eren

tiat

ion

Competing Values Framework

04/28/2023Assessing Organizations and Their Cultures 18

Clan• Shared values & goals• Cohesion• Participativeness• “We-ness”

Hierarchy• Rules• Specialization• Meritocracy• Hierarchy• Separate

ownership• Impersonality• Accountability

Adhocracy• Innovative• Pioneering• Entrepreneurship• Creativity• “Cutting edge”

Market• Transactions• External constituencies• Market Mechanisms• Profitability• Market strength• Market niches• Customer bases

Flexibility and Discretion

Stability and ControlInte

rnal

Foc

us a

nd I

nteg

rati

onExternal Focus and D

ifferentiation

An organization that concentrates on internal maintenance with flexibility, concern for people, and sensitivity for customers

Typically as a friendly place to work where people share a lot of themselves. It is like an extended family with best friends at work.

Leaders are thought of as mentors, coaches, and, perhaps, even as parent figures

Clan

An organization that focuses on internal maintenance with a need for stability and control.

Characterized as a formalized and structured place to work.

Procedures and well-defined processes govern what people do.

Effective leaders are good coordinators, organizers, and efficiency experts.

Hierarchy

an organization that concentrates on external positioning with a high degree of flexibility and individuality.

It is characterized as a dynamic, entrepreneurial, and creative workplace

People stick their necks out and take risks. Effective leadership is visionary, innovative, and

risk-oriented.

Adhocracy

an organization that focuses on external maintenance with a need for stability and control.

It is a results-oriented workplace. Leaders are hard-driving producers, directors, and

competitors. They are aggressive and demanding. The glue that holds the organization together is an

emphasis on winning. The long-term concern is on competitive actions and achieving stretch goals and targets.

Market

ISSUE HAPPEN AT SCHOOL1. School X is located at rural area and the school as a whole is in a group

of low-performing schools.2. In terms of achievement, the school is not able to give a good

performance whether academic, co-curricular and student personality.3. School X also showed no increase in public examinations such as PT3

and SPM.4. Attendance records of students to school is low and a very high

percentage of disciplinary problems.5. Uncontrolled state schools where students are not managed well and

the students are not monitored and controlled by a single control system.

6. School culture are too negative at all levels as administrators, academic teachers, support staff and students.

7. Student involvement in school activities at an acceptable level. 8. Teachers also lack motivation and are not clear about their

responsibilities and duties as an educator. 9. There are teachers who do not obey the command tasks such as get to

school late. There are many teachers who abuse sick certificate for a holiday.

10.Besides that, the culture in the school reflects the gap between new teachers and old teachers. For the record, there are some cases of quarrels and disputes between the teachers.

ISSUE HAPPEN AT SCHOOL11.In addition, the school environment is not conducive because of poorly

managed. School facilities are inadequate and inappropriate for a healthy environment for teachers and students.

12.This negative cultural impact on student achievement in academics, co-curricular activities and personality and consequently the overall impact on school achievement.

What should be done by the school to make a 360-degree transformation to improve school

performance?

THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTUREASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT (OCAI)

Beyond Rational Management by R.E Quinn

Flexibility

Internal External

Control

Mentor Innovator

1. Understanding yourself and others

2. Interpersonal communication

3. Developing subordinates

1. Team building2. Participative decision making

3. Conflict management

1. Receiving and organizing information

2. Evaluating routine information

3. Responding to routine information

1. Planning2. Organizing3. Controlling

1. Taking initiative2. Goal setting

3. Delegating effectively

1. Personal productivity and motivation2. Motivating others3. Time and stress

management

1. Building and maintaining a power base

2. Negotiating agreement and commitment3. Negotiating and

selling ideas

1. Living with change2. Creative thinking3. Managing change

Facilitator

Monitor

Director

Producer

Broker

Coordinator