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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
The most trusted guide to school culture, updated with current challenges and new solutions Shaping School Culture is the classic guide to exceptional school leadership, featuring concrete guidance on influencing the subtle symbolic features of schools that provide meaning, belief, and faith. Written by renowned experts in the area of school culture, this book tackles the increasing challenges facing public schools and provides clear, candid suggestions for more effective symbolic leadership. This new third edition has been revised to reflect the reality of schools today, including the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, federal reforms such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), state sponsored improvement programs, and other major issues that impact organizational culture and the role of school leaders. Each chapter features new examples and cases that illustrate persistent problems, spelling out key cultural implications and offering concrete examples of overcoming the challenges while maintaining a meaningful learning environment. The chapter on toxic schools continues to provide the field's most trusted advice on navigating this rocky terrain, and the discussion's focus on how to manage negativity remains especially integral to besieged school administrators across the U.S. Recent years have jolted the nation's school system with a number of new developments that spell problems for the cultural tapestry of schools. This book provides expert perspective and sage, doable advice for administrators tending to external pressures while sustaining or evolving a more positive school culture. * Navigate new challenges including Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and waning confidence and faith * Turn around a toxic school culture with confidence and success * Foster a culture of passion, purpose, and meaning * Adopt a more active form of symbolic leadership to support students, faculty, staff, parents, and community Test scores as the primary metric, relentless reforms, waning public support, and timid initiatives wrapped in bureaucratic packaging: while among the most prominent issues administrators face are only the tip of the iceberg. Shaping School Culture charts a route through competing pressures to help educational leaders hew a positive learning environment for schools.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
The Authors
Introduction
Cultural Drift in Schools
Reviving Cultural Beliefs and Practices
School Culture and Its Heritage
Culture and Productivity: The Research Base and Impact
Culture and School Performance
Functions and Impact of Culture
Symbolic Leadership
Schools' Need for Enhancement—or Enchantment?
Part I: The Elements of Culture
Chapter 1: Schools as Tribes: The Power to Transform
Ganado Primary School: A Desert Jewel
Ganado's Mission and Rituals
A Culture of Learning
Students as Leaders
Ganado Lore
Ganado's Cultural Network
Chapter 2: Artifacts, Architecture, and Routines: Symbols of Culture
What Are Symbols?
The Power of Symbols
Symbols and Signs—Messages and Meaning
Chapter 3: History: The Value of Lore and Tradition
The Importance of History
Fortifying Cultural Roots
Nurturing the Future
Dealing with History
Back to the Future
Exhuming the Past
Chapter 4: Myth, Vision, and Values: Identifying a School's Soul
Mission and Purpose in Schools
Purpose and the Meaning of Success
Values, Beliefs, Assumptions, and Norms
The Demystification of Schools
Chapter 5: Stories and Tales: Passing Along the Vision
Resurgence of Stories
Stories as Solutions
Who Stories Are About
The Focus of Stories
Gathering People around the Educational Campfire
The Positive Role of Stories
Chapter 6: Rituals: Embedding Purpose and Meaning
The Power of Ritual
Rituals in Schools
Reviving Rituals as Keys to Significance
Types of Rituals
Classroom Rituals
Chapter 7: Ceremonies and Traditions: Culture in Action
Types of Ceremonies
Elements of Successful Ceremonies
Traditions
Traditions and Ceremonies: Two Cases
Part II: The Symbolic Role of School Leaders
Chapter 8: Conveyors of Culture: The Informal Network
The Supportive Cultural Network
Noxious Networks
Chapter 9: Weaving the Cultural Tapestry: Seven Schools
Charles Baker, Wheaton Warrenville South High School
Rick DuFour, Adlai E. Stevenson High School
Hawthorne Elementary School
Four Schools, Four Cultures
Pathways to Fruitful Cultures
Passages to Successful Cultures
Chapter 10: Transforming Toxic Cultures: Renewal Strategies
The Negative Side of School Culture
Characteristics of Toxic Cultures
How Toxic Cultures Develop
Pathways to Negativity
Toxicity Transformed: Revisiting Jefferson High
Antidotes for Negativism
Chapter 11: Building Trust: Connecting to Parents and Communities
The Importance of Parents and Community
School Culture, Internal and External
Disconnections of the Past
A Culture of Respect
A Climate of Trust
Ensuring Recognition
Building a Brand to Cement Ties
Ties to Parents and Community
Chapter 12: Firming Up Culture: Eight Essential Roles
Reading and Sizing Up the Current School Culture
Shaping a School Culture: The Roles of School Leaders
Artistry and Leadership
Chapter 13: Living with Paradox: The Bifocal Principal
Paradoxes of the Principalship
Principals and Paradoxes
Good Leaders Give Mixed Signals
Leading with Paradox
Unearthing Paradoxes of School Leaders' Work
Chapter 14: Achieving Balance: Meeting Cultural and Structural Demands
Symbolic Functions of Structure
Purposeful Play
Final Thoughts
Chapter 15: Conclusion: A New Story
Entrenched Beliefs Are Resilient
Every Student Succeeds Act: New Story?
Re-storying Schools
Paradox, Culture, and Leadership
Conclusion
References
Index
End User License Agreement
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Guide
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
List of Tables
Chapter 12: Firming Up Culture: Eight Essential Roles
Table 12.1 School Leader Positive and Negative Roles
Shaping School Culture
Terrence E. DealKent D. Peterson
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Praise for Shaping School Culture
“One of the things I have always loved about the work of Terry Deal and Kent Peterson is that they totally understand the reality of the world of schools without becoming captive to it. They are able to rise above the daily challenges to offer a vision of what is possible. They understand the reality of school culture while also knowing it is the profound role of the leader to shape that culture. This book is a must read for any school leader who yearns for something more than the day to day frustrations of the work.”
—Paul Houston, Executive Director, Emeritus, American Association of School Administrators and President, Center for Empowered Leadership
“The updated Shaping School Culture shows us that there is no ‘stickiness’ to hard-fought school change and improvement efforts without a deep commitment to developing and sustaining a productive culture. With this book, Deal and Peterson remind education leaders of how to do just that.”
—Karen Kearney, Director, Leadership Initiatives, CA Comprehensive Center, WestEd
“Some things only get better with time. Fine wines…and this classic work by my friends Terry Deal and Kent Peterson. The world of American schools has been spinning furiously since the first edition of Shaping School Culture appeared. What has been missing—until now—has been a road map that school leaders may use to navigate the new and perplexing twists and turns as they attempt to understand, craft and sustain their school cultures. In this playful, honest, inventive, timely and approachable little volume the authors not only describe “the store” but hand over the keys to our beleaguered profession.”
—Roland S. Barth, Author and Educator
“Peterson and Deal are the fathers of the school culture movement and the field is finally catching up to their wisdom and the impact of school culture on student performance. This book is a practical and detailed guide that can be applied effectively in any school.”
—Anthony Muhammad, CEO, New Frontier 21 Consulting
“Educators are now being urged to adopt the same overly rational practices that many other successful organizations have rejected. In this updated and thought-provoking book, Deal and Peterson use contemporary examples, cases, and policy trends to provide a fresh perspective on schools. Throughout the volume the reader is re-oriented to the elements of school culture that matter most. Folklore, heroes, revival of old ways, paradox, and even the avoidance of toxic cultures all have a role to play in this reorientation. An essential read for school administrators seeking to stave off inappropriate change by reshaping schools from within. A refreshing alternative to today's arid accountability environment.”
—Sharon Conley, PhD, Professor, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara
“The richness of examples, the connections to student achievement, and the diversity of stories all contribute to this latest version of Deal and Peterson's trilogy on Shaping School Culture. These two thought leaders have astutely blended seminal research on culture and effective schools, current best practices about leadership, as well as amazing testimonials to create more than just a “how to” guide. This book is an incredible tool for cultivating new and deeper understanding about how to successfully navigate the complex world of school culture.”
—Karen M. Dyer, Director, Education and Nonprofit Sector Center for Creative Leadership
Preface
This book represents a third refinement of an idea that started in 1990 as The Principal's Role in Shaping School Culture—a best-seller for the US Department of Education. We expanded the ideas and examples, later publishing Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership (1999). We substantially enlarged and developed it into the second edition, Shaping School Culture: Pitfalls, Paradoxes, and Promises (2009). In this third edition, we needed to address new issues affecting schools related to external reforms, pressures, and narrow views of the purpose of schools. Thus we update No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its replacement at the federal level, Every Student Can Succeed (ESCS). We have added significant material on paradox, updated and expanded illustrations, added new cases and dropped others, as well as introduced some new ideas about stories and their power to shape what we believe.
As usual, we received a lot of help and inspiration from school leaders in writing this edition. From across the country and indeed the world, readers of the previous editions have shared ideas and examples. They once again confirm that stories and examples make a difference to them in how they think about their schools and deal with issues of school culture.
It is clearly time to reconsider and rethink the importance of school culture in today's educational environment. Students have the right to the best schools we can provide. There is little doubt that teaching staff members and administrators can lead the way to successful cultures in which all students learn. Of late, we believe far too much emphasis has been given to reforming schools from outside through policies and mandates such as NCLB and ESCS. For too long the core values and beliefs of educators have been replaced by external mandates, heavy-handed testing, and draconian criticism rather than support. New laws may or may not substantially alter this trajectory. Too little attention has been paid to how schools can be shaped from within, as our colleague Roland Barth (1991) demonstrates.
Research and examples of excellent practice drawn from education and business show that top-flight schools are possible in every community. This book pulls together the best that we know about to provide insights and examples of ways teachers, administrators, parents, and community can create positive, caring, joyful, and intellectually challenging schools and, if necessary, transform toxic cultures.
The importance of school culture and the symbolic roles of leaders in shaping cultural patterns and practices remain at the core of this revised book. Although policy makers and reformers are still pressing for tight structures and rational assessments, it is important to remember that these changes cannot succeed without deeply ingrained cultural support at the local level. The existential tenor of a school is key to achievement and student learning. In this book, we have expanded the research base demonstrating how culture influences school functioning. Positive cultural features foster success, and dysfunctional cultures damage belief, faith, and progress. We also draw on new evidence from the world of business, linking culture with performance.
We continue to emphasize the importance of mission and purpose because these elements are central features of culture. We have added further examples of the types of rituals and traditions found in quality schools, culture building and development, and share new case examples of the ways stories and history are used to build commitment and motivation. We also have added important new illustrations of the ways social media is used to reinforce school culture. The case materials on ways leaders mold culture now offer new illustrations and numerous useful examples. We have expanded our understanding of toxic cultures—negative places where the rituals, traditions, and values have gone sour and threaten the very soul of a school. Finally, we have extended our discussion of the connection between the culture of the school and parents and the local community with special attention to engaging diverse groups, so that this topic now receives the attention it deserves.
The new examples and cases were collected while we were working with schools and organizations across the globe. A number of excellent examples from other researchers of schools trying to transform themselves have provided rich new illustrations of shaping culture. We believe that it was important to maintain our previous focus on bifocal leadership and paradox to expand those ideas. Even though we added new material, we wanted the book to be readable and concise, with engaging examples from education and business. We think readers will find the mix of new stories interesting.
We focus on the elements of successful cultures and the ways leaders from every level—teachers, principals, parents, and community members—shape a school's identity and image. Successful schools possess leaders who can read, assess, and reinforce core rituals, traditions, and values. Successful schools have leadership emanating from many people—leadership that maintains and supports learning for all students, as well as learning for all staff members. Successful cultures have leaders who know deep down in their hearts how important schools are to all children and want to make them the best places they can be. Successful cultures have leaders who can cope with the paradoxes of their work, build positive relations, and take advantage of the opportunities of the future. In this book, we hope to support, encourage, and nourish these kinds of leaders for schools.
We begin the book by introducing the impact of culture on school reform and student learning. Drawing on organizational literature and research, we emphasize the importance of culture to achievement and other key educational outcomes.
In part 1, “The Elements of Culture,” we lay out the elements of culture, the basic building blocks people cobble together in creating a meaningful workplace. In chapter 1, we present a now-classic case study of a school that transformed itself by reworking its cultural profile. The school, Ganado Primary, moved from a dismal place to a school with visionary leadership, a deeply held purpose, and rituals and traditions that build commitment and motivation. In chapter 2 we explore the potency of symbols in everything we do day-to-day. We highlight architecture, mottoes, words, and actions. In chapter 3 we turn back the clock to reaffirm the importance of the past in determining current cultural patterns and ways. Central to any school culture is its history—the past events that have shaped the present. In chapter 4 we turn to the legacy of history: myth, mission, purpose, and values. We underscore the importance of a meaningful purpose and widely shared values in adding spark and vitality to a school. In chapter 5 we show how current stories and tales add to the stream of cultural energy and perpetuate important lessons. We burrow beneath everyday routine to showcase its ritualistic significance and variety in chapter 6. In chapter 7, we ratchet ritual to a more grand and episodic plane: celebrations put culture on display. We introduce in chapter 8 the cast of positive cultural players whose real work outside official duties is keeping cultural patterns and practices intact and on track. New attention to negative cultural players emphasizes the problems of toxic characters.
In part 2, “The Symbolic Role of School Leaders,” we move from concepts to application. We discuss cultural metamorphosis and transformation in chapter 9. Drawing on seven case examples (one a new case from North Carolina), we demonstrate how leadership can build school culture through consideration to purpose, energy, and all the elements of culture. In chapter 10 we show what happens when culture turns toxic or dysfunctional. Drawing on extensive experience in schools and new cases, we identify features of the dark side of some schools and provide antidotes for these poisonous situations. Chapter 11 examines the key symbolic relationship among the school, parents, and the community with new attention of bringing diverse communities together. In chapter 12 we describe the multiple roles that leaders take on in shaping the culture, including historian, anthropological sleuth, visionary, icon champion, potter, poet, actor, and healer. We reconnect the technical aspects of management with the symbolic aspects of leadership in chapter 13 to create the idea of a bifocal principal who thinks structurally and symbolically. Very few issues in education are either-or, and principals who deal with paradox will find their jobs much less stressful and more rewarding. School leaders who want to nurture and sustain successful cultures will have to cope with paradox and take advantage of rational and ethical opportunities they confront. This approach leads to the ideal of a school in chapter 14, where metrics and magic apply. These paradoxes and challenges can shape the direction and hope for leaders as this millennium progresses and new laws shape schools. Chapter 15 reviews the events leading up to the recent replacement of NCLB, the long-standing federal effort to reform schools, with ESSA. Will this new effort bring a sequel to the prevailing punitive testing story? Will it give more discretion to local schools to shape their own destinies? Or will the states simply mimic the same rigid policies that undermined the impact of NCLB. Irrespective, school leaders can make a dramatic difference by focusing on the symbolic features of their schools and creating their local version of a meaningful and successful enterprise. For far too long, schools have been buffeted and pressured by external reforms focused on testing, accountability, and narrow measures of success. In this edition we hope to return the attention of school leaders to the real foundation of success—creating a local story, giving educators pause to believe in themselves again and renewing the spirit of public education in America.
Acknowledgments
The Deal-Peterson team has been around for many years talking, listening to educators, and looking at schools. As with any duo, there are others around us who make substantial contributions to what we write. The first to receive our enduring thanks is Lee Bolman. He now teaches at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His work with Terry Deal seeps into this book in a number of places. Thanks, Lee. You have one of the best conceptual minds in the business.
Thanks also to those whose work made this book possible: all our former administrative assistants put in hours and hours. We also express gratitude to our many graduate assistants, now colleagues, who have moved on to important positions— Frances Wills, Kubilay Gok, Nathaniel Bray, Shelby Cosner, Valli Warren, and Yi-Hwa Liou—who did a wonderful job chasing things down, reviewing drafts, continuing to discuss new cases, and pushing our ideas.
Over the years our colleagues Alan Kennedy, Bob Slater, Gary Crow, Linton Deck, Pam Robbins, Patrick Faverty, Rick Ginsberg and Sharon Conley, have influenced our thinking and clarity. Thanks also to students in our graduate and undergraduate classes and all the school leaders who have shared with us their stories, challenges, and successes. We especially want to thank Bob Herring, Bill Harrison, Eric Prater, Rebecca Royal, Sigmund Boloz, Steve McNeal, Terry Grier, and, Tina Salzman, who shared their stories of school culture building over many, many years. There is nothing like fresh minds and new blood combined with the wisdom of experience to enrich a book and get your ideas straight.
One colleague, Joan Vydra, deserves special mention. One of the most culturally attuned principals anywhere, she generously shared her experiences and allowed us to adapt a number of contemporary cases she wrote. Thanks also to Karen Kearney and Laraine Roberts for ideas, encouragement, and ongoing support. Donna Redman was a terrific coauthor for articles on the weaknesses of state-sponsored mentors and professional learning community efforts.
Our wives, Sandra Newport Deal and Ann Herrold-Peterson, contributed love and support that helped fuel our creativity and energy. Our children—Kent's sons, Erik, Russell, and Scott, and Terry's daughter, Janie—have given us a real boost along the way. Without family this kind of work cannot be completed.
We greatly appreciate the encouragement, support, and patience of Marjorie McAneny, Kate Gagnon, and Lesley Iura and others at Jossey-Bass. They have put in the time and backing necessary through all these iterations of the book.
We dedicate this work to the leaders of America's public schools. They can and do make a real difference in the lives of children. Their stories and value-driven actions serve so many. Keep the faith.
Spring 2016Terrence E. DealSan Luis Obispo, CaliforniaKent D. PetersonMadison, Wisconsin
The Authors
Terrence E. Deal's career has encompassed several roles, including that of police officer, teacher, principal, district office administrator, and professor. He has taught at the Stanford and Harvard graduate schools of education, Vanderbilt's Peabody College, and the University of Southern California's Rossier School. He is currently founder of the Deal Leadership Institute, University of La Verne. He lectures and consults internationally with business, health care, educational, religious, and military organizations. He specializes in leadership, organizational theory and behavior, and culture. Deal is the coauthor of more than forty books, including Corporate Cultures (with Allan A. Kennedy, 1982)—an international best-seller. His books include The Leadership Paradox: Balancing Logic and Artistry in Schools (with Kent D. Peterson, 1994); Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit (with Lee Bolman, 1995); Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, Fourth Edition (with Lee Bolman, 2008); Reframing the Path to School Leadership (with Lee Bolman, 2010); How Great Leaders Think (with Lee Bolman, 2014); and numerous others.
________________
Kent D. Peterson was the first director of the Vanderbilt Principals' Institute and is former head of the National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development. He is currently emeritus professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He continues to lecture and consult with leadership academies across the United States and internationally. His research has examined the nature of principals' work, school reform, and the ways school leaders develop strong, positive school cultures. Author of numerous studies on principal leadership, he is coauthor of The Principal's Role in Shaping School Culture (with Terrence E. Deal, 1990); The Leadership Paradox: Balancing Logic and Artistry in Schools (with Terrence E. Deal, 1994); and The Shaping School Culture Fieldbook (with Terrence E. Deal, 2002).
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
—Albert Einstein
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
—Peter Drucker
Introduction
“If only schools would be run more like businesses with more accountability and data to measure results.” It's a phrase we hear all too often. It haunts many school principals and teachers, making them feel like they're missing something or following the wrong path. It's difficult to take pride in your work and believe in what you are doing when you are persistently reminded that your efforts don't measure up. But let's take another look at the oft-invoked comparison. What does it really mean? What actually makes successful businesses tick? Is it structure or strategy? Is it technology or clear goals? Or maybe tighter standards and accountability?
Not so for Zappos, a highly successful business organization (now a division of Amazon). Zappos founder Tony Hsieh believes that if you deliver happiness to employees they'll do the same for customers, whose loyalty and efforts will make the business successful. Fun and weird are two words used to describe the culture. Singing, dancing, and costume parades happen often. Hsieh believes that “if you get the culture right, then most other things—like great customer service or building a long-lasting, enduring brand—will happen naturally.” Zappos's core values include “Deliver WOW through Service,” “Create a Little Fun and Weirdness,” and “Pursue Growth and Learning” (Bolman & Deal, 2014, p. 400).
Contrary to common misconceptions, in business, one thing is crystal clear: the culture of an enterprise plays a dominant role in exemplary performance. Highly respected organizations have evolved a shared webbing of beliefs, informal folkways, and traditions that infuse work with meaning, passion, and purpose. The evidence is persuasive; the word culture is a staple in business lexicon. Most business leaders we've talked with about success mention it in the first few minutes of a conversation.
Consider some well-known examples. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, puts it this way: “A company can grow big without losing the passion and personality that built it, but only if it's driven not by profits but by values and by people… The key is heart. I pour my heart into every cup of coffee, and so do my partners at Starbucks. When customers sense that, they respond in kind. If you pour your heart into your work, or into any worthy enterprise, you can achieve dreams others may think impossible” (Schultz & Yang, 1997, p. 8).
Or take Costco, widely recognized for its low prices and high value. Jim Sinegal, founder and former CEO of Costco, is known as a masterful storyteller constantly spinning yarns that reinforce the value of putting the interests of customers and employees ahead of stockholders:
In 1996 we were selling between $150,000 and $200,000 worth of salmon fillet every week at $5.99 a pound. Then our buyers were able to get an improved product with belly fat, back fins, and collarbones removed, at a better price. As a result we reduced our retail price to $5.29. So they improved the product and lowered the price. The buyers weren't finished with the improvements, though. Next our buyers negotiated for a product with the pin bone out and all of the skin removed, and it was at an even better price, which enabled us to lower our price to $4.99 a pound. Then, because we had continued to grow and had increased our sales volume, we were able to buy direct from Canadian and Chilean farms, which resulted in an even lower price of $4.79. (Denning, 2005, p. 137)
The “salmon story” is a widely shared symbolic reminder that low prices and high value are central to Costco's core purpose. The story's meaning is reinforced by a “salmon award” given to an employee or supplier who show great diligence in contributing to Costco's mission. Each award celebrates a new story and creates new lore.
“What else have we got besides stories?,” Sinegal asks, “It's what brings meaning to the work we do” (Fisher, Harris, & Jarvis, 2008).
One more example. Lou Gerstner is very clear about the role culture plays in business. His classic turnaround of IBM initially started out as a structural overhaul: “The last thing IBM needs is a vision.” But as he burrowed more deeply under the company's veneer, he realized that striking out in a brand-new direction overlooked the real problem. IBM had drifted from the values and ways that had once made it the most successful organization in the world. The approach then became one of revival rather than reform. Some jettisoned or tarnished traditions needed some attention to restore the sheen of a once-renowned history. Gerstner concluded following IBM's newfound success: “I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game—it is the game” (Gerstner, 2002, p. 182).
There are countless other examples in a variety of enterprises. The point is that education seems to be following or learning the wrong lessons from mediocre businesses that focus only on making a profit and using measurable short-term financial goals as a beacon.
Educators are being pressured by policy makers to adopt practices that many of the best organizations shy away from. If schools want to emulate other successful organizations, then parents, teachers, and administrators need to take a look at their local traditions, folkways, and dreams. And this look has to be a sustained, fine-grained scrutiny, not a brief superficial glance.
Another valuable lesson to draw from businesses such as IBM is how quickly cultural traditions can weaken or stray. Starbucks confronted this predicament in 2007. Schultz's book Pour Your Heart into It was published in 1997 when the company was envied by other businesses and its product dominated the American consumer's coffee palette. Starbucks's growth was phenomenal (100 to 23,000 stores in ten years), as were its profits. But a memorandum from Schultz to senior executives in 2007 highlighted a sinister side of success. Starbucks was losing its soul.
Many of Starbucks's growth-induced changes seemed innocuous because rationally they seemed superior to old ways. But growth and automation merged to “[sacrifice] the ‘romance and theater’ of the coffee shop experience for efficiency and profit” (“Show Tracker,” 2007). They then launched a series of company-wide celebrations to reconnect with their cultural roots.
First, they selected a day and closed all Starbuck's stores in America. Baristas were reacquainted with the art of making a perfect expresso, from pouring a perfect shot to steaming milk properly—Expesso Excellence Training. They then gathered senior leaders worldwide for a company-wide global summit to review the company's history, assess its current state and chart its future. Finally they gathered 8,000 US store managers and 2,000 partners in New Orleans for a Leadership Conference to help people reconnect emotionally with the company's roots, mission and future.
Cultural Drift in Schools
If people are looking for a parallel between business and schools, the experiences of IBM and Starbucks suggest a promising place to start. Similarly, many schools have drifted from traditional cultural roots. In many instances, they have lost, or are in danger of losing, their souls. In most schools this shift has been caused by the unintended consequences of continuous rigid legislative mandates and “reform” as much as by local neglect.
For decades, educational organizations have been pummeled by external reform initiatives. Most of these well-intended efforts have striven to make schools more rational and technically advanced, emulating what people assume to be more like successful businesses: producing measurable results. As a US Department of Education spokesperson remarked in 2007, “If it can't be measured, we're not interested in it” (confidential personal conversation with author). This attitude is diametrically opposite to Einstein's notion that “not everything can be counted and most things that can be counted probably don't count.”
Curriculum standardization, increased testing, and research-based methods have often replaced local discretion, faith, creativity, and teacher ingenuity. The unintended result of these reforms is the unraveling of symbolic fibers that once gave a hallowed enterprise passion, purpose, and meaning. What were once joyful places of promise and hope have too often become semi-mechanized factories bent on producing only a small fraction of what a well-educated person needs and, deep down, what a community or the country really wants or needs.
As a result, we see the public as losing faith in schools and educators losing faith in themselves. Symptoms of this malaise are even more pronounced than when we wrote the previous edition in 2009. As an example, in 2014, Stacy Starr, winner of a national Top Teacher Award announced she was quitting. She had served successfully in the Elyria, Ohio, public schools for many years but finally had had enough: “I just can't do it anymore, not in this drill and kill atmosphere” (Callaghan, 2015). Her decision hit a nerve and drew hundreds of responses from teachers and others across America, echoing her lament.
The concerns voiced by Starr are also playing out in other ways as increasing frustrations spring from teachers, parents, and communities. In many states there is a growing shortage of teachers, often because of rampant criticism of the profession and a focus on testing not learning. Schools of education are reporting fewer applicants for their programs to prepare teachers. Parents in the hundreds are “opting out” of national tests and some politicians are decrying the growing rigidity of curriculum and the amount of time spent used for testing rather than teaching. Charter schools are flourishing. Seasoned teachers are leaving the profession early because of the negative climate, and others are telling their students and their own children not to go into education. How did we get here and, most important, how do we turn the cycle around?
Reviving Cultural Beliefs and Practices
Culture in successful organizations arises in the yeasty crucible of meaning somewhere between mystery and metrics. It is the glue, the hope, and the faith that holds people together: “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone” (McCain & Salter, 2008, p. 338). This heartening way of thinking should chart our future course to better schools: reviving the soul and spirit of a noble and vital enterprise.
School Culture and Its Heritage
The concept of schools having distinctive cultures is not new. Willard Waller wrote in 1932: “Schools have a culture that is definitely their own. There are, in the school, complex rituals of personal relationships, a set of folkways, mores, and irrational sanctions, a moral code based upon them. There are games, which are sublimated wars, teams, and an elaborate set of ceremonies concerning them. There are traditions and traditionalists waging their world-old battle against innovators” (p. 96). His observations are still relevant today.
Parents, teachers, principals, and students have always sensed something special, yet undefined, about their schools—something extremely powerful but very difficult to describe or “put your finger on.” This ephemeral, taken-for-granted aspect of schools is often overlooked and consequently is usually absent from discussions about school improvement. For decades terms such as climate and ethos have been used to try to capture this powerful, pervasive, and notoriously elusive force. We believe the term culture provides a more accurate and intuitively appealing way to help school leaders better understand their school's unwritten rules and traditions, customs, and expectations. The unofficial patterns seems to permeate everything: the way people act, how they dress, what they talk about or consider taboo, whether they seek out colleagues or isolate themselves, whether they work together, and how teachers feel about their work and their students.
Beneath the conscious awareness of everyday life in schools, there is a burbling rivulet of thought and activity. The underground flow of feelings and folkways wends its way, beckoning people, programs, and ideas toward often-unstated purposes: “This invisible, taken-for-granted flow of beliefs and assumptions gives meaning to what people say and do. It shapes how they interpret hundreds of daily transactions. The deeper structure of life in organizations is reflected and transmitted through symbolic language and expressive action. Culture consists of the stable, underlying social meanings that shape beliefs and behavior over time” (Deal & Peterson, 1990, p. 7).
The concept of culture has a long history in the exploration of behavior across human groups. Anthropologists first developed the concept to explain differences among the unique, all-encompassing ways of tribes, societies, and national or ethnic groups. Later, other social scientists applied the concept to patterns of behavior and thought at work.
Formal organizations have clearly distinguishable identities manifested in organizational members' worldviews, deeds, and customs. The concept of culture helps us understand these patterns—how they came to be and how they affect performance.
Of the many different conceptions of culture, none is universally accepted as the one best definition. One scholar defines culture as the web of significance in which we are all suspended (Geertz, 1973). Others define it as the shared beliefs and values that closely knit a community together (Deal & Kennedy, 1982). Another suggests simply that culture is “the way we do things around here” (Bower, 1966).
Schein (1985) provides a comprehensive definition, calling it “a pattern of basic assumptions—invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with problems…that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems” (p. 9). He views shaping the culture as one of the most important things that any leader must attend to.
Complex symbolic entities do not develop overnight. School cultures are complex webs of stories, traditions, and rituals budding over time as teachers, students, parents, and administrators work together and deal with crises and accomplishments (Deal & Peterson, 2009; Schein, 1985). Cultural patterns are highly enduring, have a powerful impact on performance, influence approaches to school improvement, and shape the ways people think, act, and feel (Fullan, 2011; Smylie, 2009; Tschannen-Moran, 2014). Everything, and we do mean everything, in the organization is affected by culture and its particular form and features.
Culture and Productivity: The Research Base and Impact
In the business world, evidence across multiple studies documents the significant role culture plays in financial performance. Kotter and Heskett (1992) compared top-performing firms with less successful ones in the same business environment. They found that those with strong cultures attuned to prevailing business conditions outperformed their counterparts in several ways: revenue increased by an average of 682 percent compared to 166 percent, the workforce grew by 282 percent versus 36 percent, stock gained value by 901 percent contrasted with 74 percent, and income rose by 756 percent, eclipsing that of 1 percent in less cohesive firms.
In another major study, Collins and Porras (1997) found similar results in their look at visionary companies—places where cultural values infused all aspects of everyday practice. They compared these visionary companies with other top-rated firms (comparison companies they called them) and with average performers. A look at the long-term financial performance of these three groups tells a dramatic story:
Shareholders who, in 1926, invested $1 in the general stock market (average companies) would have accumulated $415 in growth and dividends by the end of their study.
Shareholders who invested the same dollar in a more select portfolio (above-average companies) would have earned more than twice that amount—$955.
Investors whose 1926 dollar was placed in visionary companies would ultimately see a portfolio worth $6,356.
In business, culture stands out as a strong predictor of financial results. But does this same culture-performance link apply in education? Again, let's look at evidence.
Culture and School Performance
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, studies of effective schools consistently acknowledged a climate and ethos (related to culture) that was purposeful and conducive to learning (Levine & Lezotte, 1990). A clear mission focused on student learning fostered high expectations for all students, focused the work of staff members, and generated motivation to learn.
In a landmark British study, Rutter, Maughan, Morrtimore, Ouston, and Smith (1979) established school “ethos” as a prime contributor to academic achievement. As in other studies of successful schools, they discovered that the underlying norms, values, and traditions were factors in achievement gains. The ethos, or culture, was a crucial factor in success.
Later studies of school change have identified culture as critical to the successful improvement of teaching and learning (Fullan, 1998, 2001a, 2011; Leithwood & Louis, 1998; Rossman, Corbett, & Firestone, 1998; Smylie, 2009). In study after study, when cultural patterns did not support and encourage reform, changes did not take place. By contrast, things improved in schools where customs, values, and beliefs reinforced a strong educational mission, a sense of community, social trust among staff members, and a shared commitment to school improvement.
Over time teachers in such schools developed a group sense of efficacy (a belief that they could become better), which generated energy to improve (Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy, 2004; Tschannen-Moran, 2014). This culturally supported empowerment also ironically encouraged the use of information and gave new meaning and purpose to planning, problem solving, and professional development. Culture was a key factor in the enhancement of energy, trust, and more effective practices.
In a study comparing public and private schools, Bryk, Lee, and Holland (1993) found that a sense of community (similar to our concept of culture) was a key factor in cultivating a sense of excellence in private schools. Teachers in these communal schools were, compared to those in public schools, more satisfied with their work, seen by students as enjoying teaching, and less likely to be absent. Students were less likely to misbehave (for example, by cutting class, being absent, or disrupting class), were less likely to drop out, and showed higher gains in mathematic achievement. The researchers' conclusion is echoed in the work of Johnson (1990), who demonstrated the superior strength and cohesion of culture in private schools relative to their public counterparts.
In a longitudinal study, McLaughlin (1995) discovered tremendous variation in schools, even departments, serving similar populations but with a different cultural sense of community—they saw themselves as a learning community. For example, a school with 80 percent Latino students (School A) and a school with 80 percent African American students (School B) demonstrated strikingly different levels of performance, even though they served students from comparable socioeconomic backgrounds. School A had a dropout rate of 60 percent between the ninth and twelfth grades. Most grades fell in the D or F range, with very few As. Only 20 percent of the students went on to higher education. Teachers lamented their fate in having to work in the school.
By contrast, students in School B scored in the top quartile in mathematics, were first in the district in language arts, and showed well in music and the performing arts. By all measures it was a top-performing school. The difference, according to McLaughlin, was that School B had developed a learning community—a culture focused on learning that motivated staff members and students. It was a place of cohesion, passion, commitment, and extensive interactions among teachers.
An extensive study of school restructuring showed conclusively that changing the structure of schools (transforming governance, time use, and grouping) is not enough (Newmann & Associates, 1996). To succeed, new structures and a professional culture are needed. In a massive five-year study, the researchers documented that success flourished in schools with a primary focus on student learning, a commitment to high expectations, and social support for innovation, dialogue, and the search for new ideas. Also present was an “ethos of caring, sharing, and mutual help among staff, and between staff and students, based on respect, trust, and shared power relations among staff” (p. 289). The culture enhanced and bolstered structural changes, thus leading to success in instructional practice and student learning.
Contemporary research continues to point to the impact of school culture on a variety of important outcomes. In a major meta-analysis of research on leadership and student achievement, Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2004) discovered a strong correlation between aspects of school culture and how well students performed.
Student achievement was related to a shared set of core beliefs, a focused and clear sense of purpose, recognition of staff member and student accomplishments, intellectual engagement, and celebrations of success. Although structures fostered formal connections, discussions of purpose, and school improvement, it was clear that these actions were deeply embedded in the culture of values, stories, ceremonies, and celebrations (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004).
Research on distributed leadership suggests that effective leadership is stretched over the staff members—not just formally delegated to a few. To work, distributed leadership must be deeply embedded culturally, not just sketched in a structural blueprint (Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2003).
Research on school improvement and change points to the central importance of the culture in enhancing curriculum, instruction, professional development, and learning—for students and staff members (Abplanalp, 2008; Fullan, 1998, 2001a, 2011; Louis, 1994, 2006; Smylie, 2009). Core customs and values are also central to initiating improvement, planning, and implementation. There are several reasons. First, a school with a strong, shared sense of mission is more likely to initiate improvement efforts. Second, norms of collegiality are related to collaborative planning and effective decision making. Third, cultures with a strong dedication to improvement are more likely to implement complex new instructional strategies. Finally, schools improve best when small successes are recognized and celebrated through shared ceremonies commemorating individual and group contributions (Abplanalp, 2008; Fullan, 1998; Louis, 1994).
Research on professional learning communities reinforces the centrality of cultural elements in school success (DuFour, 2007; Kruse, 1996; Lambert, 2002; Muhammad, 2009; Newmann & Associates, 1996). Professional learning communities are often characterized by the following features:
A collective sense of purpose
Teacher influence in key decision rituals
Concerted effort linking instruction to purpose
Shared dedication to unremitting perfection
A sense of shared responsibility for student learning
This research strongly buttresses the central role of culture to school success. These studies and others not cited point to the multiple ways school culture fosters improvement, shared decision making, and staff member and student learning.
Functions and Impact of Culture
Culture affects all aspects of a school. It influences informal conversations in the faculty lunchroom, the type of instruction valued, and how professional knowledge is viewed. It also has a significant impact on rational and structural forms and functions: the use of data, the nature of problem solving, and the need for evidence ensuring all students learn. Several examples illustrate its pervasiveness.
Culture fosters school effectiveness and productivity
. (Leithwood & Louis, 1998; Leithwood, Louis, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Levine & Lezotte, 1990; Newmann & Associates, 1996; Purkey & Smith, 1983) Teachers succeed in a culture focused on productivity (rather than on maintenance or ease of work); performance (hard work, dedication, and perseverance); and improvement (continuous fine-tuning and refinement of teaching). Such a culture helps teachers overcome the uncertainty of their work (Lortie, 1975) by providing focus and collegiality. It provides motivation to persevere in the demanding work of teaching thirty students in a small, usually isolated, space. It encourages, sanctions, and rewards professionals in the constant task of improving their craft.
Culture improves collegiality, communication, and problem solving
. (DuFour, 2007; Fullan 2011; Kruse & Louis, 1997; Little, 1982; Peterson & Brietzke, 1994) Schools that value collegiality and shared responsibility for solving problems offer a better opportunity for the exchange of ideas and the enhancement and spread of effective practices.
Culture promotes innovation and improvement
. (Deal & Peterson, 1990; Fullan, 2001a, 2011; Kruse & Louis, 1997; Little, 1982; Louis & Miles, 1990; Smylie, 2009; Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004) Schools that encourage change and risk-taking foster people who seek inventive practices and experiment with new approaches. In positive cultures, staff members plan collegially and use data meaningfully. Toxic cultures that harbor mediocrity, inertia, distrust, and apathy are unlikely to be innovative.
Culture builds commitment and kindles motivation
. (Fullan, 2011; Schein, 1985, 2004) People are motivated and feel committed to an evocative enterprise that has values and an ennobling purpose. Motivation is strengthened through rituals that nurture identification, traditions that intensify connection to the school, ceremonies that build community, and stories that convey the heart and soul of the school.
Culture amplifies the energy, vitality, and trust of school staff members, students, and community
. (Tschannen-Moran, 2014) It has long been known that social climate and culture influence the emotional and psychological orientation of a school. Many say that the context is infectious. This is especially the case in schools that are optimistic, caring, supportive, trusting, and energetic. Staff members, students, and community are likely to take on those same characteristics. But the opposite is also true. Some school cultures are toxic. The social milieu is so negative that even the most positive individuals can become discouraged or disheartened.
Culture focuses attention on what is important and valued
. (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Fullan, 2011; Schein, 1985, 2004) Formal rules, job descriptions, and policies can sometimes influence what a person does. Yet cultural rules, informal expectations, and rites and rituals may be even more meaningful precursors of positive action and sustained progress. Unstated, often hidden, assumptions and expectations are embedded in cultural patterns and drive what people focus on and ultimately what they do. With meaningful values, daily work is centered on important issues of quality instruction, continuous refinement of teaching, and accelerated learning.
Symbolic Leadership
With evidence from business and education highlighting culture as a critical aspect of cohesion and performance, what's holding us back from focusing on and firming up school cultures? Why do standards, testing, evaluation, and accountability continue to play such a dominant role in educational improvement and reform? Part of the explanation lies in the prism or mental lens through which we view schools.
Bolman and Deal (2003) have identified four lenses, or frames, people rely on to size up and act in response to situations. A human resource frame emphasizes people's needs, skills, and the importance of a caring, trusting climate. A structural mind-set emphasizes goals, efficiency, policies, a clear chain of command, and measurable results. A political take highlights a world of scarce resources, power, conflict, negotiations, and compromise. Finally, a symbolic disposition spotlights meaning and the symbols, rituals, ceremonies, stories, and other emblematic forms on which faith and hope are anchored, communicated, and celebrated.
In education, some frames are more prominent than others. For example, policy makers rely heavily on structural and political suppositions in developing mandates for school reform. Nearly all reform initiatives since 1994 have emphasized goals, restructuring, uniform curriculum standards, or intense testing. Political considerations also wend their way into all aspects of efforts to make public schools more accountable for the performance of students, especially the disadvantaged or ethnic minorities.
Conversely, school leaders—teachers and principals—tend to read and respond to day-to-day challenges from a human resource posture. Although some principals (especially in high schools) and superintendents may be more structurally oriented, the human resource way of viewing situations is more familiar. Although political views are renounced publicly as distasteful or pathological, people incessantly rely on power and influence, pressure, politics, and coalitions behind the scenes to get what they want. Finally, the symbolic and cultural side of schools is too often viewed as “soft,” mystical, or as a superficial postscript.
The neglect of the symbolic aspect of schools does not square with ideas of what successful leadership is all about. One of the most significant roles of leaders (and of leadership) is the creation, encouragement, and refinement of the symbols and symbolic activity that confer meaning and significance. The late Lou Pondy (1976), who studied business organizations, pointed out that the effectiveness of a leader is in the ability to make actions meaningful to others.
Edgar Schein (1985), an organizational psychologist, states the case for cultural leadership even more forcefully: “There is a possibility underemphasized in leadership research, that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture and that the unique talent of leaders is their ability to work with culture” (p. 2). Fullan also (2001a) reinforces this in his research on the change process. Taken together, this research and commentary suggest that too often the leadership schools need is not what they are getting.
In this book we examine the varied ways symbolic leaders shape culture to create a cohesive, meaningful, nurturing, social milieu for teachers to teach and students to learn. Leadership in robust cultures is dispersed among teachers, administrators, parents, and students flowing intensely throughout the school. Together multiple leaders read, shape, and continuously renovate the culture of their school.
