Day 2 Blog - FROM THE HEADMASTER IN THE USA There is an old saying among anthropologists that fish would be the last creatures to discover water even though it is the most ubiquitous and influential aspect of a fish’s existence. So it is with school culture and teaching. Just as water surrounds and envelops fish, shaping their perspectives and determining their courses of action, culture surrounds and envelops teachers forming their perspectives and influencing their decisions and actions. Teachers work within a cultural context that influences every aspect of their pedagogy and practice, yet this pervasive element of a school is elusive and difficult to define. Culture influences all aspects of schools, including such things as how the staff dresses, what staff talk about in the staff room, how teachers decorate their classrooms, their emphasis on certain aspects of the curriculum, and teachers’ willingness to change. In essence, if culture changes, everything changes. Even though our school is independent, there is an increasing expectation on us to play the compliance and systems game. In fact, we can’t even be properly registered without it. Over recent months we have also sought to introduce a more systems approach to the non-educational management of our school, something that has and will continue to pose quite a few challenges. One of the emails that arrived just as I was leaving the office on Friday was the urgency for us to formally establish a safety committee. I don’t deny that safety is an important issue, but isn’t there a possibility that ‘safety committees’ are just another hot button issue? So much of the compliance and policy obsession is about ensuring that our schools are standardised and protected from catastrophic failure. That kind of thinking never made any organisation great – in fact, a school can have the best policies and be totally compliant, but still rank poor. As the Headmaster, I do my best to stay focused on what really matters, the enduring issues in our school (as in all good schools). Whenever I work with other schools or colleagues in the field, I share that same perspective. What are these enduring issues? The first thing that concerns me is teacher morale and motivation. There are forty-five professional teachers on our team, just forty-five out of a total staff complement of one hundred and thirty. If they lose morale and motivation – even be it a small minority – then the energy in the school is diminished and disrupted. Our teachers were hired for their hearts and their ability to form relationships with young people. People like that run on encouragement and affirmation, because that is exactly how they manage to get some of our boys through the multiple challenges that lie before them. So, when their Headmaster speaks strongly on an issue or a behavior that must be improved, the ripple runs through the team. That ripple will cause little or no problem to our top teachers, but it buffets and bothers the weaker members of the team. And their insecurity can spread very quickly through the middle ranks – “if the weakest is unsafe, are any of us safe?” There is more emotion than rational thought in this much of the time. Performance management in such a context is more art than science. The second thing that I care about is school culture and climate. School culture has been described as being similar to the air we breathe. No-one notices it unless it becomes foul. The culture of a school can be a positive influence on learning or it can seriously inhibit the functioning of the school. I would like to think that we have a positive school climate at St Alban’s and that this makes the school and the campus a place where boys, staff and parents like to be. I also like to think that we have a school with a climate of support and encouragement; where physical facilities are good; where staff have a shared sense of purpose and where they pour their hearts into teaching; where our rituals and traditions celebrate achievement by boys (and staff) and also recognize parental commitment; where the underlying norms are of collegiality, improvement, and hard work; and where success, joy and good humour abounds. Increasingly, too, as our school turned fifty last year, we have a network of stories, storytellers, heroes (and heroines) to provide a context for our existence. Several writers suggest that a school with a positive school culture is a place with a shared sense of what is important, a shared ethos of caring and concern, and a shared commitment to helping students learn. They also conclude that schools that are conducted in a culture exhibiting these positive qualities have teachers and staff members who are willing to take risks and enact reforms. In my view, if our school is to take risks and improve itself in the coming decade, the first thing we must do is to ensure that we never take our existing school culture for granted – the second thing is to avoid damaging that culture by seeking to reduce every interaction to a transaction. School climate is very similar to school culture. Whereas some schools feel friendly, inviting, and supportive, others feel exclusionary, unwelcoming, and even unsafe. Although it is difficult to provide a concise definition for school climate, most writers on the issue agree that it is a multi-dimensional construct that includes physical, social, and academic dimensions. The physical dimension includes: Quality and appearance of the school facilities and campus; School size and ratio of students to teachers in the average classroom; Order and organization of classrooms in the school; Safety and comfort. The social dimension includes: Quality of interpersonal relationships between and among students, teachers, and staff; Equitable and fair treatment of students by teachers and staff; Degree of competition and social comparison between students; Degree to which students, teachers, and staff contribute to decision-making at the school. The academic dimension includes: Quality of instruction; Teacher expectations for student achievement; Monitoring student progress and promptly reporting results to students and parents. It would seem then, that we can reasonably and intentionally improve our school climate. If we are to do so, then there is no time like the present. The third and final issue that concerns me every day of the year is the behaviour of our boys. That is a topic for a separate blog, but there is no doubt that the behaviours of young people in any school is directly and profoundly influenced by the culture and climate in that school. In that regard, I have concerns. Now, who can I ask to sit on that Safety Committee?
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 18:36:38 +0000
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