HH

• Culture


  Intertwining of assumptions, values, beliefs from which a group's norms, practices, rituals, and meaning emerge
• School culture


  Deeply rooted traditions, values, and beliefs, some of which are common across schools and some of which are unique and embedded in a particular school's history and location
• Teacher cultures


  • Have received most attention in relation to school's improvement
• Individualism


  Classrooms as "egg-crates" or "castles", Autonomy, isolation and insulation prevail, and blame and support are avoided
• Collaboration


  Teachers choose, spontaneously and voluntarily, to work together, without external control agenda
• Contrived collegiality


  Teacher's collaborative working relationships which are compulsorily imposed, with fixed times and places set for collaboration
• Balkanization


  Teachers are neither isolated nor work as a whole school, Smaller collaborative groups form, for example within secondary school departments, between senior and junior teachers
• Typology of school culture


  How good the school is right now, and if it's getting better or worse
• Mission


  Public declaration that the school uses to describe their founding purpose and major organizational commitments
• Vision


  Public declaration that the school uses to describe their high level goals for the future
• Beliefs


  Understandings about the world around us, consciously held, cognitive views about truth and reality
• Norms


  Unspoken rules for what is regarded as customary or acceptable behavior and action within the school
• School rituals, traditions, ceremonies


  Provide time for reflection, connection, and meaningful experience
• School history and stories


  Represent the past of the organization
• Assessing school culture


  Beliefs, perception, relationships, attitudes and written and unwritten rules that shape and influence every aspect of how a school functions
• Creating a positive school culture


  Beliefs, perceptions, relationships, attitudes and written and unwritten rules that shape and influence every aspect of how a school functions
• Culture as a social construct


  School culture is something that we create and shape, not inherited or passed on through genes
• School climate


  Refers to the school's effects on students, staff, and the broader community
• School culture


  Refers to the way things are done in the school, the prevailing attitudes, norms, and beliefs, and the style of interpersonal relationships
• Sophier, J. 1985: 'Culture is the way business is handled that both forms and reflects the culture.'
• Culture


  A social construct, not a genetic construct. It is shaped by everything that all people in school see, hear, feel and interact with.
• School climate


  More relational, illustrated by the attitudes and behaviors of the school staff, focused on the style of the school's organizational system.
• School culture


  A deeper level of reflection of shared values, beliefs, and traditions between staff members.
• School culture


  Inclusive of school climate
• School artifacts, architecture, and symbols are the key to create and sustain a positive school culture.
• Education in primitive society developed life skills that eventually became cultural patterns.
• Leadership


  The ability of an individual or a group of people to influence and guide followers or members of an organization, society or team.
• Teacher leadership


  The concepts of leading and teaching are so intertwined that every leader is a teacher, and every teacher is a leader.
• Teacher leadership encompasses various definitions, often reflecting the multifaceted roles teachers play beyond the classroom.
• Teacher leadership


  Dispositions and skills demonstrated by teachers who teach students but also have an influence beyond their own classrooms.
• Autonomy


  One of the reasons teacher leaders find it difficult to work with others.
• Egalitarianism


  Requires teacher leaders to be in constant communication with the school administrators and this presents an issue to most teachers.
• Deference to seniority


  Teacher leaders find it difficult to share their experience with others because too often, their age is being equated with qualifications.