Ethical Considerations
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Question #4: Ethical Considerations
The study of values, beliefs, myths, rituals, symbols, heroes, shamans, and storytellers in organizations is well documented in the literature (Deal, 1985; Bolman and Deal, 2002). It may seem technically incorrect to apply the term culture to professional settings; the term is appropriated from the anthropological studies of largely intact and isolated communities of people. However, the concept of culture helps us reexamine schools as places of human community with peculiar school as a work environment, we can consciously act to reshape the organization into a purposeful collection of individuals who believe that schools are for students, for learning, and for improvement rather than insularity, self-protection, and complacency. Does the educational leader produce the culture in a school? Critique how the school leader culture affects the ability of teachers/students to learn and evaluate the educational leader practices that explain the culture in a school setting. Glickman, C. D., Gordon, S.P. & Ross-Gordon, J. M. (2007). SuperVision and Instructional Leadership. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
One can liken the dynamics of a school community to that of a ‘nation' where members have common goals and aspirations. The foundation of nationalism can be found in the transfer of loyalty from family, religion, ethnic group, culture and community to the state. Likewise at a micro level, students, teachers, parents, school administrators and other stakeholders form what can be referred to as ‘community' because they share common goals and aspirations. Hobsbawm (1993) explains that, in order to invoke a feeling of nationalism or community, there has to be a sense of ‘collective belonging'. As Hobsbawm describes it, the process of nationalism is engineered by the leaders of a state, thereby creating a nation state to replace family, religion and communities in their traditional role of providing a source of identity. The state then endeavors to create a national language in order to homogenize the population. It creates public schools in order to promote the official language and to mold a national identity. It controls the economy through laws and regulations, taxes and custom duties. It controls the military and maintains monopoly over certain public services such as railways, communications, utilities, and ports. It creates an ‘imagined community' to whom the people owe their allegiance, providing in return, protection and promise of a good life.
In school communities, principals, teachers and other school leaders play a major role in constructing the school culture and traditions. The main objective is to transform the heterogeneous population into a homogeneous community with common historical symbols and ceremonies. In so doing, Hobsbawm contends that the myth of community is created, fending off other competing ideologies.
School culture is defined as “deep patterns of values, beliefs, and traditions” that have been developed over the life of a school (Deal & Peterson, 1990).
School leaders can help shape school culture which in turns set the context and the environment for student achievement. The purpose of developing school culture should be to set the context for improved student performance and school excellence.
The principal is the leader of a school and should take all aspects of school leadership seriously, especially instructional leadership. By so doing, student learning will remain on his foremost agenda ensuring that all actions focus on student achievement. His priority is to build a school environment where students, teachers and staff view their roles as important to achieving the overall goals of the school.
Leadership is a crucial element for the success of organizational and individual relationships. In order for an organization to be successful, there must be an element of good leadership. Bennis and Nanus (1997) identified a set of characteristics through which leadership could be recognized. They make a clear distinction between a manager and a leader. For them, "[m]anagers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing"; rejecting the idea that 'leader are born to lead'. They see leadership as a characteristic that can be learned and "nurtured". Every leader they contend must possess the power to effectively lead and must know how to rally people around a common goal.
According to Leaders, there are three distinct contexts under which leaders do actually lead; they are "Commitment", "Complexity" and "Credibility". The authors view commitment as the first step in the contextual framework under which leaders are able to "instill vision, meaning and trust" so as to gain commitment from their followers. When there is a lack of commitment, organizations experience low productivity. They contend that the challenges of today have helped to increase the gap between actual employee remuneration and their real worth in terms of production. The second step is that of complexity where the terrain is forever changing given the complex world we live in. In order to lead others, leaders must make sense of uncertain situations and simplify complex circumstances. Their ability to adapt and master the situation in a complex environment is critical in order to maintain their status as a leader. The third and last step in the framework is credibility. Given that times are rapidly changing and that we are in the information age, where information is readily available about everyone and about everything. A leader must be able to withstand in-depth scrutiny to maintain his or her credibility in order to lead.
The authors went on to define the four traits common among the 90 leaders that they studied. The first is the 'management of attention' where leaders show the capacity to attract other people to their ideas and ultimately, to buy into their 'agenda'. Leaders themselves are completely committed to their own agenda and others develop the desire to be a part of the perceived outcome of that agenda. The second leadership trait is the 'management of meaning' which shows how leaders communicate with their constituency through clarity of direction and goals. Thirdly, leaders have in common, 'management of trust'. Credibility is critical and so is reliability, if a trusting relationship must exist between a leader and her followers. Stability or "staying the course" is important in order to give the feeling of constancy and dependability. The last is the 'management of self', knowing ones strengths and weaknesses. The awareness of self is important in taking the lead and realizing when to go forward. Knowing when to take a back step so as not to commit the organization to what might end up being the wrong path is also important.
Where there is effective leadership, Bennis and Nanus say there must be a general feeling of empowerment. Leaders create an atmosphere of togetherness and a sense of belonging that reassure people that what they have to contribute is important to the success of their organization.
Leadership is relevant to education at different levels; the first that comes to mind is the role of teachers in their classrooms. One can conceptualize the Leaders' framework and how teachers might fit the descriptions of a leader. It is not altogether evident that teachers take their role as 'potential' leaders in their classrooms and even in their schools as Bennis and Nanus would have hoped. One could argue that many teachers see their roles as managers rather than leaders.
To expand one's leadership capability, one is not only limited by context, but also by an all encompassing environment that either empowers or constrains. Leadership like all other forms of practice requires experience. To acquire experience in an empowering environment is possible but more difficult in a disabling environment.
The accountability movement has brought about the eagerness to explore ways in which schools can improve student performance.
Organizational Culture
Fullan and Hargreaves (1991) described four types of school cultures. First, on one extreme are ones of balkanization, where the teacher is the king or queen of his or her classroom resulting in a competitive atmosphere. These teachers focus on immediate, rather than long range issues and work in isolation implementing traditional practices.
Second, in cultures of comfortable collaboration, the prevailing culture selectively restricts collaboration. In these cultures, collaboration is thin and superficial. Teachers share materials and some instructional strategies, but avoid discussing deeper issues, such as curriculum, long-range planning or their philosophy of schooling.
Third, in cultures of contrived collegiality, under a façade of formal, explicit bureaucratic policies and procedures, formal structures are unsupportive of collaborative cultures.
Fourth, collaborative cultures emphasize continuous, career long learning where teachers show increased efficacy and confidence in their professional abilities. Collaborative cultures boast daily practices of team teaching, mentoring and shared decision-making.
Teachers welcome opportunities for continued learning by attending in-service workshops, seminars and conferences where they seize every opportunity to network with other teachers, schools and programs. Deal and Kennedy popularized Bower's definition of organizational culture as “the way we do things around here” (Deal & Kennedy, 1982). Organizational culture embodies organizational beliefs, feelings, behaviors and symbols. In essence, organizational culture entails shared philosophies, ideologies, beliefs, feelings, assumptions, expectations, attitudes, norms and values.
When organizational members communicate with one another they speak a common language, use similar terminology and observe similar rituals and ceremonies. Standards of behaviors evolve in the workplace, as group norms result in benchmarks and standards. Typical examples of dominant organizational values in schools include high performance expectations of teachers and students, low absentee and drop out rates and a high degree of efficiency. Schools articulate their philosophy through vision and mission statements (Bolman & Deal, 1997).
Creating an organizational culture is a complex process.
Key players include organizational heroes and heroines, rites, rituals and communication networks. Heroes and heroines immortalize the school's underlying values, provide role models, symbolize the school to outsiders and establish performance standards to motivate teachers and students to reach high performance outcomes. Everyday activities and celebrations that characterize the school may include teacher of the year, appointing a new principal, graduations, awards banquets or ceremonies. Stories or myths depicting heroes and heroines are communicated through a communications network. Each school has storytellers, often secretaries or custodians who interpret everyday happenings. Their interpretations of information and events mold the perceptions of others. Priests, organizational warriors, such as the school's Assistant Principal mold the school's culture through discourse and interaction with other school administrators, teachers, students and parents. Priests find the time to listen and offer alternative solutions to problems.
Whisperers appear to have the principal's ear while gossipers communicate everyday school happenings through the communication network. Gossipers are integral in building and maintaining heroes and heroines, as they embellish and exaggerate past feats and latest accomplishments. Spies are the ears in the woodwork, since they know and communicate to others everything that goes on in the school (Bolman & Deal, 1997; Schein, 1985).
Understanding School Culture
“Understanding school culture is a vital part of school improvement” (Stoll & Fink, 1996, p.81). Observable only on the surface, school culture is an implicit concept.A person often learns of the school's culture when he or she breaks an unspoken rule. Through astute observation and listening, a person can detect acceptable methods for adults to verbally and non-verbally communicate with one another and with students. Gruenert (2000) asserts that gradually, a school develops its unique personality. Expected patterns of behaviors evolve into unspoken expectations. The strongest norms become the school's rituals, traditions and rules. “The culture dictates the way things are done and the way people are supposed to act” (Gruenert, p. 14).
Gruenert (2000) described a collaborative school culture as a learning organization fostering ongoing student and teacher learning. Fostering a collaborative culture begins with identifying the components of a school culture. Artifacts provide concrete examples of the school's culture, such as school and individual student's trophies, published mission and vision statements and the manner administrators, teachers and support personnel greet strangers. Observations and formal interviews provide evidence of espoused organizational values while assumptions are expressed through values and mores.
Gruenert (2000) expressed the importance of school leaders first identifying the current school culture primarily through qualitative research practices, such as surveys and interviews. Administration of a school culture survey, along with observational data, provides a baseline of the school's culture. Next, school leaders astutely create organizational structures and opportunities for collaboration among school administrators, teachers, support staff, students and parents. Finally, school leaders who strive to develop a collaborative school culture reward those teachers who make positive collaborative efforts.
Bolman and Deal (1997) described culture as a product and a process. As a product, culture is defined by the wisdom of people who were working in the school long before the present members arrived. As a process, culture is ever evolving and renewed through new members as they learn the ways of the school and reinforce them in their interactions with others. Stoll and Fink (1996) asserted that a school's new principal is the most statistically significant force in effecting change in that school's culture. Stoll and Fink (1996) viewed school improvement as profoundly influenced by school effectiveness research.
They view school cultures across a continuum between two dimensions: effectiveness – ineffectiveness and improving – declining. In moving schools (p. 115), members respond to their changing environment to allow the school to continue developing. Although teachers, administrators and the community consider cruising schools (p. 116) as effective, these schools are often located in high socio-economic communities where students show high achievement outcomes despite of the quality of the instruction. Strolling schools (p. 116) are often considered average schools.
Their mission statements are often poorly articulated and show conflicting aims. These schools are in need of a catalyst, such as a new principal or a state or federal audit. Even though struggling schools (p. 116) are ineffective, their members are motivated to try to make a difference. These schools normally respond to external program evaluations because their administrators and teachers acknowledge the need to change. Finally, sinking schools P. 116-117) are both ineffective and are unwilling to change. Their staff is often apathetic or ignorant and traditionally has poor parent involvement. These schools are normally located in the lowest socio-economic communities where school administrators and teachers blame parents for poor parenting skills.
Saphier and King (1985) posited that understanding school culture is inherent in cultural norms. Their research was based on how people relate to and value one another. Ten cultural norms summarized from the twelve cultural norms Saphier and King found to influence school improvement were:
1. Shared goals articulated through a shared vision focusing on teaching, learning and student interests.
2. Team responsibility for success articulated through high student achievement outcomes.
3. An atmosphere of collegiality observed through mutual collaboration focusing on the school as a holistic entity.
4. Continuous improvement as observed through continually implementing better practices, innovation and teaching-learning connections.
5. Shared commitment to lifelong learning as teachers continually improve their instructional techniques through engaging in cooperative group learning.
6. Willingness to take risks through experimentation and trial and error of new practices and strategies.
7. Shared commitment of administrators and teachers to make time for one another.
8. Mutual respect articulated through a group commitment to achieve shared goals in different ways.
9. An atmosphere of openness, caring and respect for one another.
10. Recognition of and celebrations of teacher and student successes.
Bennis, Warren and Nanus, Burt. (1997). Leaders. HarperBusiness, New York, NY.
Deal, T. & Peterson, K. (1999). Shaping School Culture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Deal, T. & Peterson, K. (1999). Shaping school culture: The heart of leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
