stoll and fink typology of school culture stoll and fink typology of school culture

Prosser, J. Hothouse culture exists where the pressure is to high academic achievement, typically in response to government or parental pressure to deliver high quality examination results. G, Crow (2001). Preparation of aspiring principals in Singapore: a partnership model. Following our examination of globalization and culture in the previous section, we consider here the picture of culture within educational leadership internationally. International Studies in Educational Administration. (2006). As within continents or regions, within each nation, a common culture cannot be assumed, the differences between the culture of Native Americans, Hispanic and African American women and that of white males within the United States being an example given above. Transactional leadership, often viewed negatively in many Anglophone countries, may be a more appropriate theoretical basis in many contexts. , Powell, Farrar and Cohen (1985) used research from fifteen high schools to depict a culture of easy and uncritical acceptance of underachievement. In another region of China, Hong Kong, teacher contact hours are considerably higher and leadership is more firmly placed with the principal. House, R. J. A preparation for school leadership: International perspectives. C , (2001). A new typology of school-level values is reported in three cultural contexts. This book assists people inside and outside schools to . However, the findings which result from research in one location may lead to indiscriminate transfer of assumptions, such as the primary location of leadership in the principal. Choices will continue as culture evolves and the perspectives of all players mutate over time. eBook ISBN: 9780203872239 Adobe International Studies in Educational Administration, 32(2), 417. Shah, S. Where there is any element of selectivity of pupils, whether by ability/prior achievement or by geography or by capacity to pay, then the school will be involved in processes of cultural selection. G. Begley, P. Leaders navigate cultural choices which are always constrained. In The dynamic culture of Dalin's(1995) typology of schools. & School Values Across Three Cultures: A Typology and Interrelations Hallinger, P. , L. Stoll, D. Fink. & , The very public travails of The Ridings School have further heightened the national preoccupation with ineffective schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 34(5), 7497. ), The Life and Work of Teachers (pp. Tin, L. & The study identifies how cultural literacy amongst the principals of the schools is a key element of the positive achievements they report. , ), Leading Schools in a Global Era: A Cultural Perspective, Peabody Journal of Education, Litvin, D. R. We are using cookies to provide statistics that help us give you the best experience of our site. However, a model which merely identifies cultural elements doesnt take account of the dynamic nature of culture and it is useful therefore to consider culture in the context of a systems perspective on organizations. (Eds. Downloaded by [Teldan Inc] at 05:45 14 September 2015 . Many of our schools are good schools - if this were 1965. Mabey School culture can have an positive. DiTomaso, N. Firstly, it examines key theoretical models and perspectives on culture. The culture of a school is one of its critical organizational characteristics. (Eds. C. , & (1998). , Stoll and Fink (1996) created a typology of five types of school culture: moving (dynamic and successful determination to keep developing), cruising (rather complacent, often with privileged learners who achieve despite little school dynamism), strolling (neither particularly effective or ineffective, but long term not keeping pace with change), struggling (ineffective but trying to address issues), and finally sinking (ineffective and not improving). Consequently, a tendency to stereotype or discount alternative cultures must be halted by conscious, persistent effort (Lumby with Coleman, 2007). (PDF) School culture - ResearchGate (2003). a set of shared values and preferred actions among members of a society that largely determines among other things, the boundaries within which leader development is possible. (1991). with In Once the inputs are understood and the intended outputs identified, the major challenge for the school leader is then to organize and operationalize the processes within the school to enable pupils to travel from their cultural starting point to the output position the school seeks to achieve. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 4(4), 293296. A primary aim of the chapter therefore is to explore how we understand culture in its infinitely variable expressions, and how it relates to the design and implementation of leadership preparation and development programs. Culture can take different forms. Cultures which are comfortable with hierarchy or with the co-creation of knowledge may find affinities with process modes. The implication is that if leadership preparation and development is to aspire to cultural fit, a high degree of sophistication is required. (2004). Cultural globalization is the international transfer of values and beliefs, and while strictly it is multi-directional it is typically perceived as dominated by the spread of western, particularly American, values and symbols across the globe. Sarason, S. ), Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: the GLOBE study of 62 Societies (pp. Bryant, M. , Such an approach to cultural change is, of course, a key component of western approaches to educational leadership, and has been criticized for representing a fundamental misunderstanding of what culture is and can be. School culture is the set of shared values, beliefs and norms that influence the way educators and administrators think, feel and behave in schoolplace. Educational Management & Administration, Bush, T. Davis However, boundaries are permeable. Clearly in these two instances, Western derived theories of autonomy, planning and change management are all thrown into question. At the operational scale, the leader may focus on the culture within the institution in order to facilitate the achievement of institutional improvement, with culture conceptualized as an agent of change. Diversity and the demands of leadership. & Research in such contexts is still not extensive, although Billot, Goddard and Cranston (2007) report the findings of an international study which explores how leadership in successful multi-cultural schools is exercised in three different national settings (Canada, New Zealand and Australia). The fourth theme addresses a key concern for both policy and practice which is the connection between culture and leaders preparation and development. As we shall demonstrate later in the chapter, it is getting to understand these values and beliefs that is a critical first step for educational leaders in developing the skills to manage, develop and evolve culture in their school. Intercultural Education. Essentially it makes a questionable assumption. London: Sage. ), Strategic Human Resource Management (pp. (Eds. ), Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: the GLOBE study of 62 Societies (pp. Deciding which cultural assumptions to attempt to embed in the design and delivery of development, including the degree to which they will replicate or challenge dominant cultures; Deciding how best to equip leaders with intercultural competence, so that they in their turn can decide which cultural assumptions to attempt to embed in their school leadership, including the degree to which they will replicate or challenge dominant cultures. , Organisational Culture and Leadership. , Rejection of the cultural assumptions in preparation and development programs abound on the grounds of gender (Brunner, 2002; Coleman, 2005; Louque, 2002; Rusch, 2004), ethnicity (Bryant, 1998; Tippeconic, 2006), national culture (Bjerke & Al-Meer, 1993; Hallinger, Walker. Two examples will suffice to illustrate this, though. The interrelationship of culture with leadership and its development is the focus of this chapter. Research concerning leadership in multinational corporations defines three components of cultural fluency, cognitive complexity, emotional energy and psychological maturity (Iles & Kaur Hayers, 1997, p. 105). House, R. PDF School culture - Educational Leaders Deal, T. Culture is so rooted in all aspects of human activity that its all encompassing nature may limit its usefulness in practice to conceptualizing leadership and shaping the development of leaders. The product will be a mosaic of sub-cultures, which may reinforce the cultural objectives of the whole school or, in some cases, appear as counter cultures that challenge the organizational hegemony. In terms of cultural outputs school leaders need to understand both what the external societies expect from the school and what they wish to achieve themselves this will require an integration of their personal and professional values, their vision of the purpose of schooling, and the visions and values of the key external stakeholders. 206207). ABSTRACT The relevance of the concept of culture to school effectiveness and school improvement is explored. , Kaur Hayers, P. Sparrow, P. Hanges, S. Sapre and Ranade (2001, p. 379) deplore the fact that there is very little in modern Indian education that is truly rooted in the culture, tradition and genius of its people. (2001). Bottery (1999) has described this as managerial globalization, in which the adoption of western managerialist approaches and business-based forms of accountability underpins educational reform and development. Stoll, & Mackay, 2014). , & Global forces, national mediations and the management of educational institutions. Hoyle, E. His ideas were widely influential. Washington, K. In contrast the assessment of educational leaders often assumes that consideration of cultural fit is unnecessary in relation to standards which are uncritically accepted as international. The key issue, of course, arising from globalization is that educational leaders will be faced increasingly with challenges to manage cultural change within their institution. Very many illustrations could be offered of the different expectations and practice of leadership throughout the world. The identification of the relevant culture and the group to which it is appropriate is predicated on the notion that humans can be classified, that a specific culture can be assigned to those in a particular geographic area or sharing a particular characteristic such as gender, language, ethnic background or religion. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, v6 n1 p23-46 1995 Explores the relevance of culture to school effectiveness and school improvement. House (1996). In. Cultural fluency will be predicated on more than cognitive effort (Lakomski, 2001). One of the best known divisions was by Stoll and Fink (2000), which distinguishes mobile, . Fostering collaborative teacher learning: A typology of school (Throughout, the term development is used to indicate both pre-appointment preparation and the post-appointment on-going development of leaders.) Cincinnati: South Western. Stoll and Fink (1996) developed a model in determining the school culture. A second view, though, is that of leaders as agents of cultural change, as discussed earlier in the chapter. (2006). Cartwright, M. Cohen, D. K. , School principals in transition. The key dimension of cultural scales is that they all exist synchronously, and they all interact upwards and downwards. London: Falmer. Mills, M. Bush, T. Cross-cultural issues in development of leaders. It will therefore involve engagement with the moral choices which lie at the heart of leadership. we elaborated a typology of school improvement trajectories: we identi ed 4 di erent trajectories of school improvement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Multiple perspectives on values and ethical leadership. Bush, T. Internationalisation, ethnic diversity and the acquisition of intercultural competencies. , Collard, J. Organizational development in the Arab world. Journal of Research in Leader Education, Taras, V. As in the acquisition of any language, fluency can only be achieved by practice and not just by theory (Taras & Rowney, 2007). Discourse and Organization. , Just as there is an interplay between culture and modes of delivery, assessment may also be rendered more or less effective by the degree of cultural fit. While there may be commonalities within a whole school, in practice each of these levels will differ in the detail of its culture. , This paper's . (1999). Dorfman, P. W. Online publication date: May 2009, Print ISBN: 9780415988476 Cultural inputs have many facets these will include the external cultural context (society, community and economy at local, regional and national scales), and the cultures brought to the school by all those engaging with it (teachers, parents, pupils, for example). Chapter 3.docx - CHAPTER III The School as a Cultural Whittier Christian High School is a highly rated, private, Christian school located in LA HABRA, CA. Two distinctive views of this connection can be identified (Collard, 2006). Fink, D. (2003). The result is that most preparation and development takes egalitarian participation and transformational leadership as key (Bush & Jackson, 2002). By continuing to use the site The challenge for educational leaders is to recognize and conceptualize each of these cultural realms and understand how it impacts on and provides implications for their own school. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Hallinger, P. In parallel, preparation and development sometimes include an element of raising awareness of cultures deemed to be other than that of the majority or the dominant group, what Stier (2003, p. 84) refers to as content-competencies, generally targeted at increasing knowledge of minority groups within the region or nation. (1999). The second is that cultural plurality is the norm in many educational systems and within most individual schools and colleges. Find Washington Middle School test scores, student-teacher ratio, parent reviews and teacher stats. In previous papers we have described the evolution of this project in detail (Stoll and Fink, 1988, 1989a, 1989b, Fink and Stoll, 1992). School culture, therefore, is most clearly "seen" in the ways people relate to and work together; the management of the school's structures, systems and physical environment; and the extent to which there is a learning focus for both pupils and adults, including the nature of that focus. Matching culture to preparation and development engages with what is perceived to be universal, what appears to be distinctive to the region or nation or group of people, and what is unique to the individual. While these are different aims, they both involve intercultural fluency. London: Paul Chapman. There exists a considerable literature on culture, which provides a range of conceptualizations. A key influence on culture within and beyond schools has been globalization. Towards a framework of investigating leadership praxis in intercultural. Litvin (1997) attacks such essentialism, ascribing the taxonomy of groups to a Western Platonic purportedly scientific paradigm. & Bajunid., 2005; Sapre & Ranade, 2001; Walker, 2006; Wong, 2001), and faith (Shah, 2006). (2005). Wisdom gained, wisdom given: instituting PBL in a Chinese culture. The former has received very little and the latter a good deal more attention (Gronn, 2001; Heck, 1996). Its view of the nature of human relationships are people essentially collaborative or competitive, do they function best in groups or as individuals? Bush I am a member of the publication's editorial board and strongly support the publication, Authored by: Abstract. Schools with strong, positive cultures feature service-oriented staffs, a collegial ambience, celebratory rituals, supportive social networks, and humor. London: Sage. While there is extensive research on the implications of assessment modes on school learners, including the relationship of assessment to variables such as gender and ethnicity, no similar body of research informs how we understand the assessment of leaders. All leadership development has embedded cultural values. (Eds. Cultures Consequences, Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations (2nd ed.). Bajunid, I. (2001). Metaphorically culture is like the air we breathe; all around us, vital, and yet difficult to discern and to change. (2005). & Moral leadership in education: an Indian perspective. Young Stoll and Fink (1992) think that school effectiveness should have done more to make clear how schools can become effective. It has 525 students in grades 9-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1. Mills Sports. One of the best known is that applied to schools by Handy and Aitken (1986), which draws on observations across diverse organizations. The chapter considers five main themes. The third element of the system is the cultural output of the school. The aim is to encourage leaders to address obliviousness to their own culture and challenge approaches which may inappropriately embed a single culture and/or a culture alien to some participants. Bjerke and Al-Meer (1993, p. 31) suggest that in the Arab world: It would appear that teachers have one view, government another, and various segments of the community still another. and 'learning school'; and contacts with leading experts in this area of work which led to identification of additional literature. Leading and Managing Education: International Dimensions. Walker, A. In Although researchers are just beginning to document the effectiveness of the PLC culture, early indications show that it has a significant positive effect on student learning (Lee & Smith, 1996; Louis & Marks, 1998; Stoll et al., 2006; Wiley, 2001). Lumby, J. Beyond the school, though, lies a range of contextual cultures extending from the community within which the school lies to regional, national and international cultural contexts. Effects of cultural diversity on in-class communication and student project team dynamics: Creating synergy in the diverse classroom. The assumed commonality in attributes and behaviors may also be evident in axiological assumptions. Nick Foskett, Print publication date: July 2008 E. V. Velsor, E. V. These are the cultural, verbal, visual and behavioral components of the school in action through which a wide range of cultural messages and aims will be delivered. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(1), 6894. After graduation, 76% of students from this school go on to attend a 4-year college. Subordinates expect superiors to act autocratically. Wallace, M. (1996). Walnut Elementary 625 N. Walnut St. La Habra, CA 90631 Phone: 562-690-2369. , & It's about Learning (and It's about Time) - Louise Stoll, Dean Fink The dynamic culture of More helpful is the model of Schein (1990), which, in contrast, has provided a generic and analytical model of culture. (2004), Understanding valuation processes; exploring the linkage between motivation and action. Walker, J. (Eds. At the international scale, for example, the work of Hofstede (1991), has sought to provide a broad general analysis of national organizational cultures. (2000). (1999). Leading educational change in East Asian schools. Heck, R. The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change. You can find out more in our Privacy Policy. UCEA. Sapre, P. & Effective. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Cardno, C. L. Images of Organization, Powell, A. G. At the interface with exogenous and endogenous cultures, preparation and development reflect choices which are more than technical. Walker, A. However, over a decade ago, Heck (1996) suggested that advances in statistical methods held some hope of achieving conceptual and metric equivalence in investigating theoretical models across nations and within organizations. School administration in China: a look at the principals role. | Contact us | Help & FAQs This may be interpreted in several ways ranging from the operational to the political. International Journal for Leadership in Education, 4(4), 309319. (1997). (2001). School Culture. Stoll & Fink (1996) created a typology of five types of school culture: moving (dynamic and successful determination to keep developing), cruising (rather complacent, often with privileged learners who achieve despite little school dynamism), strolling (neither particularly effective or ineffective, but long term not keeping pace with change . In this line, a study . Those attempting to loosen the bonds of dominant cultures implicit in preparation and development programs research and write within the very dominant orientations they are trying to question (Gronn, 2001). In the opening chapter to this section of the Handbook, Fink and Stoll review the contemporary field of educational change and ask why educational change is so difficult to understand and achieve in present times. Understanding Schools as Organisations Improving. For example, the East or the West continue to be used as descriptive terms for cultural groups in the context of considering leadership. (See, for example, Buruma and Margal-its book, Occidentalism: The west in the eyes of its enemies.) The implications of these strategies for leadership training and development have been analyzed by DiPaola (2003) who outlines a number of key components of principal preparation programs. Rather, cultural competency, the ability to recognize, analyze and engage purposefully with culture at the macro and micro levels is a foundational skill, which positions educational leadership as critical contributors to shaping society and not just the school. Similarly, the selection of teaching staff provides at least an implicit and possibly an explicit mechanism of shaping a key cultural input into the school. However, process models may not mesh with some cultures. Hodgkinson, C. Leader and leadership development may therefore be as effectively focused on teacher leaders as on principals in these two countries. ), Effective educational leadership (pp. Prasad If alternatively, culture is viewed as multiple, unstable, persistently contested, reflecting the differing perspectives and power of individuals and groups, changing the culture of a school is a different kind of endeavor. , & Dorfman (1995). Conceptualizing the schools culture through such a systems approach helps clarify the challenges for school leaders in relation to culture. as aberrations instead of being endemic to organizations (Hoyle & Wallace, 2005, p. 116). (2006). , Women and leadership: The views of women who are . P. W. In Saudi Arabia a command system is accepted by culture and tradition and schools have, in any case, little power to take decisions. , One dimension of fit may relate to ease with receiving positive and negative feedback and from whom. In the absence of a similarly complex or authoritative study of the cultural factors in educational leadership, the design of much preparation and development seems to adhere to an assumed commonality and to avoid detailed engagement with the culturally contingent (Lumby et al., forthcoming), resulting in an international curriculum for school leadership preparation (Bush & Jackson, 2002, pp. This is but one element of the interplay of competing values, priorities and hierarchies of power which influence culture. Identity based and reputational leadership: an American Indian approach to leadership. Conflict and change. Instead there are history, context, process, interactivity, power relations and change. Imperial Middle School 1450 S. Schoolwood Dr. La Habra, CA 90631 Phone: 562-690-2344. British Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 363386. Two typologies are developed. | How to buy & There is relatively little attention paid to middle leaders such as department heads and teacher leaders (Bush & Jackson, 2002). The organization's relationship to its environment. In China the relatively low contact hours enjoyed by teachers combined with a culture of comfort with peer critique has resulted in teacher groups working together for a considerable proportion of their time to achieve change (Bush & Qiang, 2000), while principals spend much of their time on operational administration (Washington, 1991). Leadership is therefore a community property shaped by a complex interrelationship between individuals and context, rather than resulting from individual intent and competition. & (1998). Hoppe (2004) suggests that experiential learning proves enjoyable and effective for US leaders while French and German leaders often view this approach as time-wasting childs play (p. 353). & (2004). School Culture, School Effectiveness and School Improvement , Bryant (1998) suggests that as a consequence school leadership as conceived in the US is unlikely to be appropriate to Native American educational leaders whose culture and consequent conception of leadership is very different. Gupta School Improvement for Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances: A What we mean by the term culture is both argued to be generally understood (Lumby, Walker, Bryant, Bush & Bjork, forthcoming) and suggested not to be understood, misunderstood or so variously understood as to be verging on meaningless. Bajunid (1996, p. 52) argued over a decade ago that in Malaysia there is an urgent need to inspire, motivate and work with relevant and meaningful concepts that the locals are at home and familiar with and to free educational leadership and management from the intellectual domination of Greco-Roman, Christian, Western intellectual traditions (1996, p. 63). ABSTRACT In 1986, the Halton Board of Education in Ontario, Canada initiated an Effective Schools Project. & Ribbins & Collard (2006), for example, contends that much of the global level educational development through programs of agencies such as UNESCO and the World Bank is based on an import model which he portrays as a tidal wave of western values, sweeping away existing cultural environments. Dorfman and House (2004) suggest three competing propositions: that cultural congruence in development and leadership is more effective; that cultural difference can be stimulating and bring about positive change; that leadership is universal activity. In an increasingly complex, diverse and unpredictable world, it is necessary for schools and those working with them . Such decisions will be founded on a concept of leadership that embraces far more than a capacity to competently manage the technical aspects of instruction. We must be aware that the spread of good practice internationally through the educational management literature, through the actions of international organisations such as UNESCO, and through the impact of professional development programmes, all of which are dominated by the perspectives of western educational management practitioners and academics, is in danger of presenting such a global picture of good practice. However, such a perspective ignores the ability of schools to select many of the cultural inputs. Crossing the great divides: problems of cultural diffusion for leadership in education. (2001). Organizational change, leadership and learning: culture as cognitive process. Adler, N. Inevitably therefore, design of the curriculum and its delivery will involve judgments not only about the relevant local culture and the degree of diversity, but also how far global or international cultural assumptions may be relevant. (1971). Teacher perceptions of school culture and their organizational Finally, we identify key issues and areas for future research. Mentoring is therefore flavored by ease and acceptance of the views of seniors but sensitivity to negative feedback. Processes and structures designed for a time that has passed are no longer appropriate in a rapidly changing society. Rusch, E. What is the significance of time is the organization most oriented towards the past, the present or the future? Lumby et al. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Its view of the nature of truth and reality how does it define what is true and what is not and how is truth defined in the context of the social or natural world? & La Habra High School - La Habra, CA - nfhsnetwork.com Sierra Vista Elementary 1800 E. Whittier Boulevard La Habra, CA 90631 Phone: 562-690-2359. Head teachers in rural China: aspects of ambition. | Terms & conditions. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 12(4), 385408. Educational Management and Administration. Everyone expects superiors to enjoy privileges, and status symbols are very important. Curricula and delivery which are founded on a set of cultural assumptions, even those which are dominant within the region or country, are likely to miss the mark for many. Many leaders are constrained to varying degrees by the pressing demands of accountability and competition which in themselves create a dominant cultural context. Hodgkinson (2001) argues that culture is always determining, subliminally and subconsciously, our value orientation and judgments.