How is the Culture and/or Climate in your school district?
This was a question I recently asked my Building Leadership Team. I love my staff and appreciate all they do daily. However, I have witnessed a few issues and some staff have felt I was trustworthy enough to share some of their concerns. Every district has individuals who seem to have those sidebar conversations that tell a different story then we would hope. Some are unprofessional to one another and have a negative stance on almost every initiative implemented. No school district leader likes dealing with negativity, yet it is our responsibility as the leaders to find the best in our organizations and capitalize on those positives.
It is difficult to know whether issues are related to the building culture or the building climate. One could say that if either of these are negative, it could be a leadership issue. I absolutely agree that if there is poor leadership present, that the climate and/or culture will be less then perfect. I would also argue that great leadership is not the only reason for a positive school climate or culture. The best chances for the greatest good, is if all members of the organization are pushing for a positive climate or culture. Gruenert & Whitaker (2015), discuss climate as what you do, and culture as why you do it. I have entered classrooms where I could feel the difference from others. I have also referred to it as the ambience of the classroom, where there is a noticeable uniqueness to the environment. Culture is very difficult to change and climate is not as difficult to change if done correctly. We want everyone to feel comfortable as they enter our schools and classrooms. We want people to be able to acknowledge the positivity and feelings as they interact with the staff entering our buildings. This is a positive school culture.
Our goal to address the culture and climate this year seems to be at times an overwhelming feat and not to mention one of the most difficult processes for any school leader and staff to take on. The challenge in our case is to get everyone on board to see if there are some discussion points, we could address to improve our school district to the benefit of our students. We looked to Anthony Muhammad (2009) to address our concerns by, hoping our members use common terminology in student and classroom expectations/methods, engage in problem solving conversations as well as steer away negative complaints, and have a strong sense of ownership of our school mission and purpose.
Our challenge to look at how we are doing with our climate and culture are not unique to our district. I think it is something all district are looking at. I would also say that the most successful organizations are continuously looking to develop and improve their procedures to reflect a positive climate and culture. We must identify whether we need to work on our culture or climate, or both. The best chances we have, to address this correctly is involve our school leaders in this conversation. Point-blank ask them, how we are doing? This will only work if everyone is honest about the feeling we want to create for our students, staff, and families.
Books are at the center of my learning and I always fall back on them, as well as websites I read. I look forward to all responses to my posts. I hope you gain some insight to the information I shared in these posts. Have a great week, as you keep learning and growing. Here are a few guiding questions for you this week.
Does your school leadership team have intentional conversations around your school’s climate and culture?
Have you surveyed your stakeholder’s feelings about the school environment?
Are your staff using common language centered around the expectations and/or school mission and purpose?
References:
Gruenert, S. & Whitaker, T. (2015). School Culture Rewind How to Define, Assess, and Transform it. Alexandria, VA. ASCD.
Muhammad, A. (2009) Transforming School Culture How to Overcome Staff Division, Bloomington, IN. Solution Tree Press.
