Schools should have Positive Culture

All schools must have and environment conducive to learning. It is therefore important to know whether the school’s culture is positive to have an environment conducive to learning. This is what Sharon Cromwell’s article “Is Your School’s Culture Toxic or Positive?” is all about. It tackles the differences between a positive-cultured school to a negative-cultured one and what can administrators do to change from a negative-cultured to positive-cultured school.

Dr. Kent Peterson held that “The culture of a school consists primarily of the underlying norm values and beliefs that teachers and administrators hold about teaching and learning” (Cromwell 2002). Cromwell (2002) writes that school culture has a profound effect on staff development. Peterson said that the school’s culture “affects attitudes toward spending time to improve instruction, motivation to attend workshops, and the [activities] people choose to participate in” (Cromwell 2002). A school with a positive culture has “an informal network of heroes and heroines and an informal grapevine that passes along information about what’s going on in the school.” There also exists a “set of values that supports professional development of teachers, a sense of responsibility for student learning, and a positive, caring atmosphere” (Cromwell 2002). On the other hand, a negative-cultured school, there is a prevailing negative attitude towards work. “Teacher relations are often conflictual, [and] the staff doesn’t believe in the ability of the students to succeed,” according to Peterson (Cromwell 2002). Furthermore, he said that schools with negative, or toxic, culture lack a clear sense purpose, blame students for lack of progress, and often have hostile relations among staff.

Peterson suggested that in fighting the negative culture “the staff must assess the underlying norms and values of the culture and then as a group activity, work to change them to have a more positive, supportive culture” (Cromwell 2002).  School administrators must know which culture should be reinforced and which should be changed. “Being able to understand and shape the culture is key to a school’s success in promoting staff and student learning,”writes Peterson. He concluded that “when administrators and staff collaborate in a strong push to foster an environment in which learning blooms… they will decrease such negatives as student misbehavior and faculty grousing and create an overall positive school culture with a flourishing staff and students” (Cromwell 2002).

A positive culture in schools will assure the requirement of an environment conducive to learning. Not only will it motivate the students to learn, it will also increase the quality of education the students are getting. It is the primary objective of schools to provide quality education. Therefore, administrators ensuring a positive culture in schools is a must. Although there isn’t a specific example given, Cromwell’s article provided a valuable insight on how to do this.

References

Cromwell, S. (2002). Is Your School’s Culture Toxic or Positive? In Education World. Retreived June 5, 2008 from http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin275.shtml