How My School Embraces Good Cultural Practices

Gary Phillips characterizes school culture as the, "beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that characterize a school in terms of how people treat and feel about each other; the extent to which people feel included and appreciated, and the rituals and traditions reflecting collaboration and collegiality." (1993)

Culture, therefore, includes a combination of the values, rituals, and beliefs shared and demonstrated by participants within the school. Everything educators do and believe in constitutes the culture of a school. School culture involves proper communication; it encompasses good values and beliefs. This is reflected in the school’s customs, artifacts, ceremonies, and stories. The school culture has the power to revitalize the school improvement process. According to Ronald Barth …

“The school culture is a complex pattern of norms, attitudes, beliefs, traditions and myths that are deeply ingrained in the very core of the organization. A school’s culture has far more influence on life and learning in the schoolhouse than the state department of education, the superintendent, the school board or even the principal can ever have.” (Barth, 2002, p. 7).

How does my school embrace good cultural practices? First, by adopting a mission statement that reflects its vision. The school mission statement states:

We all come from different cultures, backgrounds, religions and economic levels; however, we are all joined by one mission of achieving a well-rounded education that will help us make a positive contribution to society. I then tried to find out the mission statement was framed, and discovered that it spelt out, in one sentence, the vision and the goals of the founders of the school. What was their vision? What were these goals?...

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...essential changes in a way that promotes the vision and values of the school. This vision should be widely promulgated and reinforced more often, at every opportunity, and should be shared by everybody in the school.

d) Feedback – A more effective feedback system from the teachers, the parents and the community needs to be instituted and needs to be more frequent. Various aspects of students behavior and achievement needs to be carefully monitored, recorded and corrective measures instituted.

I would surely like to bring about a few improvements to the school when I am given the opportunity to do so.

As I wrote this assignment, I understood what school culture really meant and it really made me think about the different ways I can improve my school’s culture. I also realized that school culture is really important for the all-round development of the students.