Building and Sustaining School culture Research Paper

Building and Sustaining School culture - Research Paper Example Creating awareness of culture within school settings can trigger scholars and tutors to take on tasks that promote growth. A school is an organization that has its own principles, values, and norms. Culture is not a distinguishable aspect of a school setting. A school culture encloses teachers developing their attitudes and impacting their conclusions and deeds. Culture manipulates all facets of a school, as well as such aspects as teacher’s dressing, what the teachers talk about during their breaks, how the teachers decorate their classrooms and the teacher’s stress on definite facets of the program of study. This research paper will focus on the factors that can help in building and sustaining school culture within school settings and institutions and the key players.Sarason (1996) refers culture within a school setting as the set of beliefs and values coherent among the school leaders in steering the school and interpreted by the students into proper conducts and arm ored through the installation of discipline. School cultures are formed and transformed over time. Needless to say, there is a broad correspondence among authors and scholars on how school cultures reacts to and replicates community attributes held by the students. For this reason, school culture can be expressed as the air we breathe. It is hardly noticeable. Moreover, it also typifies the traits and values of its leaders (Sarason, 1996).Culture in school grows as â€Å"teachers associate with each other, students and the community†.... School culture is a dynamic aspect that is continuously â€Å"being constructed and shaped through dealings with other and replications on life and the world in general† (Sarason, 1996, p 27). Culture in school grows as â€Å"teachers associate with each other, students and the community† (Barth, 1990, p. 123).Sarason (1996) argues that it â€Å"becomes the guide for behavior shared among members of the school at large† (p. 32). Kruse and Louis (2008, p. 20) argue that schools â€Å"are shaped by cultural practices and values and reflect the norms of the society for which they have been developed†. Barth (1990) asserts that â€Å"rituals and procedures common to most schools play a vital role in defining school’s culture† (p.124). For instance, ringing bells and having students stand in lines. Sarason (1996, p. 138), asserts â€Å"it is challenging to determine the nature of a school’s culture because our own personal experiences and values put blinders on what we look at, choose to change, and evaluate; because our values and assumptions are usually implicit and second nature we proceed as if the way things are the way things should or could be†. Arguably, people scrutinize the customs, guidelines, curriculum, tasks, pedagogy and practices in institutions from side to side via the sieve of their personal experiences and values. Sarason (1996) points out that people must apprehend and analyze their own cultural impacts before examining a schools’. Before joining the school, teachers and other staff members are attached to other cultures. Their values, experiences, prior education and norms,affect their opinions on pedagogy, curriculum and reforms before stepping into classrooms. For this reason, any proposed cultural reform will be resisted. Effects of