School Climate,School Improvement and Site-based Management

This article examines the relationship between school organisational climate and the school's preparedness to undertake restructuring and improvement. Over the last two decades, much research into school improvement and effectiveness has indicated the importance of school climate for a school's efforts to change. For school-level personnel, an understanding of the nature of the prevailing climate would seem valuable in determining the school's willingness and capacity to embark on school improvement initiatives and to evaluate the impact that such initiatives have on the nature of the school's climate. The research reported here was conducted in three phases. The first phase involved the assessment of the prevailing organisational climate in 30 secondary schools drawn from three State education systems in Australia. The second phase involved analysing and documenting the principles and school-level process associated with the establishment of site-based management in the three State education systems. The third phase sought teachers' perceptions about the impact of site-based management on school improvement planning, collaboration and curriculum leadership, and classroom practices. The research indicated the existence of an important relationship between organisational climate and the school's capacity to implement and sustain authentic site-based management. Where the prevailing organisational climate is negative, tailored ‘front-end’ strategies designed to improve the climate might be undertaken prior to the school embarking on substantial school improvement initiatives. Finally, assessing organisational climate can provide information about a school's preparedness to undertake change, and a re-assessment of climate following a change initiative can provide evaluative data about the extent of change within the school. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Hearing Truth from Power? Organisation Theory,School Effectiveness and School Improvement

School effectiveness and school improvement researchers have increasingly looked towards establishing some kind of synergy between their respective fields. However, most recent attempts to create such links have not sufficiently addressed their different perspectives on organisational development and change. School effectiveness research has tended to view organisational development in terms of structural change, while the school improvement field has conversely placed an emphasis upon the cultural dimensions of organisational change. This has resulted in a methodological and theoretical divide that has proved difficult to resolve. This article argues that by incorporating the concept of 'power' into the analysis the two fields can be brought together more successfully. The article suggests that this 'third dimension' provides a bridge between structural and cultural analysis. It also highlights some important research questions that arise out of this tripartite relationship. The article concludes by suggesting that an analysis of power may provide the long awaited conceptual and theoretical fusion sought by both fields.     

School Culture,School Effectiveness and School Improvement

The relevance of the concept of culture to school effectiveness and school improvement is explored. Two typologies are developed. The first proposes four ‘ideal type’ school cultures, based on two underlying domains; the second, a more elaborate and dynamic model, proposes two ‘ideal type’ school cultures, based on five underlying structures. Each is discussed for its heuristic, conceptual, methodological and explanatory potential in research in the fields of school effectiveness and school improvement. In distinguishing collegial cultures from collaborative styles, the article advances recent writing on collaboration. From the theory hypotheses about the relationship between school culture and school effectiveness and improvement can be derived as well as techniques to test such hypotheses.     

Designing and using an organisational culture inquiry tool to glimpse the relational nature of leadership and organisational culture within a South Australian primary school

This case study research found that the relational leadership and organisational culture at a public primary school situated in a high poverty location in South Australia was built upon the strength of the inter-relationships between the teachers, teachers and leadership, and between teachers and students. Supported by what we called ‘dynamic inter-relationships’ and a ‘commitment to ongoing growth’ manifesting as key themes across the qualitative survey data generated by the school’s participants, we found the individual strengths of staff served the ‘on-going formation of organisational life’. Cognisant of these disclosed relational underpinnings, the research provided recommendations to the school’s leadership team about how they could best progress their educational reform agenda. The findings affirmed an Appreciative Inquiry inspired approach designed for the research was ‘fit for purpose’ as it generated extensive qualitative data from the teachers and leaders, offering opportunity for deep interpretive analysis using hermeneutic methodology of the school’s relational leadership and organisational culture. The research findings were subsequently confirmed by the teachers and leaders through a dialogic presentation of the research findings as an accurate representation of the culture of their school.     

Culture,gender and school leadership: school leaders' self-perceptions in China

Since the 1980s, numerous studies have demonstrated the influences of culture and gender on leadership, including school leadership. Such studies have been criticised, however, for being dominated by Anglo-American paradigms and frameworks and for under-exploring the roles of culture and gender on leadership in non-Western societies. With reference to China, this paper focuses on the relationship between gender and school leadership and explores gender differences between Chinese male and female school leaders in their leadership orientations. The study adopted a mixed methodology of a questionnaire survey and individual interviews to solicit Chinese school leaders' views in 2008. The study finds mixed patterns of gender differences in Chinese school leadership, including stereotypical, non-stereotypical and no differences. This paper argues that these patterns can be interpreted as resulting from the dynamic interplay among traditional Chinese culture, contemporary political context and organisational settings into which Chinese school leaders are socialised and in which their leadership styles and behaviours are shaped and leadership is exercised.     

From silos to solutions: How one district is building a culture of collaboration and learning between school principals and central office leaders

Large urban school districts often struggle with hierarchy, fragmented processes and cultures whereby organisational silos between school and central office staff serve as a major barrier for reaching the desired strategic goals of improving student achievement. In addition, school district staff are undergoing change requiring leaders and staff in these organisations to adapt and build their capacity to support changing demands. However, little attention is paid to how to build the necessary systems and learning environments to support capacity building and leader development. This article reports on an action research study using mixed methods that reveal how central office leaders and school principals break down organisational silos to build a culture of learning using learning organisation principles. Using the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) short form, participants completed questions related to the school district's capacity for learning. Data from the survey and interviews outline key findings that illustrate how the learning organisation framework served as a model to create the organisational conditions and culture to enable support and cooperation for learning, capacity, change and improvement to occur. This action research case study is a look at one organisation's approach to addressing a gap in learning organisation research in the area of learning organisation interventions. In addition, it extends current research on schools as learning organisations with an example of data-informed change in one large school district in the southern United States.     

Impacts of organisational culture on academic efficiency and productivity in selected private universities in the Niger delta region of Nigeria

Organisational efficiency is a consistent quality that derives more from and thrives on strong internal culture than on isolated instances of timely and effortless accomplishments by corporate systems. This study sought to evaluate the relationship between organisational culture and enhanced productivity and efficiency among members of five universities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, which with its peculiarities provided a unique context for the study. The quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection among 104 respondents. Faculty were assessed on the direct impacts of their organisations' culture on their research and publication, creativity and innovativeness, among others, while students were assessed on learning, career prospects and others. The study suggested that most of the five universities had no well-articulated organisational culture. This significantly compromises their unique value addition to the educational system, implying that they risk losing their relative advantages unless they fortify their organisational cultural frontiers.     

Defining the Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organisational Learning: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

The present study attempts to address three specific problems. First, amidst a large volume of literature on transformational leadership and its role on school operations in diverse domains, it hopes to identify its contribution to organisational learning. Second, as the intricate relationships that exist among leadership, structure and culture of the school are widely documented in the current literature, there is a need to determine the precise contribution transformational leadership makes to the collective search for adaptation strategies. Third, there is also a need to know whether the overt roles of transformational leadership in the context of organisational change is universal or culturally specific. Findings from schools in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Western Australia and Central Canada provided interesting generalised as well as specific patterns of leadership behaviours that shed light on the last question raised.     

Organizational Climate and Culture: A Conceptual Analysis of the School Workplace

The concepts of organizational climate and culture have become part of the standard rhetoric in contemporary discussions of school effectiveness. Unfortunately, both terms are complex and neither is dearly defined. This article examines the intellectual traditions and conceptual underpinnings of climate and culture and then provides working definitions for each. Examples of frameworks to study school climate and school culture are presented and contrasted. The tension between research on climate using multivariate statistical analyses and studies of culture using the tools of the phenomenologist and ethnographer provides a healthy competition, one that should enhance our understanding of the school workplace if both perspectives are given an opportunity to flourish.     

School Culture and School Effectiveness in Emergencies: Lessons from Israeli Experience during the Gulf War∗

This paper examines the relationship of school culture to school effectiveness in emergencies. It presents a study of: (a) the nature and variability of Israeli schools’ emergency preparation and response to the Gulf War, and (b) the association of school culture with school effectiveness during this emergency. The findings show that two dimensions of school culture, religious orientation and school level educational approaches, have different associations with preparation for the war and with different measures of effectiveness during the war. Results indicate that policy guidelines for preparation for emergencies need to address aspects of school culture that may influence school effectiveness in emergencies.

     

‘Much ado about something’ how school leaders affect attitudes towards inclusive education: the case of Oman

The development of inclusive education (IE) is arguably the biggest challenge currently facing school systems in Oman. School leadership (SL) was argued to be a determinant of organisational effectiveness and an antecedent of organisational commitment (OC). The current study investigated how SL affects teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education (TATIE). A total of 378 teachers from both genders responded to the Principal Leadership Style (PLS), Scale of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC), and the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Using structural modeling, we tested a set of hypotheses drawn from a conceptualised model which we developed from previous research evidence. Results supported our conceptualised model. OC was found to mediate the relationship between PLS and TATIE. Further, different PLSs showed different indirect effects on TATIE through OC. Results are discussed in relation to the context of Oman.     

Intergenerational sharing of knowledge as means of deepening the organisational learning culture in schools

Learning organisations promote the transfer of insights to new personnel (vertical dimension) and the development of shared team knowledge (horizontal dimension). Educational research focuses mainly on the horizontal dimension. This study examined a theoretical framework combining both dimensions and its contribution to teachers’ work. Three hundred and eighty-nine teachers and personnel completed questionnaires about horizontal learning (organisational learning culture (OLC)) and vertical (knowledge continuity management (KCM)) organisational knowledge transfer. A theoretical model was validated clarifying reciprocal relations between study variables. OLC contributes directly, but minimally, to the performance of new personnel or veterans in new posts. KCM mediation contributes to adjustment. Paradoxically, school managements limit KCM.     

School violence,school differences and school discourses

This article highlights one strand of a study which investigated the concept of the violence‐resilient school. In six inner‐city secondary schools, data on violent incidents in school and violent crime in the neighbourhood were gathered, and compared with school practices to minimise violence, accessed through interviews. Some degree of association between the patterns of behaviour and school practices was found: schools with a wider range of well‐connected practices seemed to have less difficult behaviour. Interviews also showed that the different schools had different organisational discourses for construing school violence, its possible causes and the possible solutions. Differences in practices are best understood in connection with differences in these discourses. Some of the features of school discourses are outlined, including their range, their core metaphor and their silences. The authors suggest that organisational discourse is an important concept in explaining school effects and school differences, and that improvement attempts could have clearer regard to this concept.     

乡村振兴视野下乡村教师专业发展的困境与突围

提高乡村教师的数字化教学素养是数字化时代乡村教育振兴的关键路径,是缩小城乡教育差距的时代机遇。通过建构结构方程模型,探讨教育数字化转型背景下乡村教师的组织支持感与数字化教学自我效能感在数字化持续专业发展与数字化教学素养关系中的作用。在中国19个省85个市收集12 488名中小学教师的数据,分析发现：其一,乡村教师数字化持续专业发展积极显著影响数字化教学素养;其二,组织支持感在数字化持续专业发展与数字化教学素养关系中的中介效应显著;其三,数字化教学自我效能感在数字化持续专业发展与数字化教学素养中的中介效应显著;其四,乡村教师数字化持续专业发展通过组织支持感—数字化教学自我效能感这一中介链对数字化教学素养产生间接效应。

     

学校文化对学校效能影响的多元回归模型研究

本研究运用Denison组织文化模型,采用多元线性回归模型分析方法研究了学校文化对学校效能的影响效应,发现:1、学校文化的4个特质、12个维度与学校效能之间存在显著的正相关性;2、学校文化的4个特质都对学校效能具有显著影响效应;3、学校文化的核心价值观、工作目标、创新变革、授权、一致意见、学校愿景、能力发展对学校效能有显著影响效应,而团队导向、发展战略、协调整合、组织学习和家校关系5个维度的影响效应则不显著。在原因分析的基础上,提出了对学校文化建设的启示。     

中外学校组织文化研究之比较

组织文化作为一种文化管理模式,它能协调人际关系,增强组织凝聚力,培养团队精神,引导成员走向共同目标,在管理中具有重要意义。国外学校组织文化理论更多地是从组织理论中汲取营养而发展起来的,研究旨趣在于探寻组织文化与管理绩效的关系,重视组织文化的管理功效;而国内学校组织文化研究则是从文化角度切入,主要强调文化的教育功能。     

On the shortcomings of our organisational forms: with implications for educational change and school improvement

This article informs school improvement and educational change from a radically different perspective. Building upon work done recently in neural psychology, primatology and ethology, the article examines four common and general types of organisational form: the cell, the silo, the pyramidal, and the network types of organisational structures. Status and dominance hierarchies are discussed, as are the dynamics of collaboration/competition and collectivism/individualism. Final consideration is given to the concepts of culture and community, especially as they manifest in the school improvement literature.     

儒学和儒家文艺美学的嬗变

儒家文艺美学是以儒学为主导的中华文化的重要组成部分,可按照儒学在发展演变过程中自然形成的早期、中期和近期三个历史阶段,探讨儒家文艺思想与孔学、经学、理学、心学和现代新儒学的关系,分析与儒家美学相关的各种命题、范畴和理论问题。从"天人合一"、"体用一源"到"智的直觉",是儒家思想能与时俱进而脱胎换骨的生机所在,也是贯穿儒家文艺美学发展的内在理路和思维方式。     

Social and Cognitive Outcomes: A Comparison of Contexts of Learning

This study determines effects of social learning contexts (classroom, school and boards) on social and cognitive outcomes of primary school pupils. Central to this research are the differential effects of attending private and public schools for pupils' math achievement and sense of well-being at school. The relationship between pupil backgrounds, sector, characteristics of classrooms, schools and governing bodies on the one hand and pupil outcomes, on the other, have been analyzed using multilevel analysis (VARCL). The sample consisted of 103 schools and 2023 pupils (grade 8, age 11). After controlling for socioeconomic backgrounds, the results show that indicators of cognitive and social effectiveness are mainly climate factors. Basic elements of cognitive school effectiveness (math) seem counter-productive with respect to pupils' sense of well-being at school.     

Emotion‐regulation ability,burnout, and job satisfaction among British secondary‐school teachers

The topic of emotion regulation and its relationship with teacher effectiveness is beginning to garner attention by researchers. This study examined the relationship between emotion‐regulation ability (ERA), as assessed by the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), and both job satisfaction and burnout among secondary‐school teachers (N = 123). It also examined the mediating effects of affect and principal support on these outcomes. ERA was associated positively with positive affect, principal support, job satisfaction, and one component of burnout, personal accomplishment. Two path models demonstrated that both positive affect and principal support mediated independently the associations between ERA and both personal accomplishment and job satisfaction. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.