School culture and its institutional impacts

¶ … culture of my workplace, a school district. According to author G.B. Rossman, there are three elements of change in educational facilities, technical, political, and cultural, and each affects the culture of the school or district differently. In most groups, change is difficult to introduce and to be accepted. Rossman continues, "The introduction of planned change challenges the status quo and instigates staff members to compare their current cultural content with that embedded in the new activity" (Rossman, YEAR, p. 2). Thus, change in schools and school districts can be difficult, especially for staff members and teachers who have been ding things "their way" for many years and see no need to change how they teach or how they administer their staff.

My school district culture is quite similar to the culture of many large organizations, which might surprise many outsiders. Initially, I thought the educational arena would be very different from business, but I have found they share many similarities, and this of course can have a large affect on the culture of the schools and the school district that manages them. While most of the staff in the district offices are united in their goal to bring a quality educational experience to the children in the K-12 schools the district manages, there are some staff members who are less interested in the overall educational experience and seem more interested in their own goals and wants, sometimes leaving the best interests of the district behind. This seems to be the case in any large organization, educational or not, and is common in any business that hires and manages a large number of diverse peoples, personalities, and cultures. In addition, many of the staff members have been employed at the district for many years, and they seem resistant to change of most sorts.

For example, when computers were first introduced into the district offices several years ago, many of the older staff members did not want to learn how to use them, and were unhappy when they were forced to. Many of them were angry with the change, and resisted learned what they needed to know to use the computers effectively. They continued to use older, less productive methods until they were literally forced into using the computers. Rossman's assessment that those schools with "uniform cultural systems" are more resistant to change seems especially pertinent here. He writes, "Because well-established patterns of behavior are already in place, a proposed change or process of change that violates these patterns generates considerable resistance and turmoil" (Rossman, YEAR, p. 9). Many of the staff embraced the new computers as tools to be more effective and productive, but many did not, and it was a difficult transitional time in the district.

Another example is when computers were introduced into the classrooms; many teachers had the same resistance and misgivings to using them and making them available to their students. They argued that children might surf the Internet and find inappropriate sites, or use the computers to play games when they should be working on research or homework assignments. Many of these misgivings turned out to be untrue, and teachers found they could monitor the students using the computers with little difficulty. Now, it would seem unusual to find a schoolroom without at least one computer, but then, it was different, and change was met with resistance and even alarm by some of the teachers.

More recently, there has been an increased interest in the community to change kindergarten to a full-day instead of a half-day concept. Many of the staff and the teachers are not happy about this concept, and do not want their classrooms to change from half-day to full-day. They cite a variety of arguments, noting that these young students are too young for a full day of instruction, to their own resistance to working with 5-year-olds to a full day. Because there is also some resistance from the community, the teachers are also using this as an argument against implementing a full day of kindergarten instruction. It seems that many of the teachers arguments are more personal, rather than for the good of the incoming kindergarten students. For example, many studies have shown that a full day of instruction benefits most children, especially those who are non-English speaking, as many incoming kindergarteners are. Thus, Rossman's assessment that accepting change is not always about doing what is best for the children is essentially correct here. Many teachers are more worried about their own schedules rather than providing the best educational experience of the children they are teachings. Rossman continues, "For at least a subset of the staff members, the norms imbue organizational activity with meaning and are viewed as unalterable" (Rossman, YEAR, p. 11). Thus, the kindergarten teachers regard their schedules as "sacred" and refuse to alter their thinking even if it may become necessary to change the children's schedules.