Responding to A Professional Context

As a teacher, it is important to have a clear understanding of the context in which you teach. The Socio-Economic context of a school's community will impact all aspects of a schools culture - in my experience in both positive and negative ways.

The Influence of Status in a School

My current school is a large, urban - and for this conversation most importantly- private Y1-13 school. It is accurate to conclude that the students I teach come from the least economically deprived conditions in NZ, and many will come from families with well above normal financial capabilities. We are obviously a decile 10 school, but in contrast to state decile 10 schools I feel that we have even less variation in economic circumstances. There are certainly some families in our community who are making huge sacrifices for their children to attend are school - but I don't feel as though that is the norm. 

The effect of this on the context of the school is profound. Resourcing levels are extremely high, and resultant expectations from school leadership and the parent community is that standards of all aspects of education will be exemplary; academically, sporting pursuits, cultural and leadership opportunities, and pastoral and spiritual guidance. 

In Stoll's (1998) article she articulates four different teaching cultures. I believe that our school is closest to Balkanisation - a situation where there are pockets of genuine collaboration among the teaching staff - but in some individual or in-fact departmental, instances there are staff acting in genuine isolation.   

Issues resulting from high status 

Members of our school community has a huge financial investment in their children - and that investment comes with equally high expectations of the quality of the services being purchased. Students have access to learning experiences well above that of a state school of 'equal' decile (eg 10) A quick scan of the school calendar identify's 8 overseas trips being run in the secondary school this year - that is excluding the strong students exchange programme that exists. Similarly, the physical environment of the College has undergone huge renovation in recent years in an attempt to meet the expectations of our key stakeholders.

School improvement is an important aspect of a school's development. Of Stoll's 10 factors influencing cultural norms of school improvement, I feel that it is perhaps the sixth, Risk-Taking, that is our weakest point. With so much pressure of staff to provide a high quality level of education, there is a danger that innovation may be suppressed. Perhaps in an effort to increase the visibility of innovation, the College is in the process of developing an innovation centre - due to open in 2018.       

Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture