Transforming School Culture
Students are an essential part of all school improvement efforts.
As Preble and Gordon clearly point out, “We have seen how students’ voices and ideas ‘soften up’ even the hardest, most intractable, entrenched, and resistant teachers and help them recall the reasons they wanted to become teachers in the first place” (2011). Ensuring that student voice is a part of any and every school improvement plan is something that I had never even considered the least bit important before I read this book. However, it is now clear to me that this is crucial. Not only does it “soften up” teachers and keep them focused, but student voice is altogether legitimate when examining issues of school culture. Students are the experts--the ones living the school culture. It would be foolish to exclude their voice at all.
School culture improvements must be proactive in creating a healthy, positive culture.
Reacting to problems will never get schools ahead in transforming the culture of a school. I’ve become keenly aware that the true best way to create a healthy, positive, and respectful culture is to be proactive in establishing a community of respect and fostering respect in all relationships throughout the school. It is too late to deal with school culture when the unexpected occurs. And it is foolish to simply treat some of the symptoms. As Preble and Gordon further suggest, “Addressing these issues one at a time can lead to institutional schizophrenia, with teachers and students feeling pushed from one agenda to another as each new idea is layered on top of the ones that were addressed before” (2011). Central to all of this is the fact that we’re not just trying to establish a positive school culture, we’re trying to allow student learning to happen in the most effective and efficient way.
Change takes time.
Clearly, Preble and Gordon make the case that change takes time. The book introduces the SafeMeasures protocol, which takes years to fully manifest, but yields changes in paradigms right from the start. But change that is worth making and worth sustaining does--and should--indeed take time. This is a drawback as much as it is a benefit. Sustained change in an industry in which turnover is high, folks are leaving the profession, and situations or funding change from one year to the next, is difficult and requires continuous leadership and careful structuring. Involving student voice and establishing a leadership team are key to sustaining the change. But it is also a benefit in that it forces schools to begin to establish overarching objectives and forces them to determine how individual goals fit into the overall picture. This gives perspective and helps to ensure that other initiatives fit into the goal of positive culture, otherwise they shouldn’t be pursued. What’s more is that long-term change has the power to impact the learning environment more because it provides consistency for students.