1. Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division
Anthony Muhammad, Ph.D.

2. The Task at Hand
“If schools are to be transformed into learning communities, educators must be prepared first of all to acknowledge that the traditional guiding model of education is no longer relevant in a post-industrial, knowledge-based society. Second, they must embrace ideas and assumptions that are radically different than those that have guided schools in the past.”
DuFour & Eaker, Professional Learning
Communities at Work (1998), p. 34

3. Two Forms of Change
Technical
Cultural

4. Educational technology Support classes
Technical Change
Technical changes are changes in learning tools/structure
Collaborative time
Common assessments
Norms and Protocol
Educational technology
Support classes

5. Common Misconceptions About Technical Changes
Changing the structure will lead to higher levels of productivity (Rearranging the seats on the Titanic)
Technical changes can make up for low capacity or unprofessionalism
Technical changes will “fix” kids or schools that are broken (i.e., dress codes, longer school day)

6. Cultural Change
“Structural change that is not supported by cultural change will eventually be overwhelmed by the culture, for it is in the culture that any organization finds meaning and stability.”
Schlechty, Shaking Up the Schoolhouse:
How to Support and Sustain Educational Innovation
(2001), p. 52

7. School Culture
“School culture is the set of norms, values, and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the ‘persona’ of the school”
Peterson(2002), Is Your School Culture toxic or positive? Education World (6)2

8. “Healthy” School Culture
“Educators have an unwavering belief in the ability of all of their students to achieve success, and they pass that belief on to others in overt and covert ways. Educators create policies and procedures and adopt practices that support their belief in the ability of every student.”
Peterson(2002), Is Your School Culture toxic or positive? Education World (6)2

9. “Toxic” School Culture
“Educators believe that student success is based upon students’ level of concern, attentiveness, prior knowledge, and willingness to comply with the demands of the school, and they articulate that belief in overt and covert ways. Educators create policies and procedures and adopt practices that support their belief in the impossibility of universal achievement.”
Peterson(2002), Is Your School Culture toxic or positive? Education World (6)2

10. Good to Great, Jim Collins
What do great corporations/organizations do differently than good/average organizations?
They seek and find the “brutal facts”
They get the right people on the “bus” and sit them in the “right seats”

11. The Quandary
Tweeners
Believers
Survivors
Fundamentalists

12. Success for Each Student
Believers
Objective:
Success for Each Student

13. The Believers Very intrinsically motivated
Flexibility with students (academically and behaviorally)
Mission driven/connection to school or community
Willing to confront negative talk and attitudes towards children
Varied levels of pedagogical skill

14. To Find Role Within the Organization
Tweeners
Objective:
To Find Role Within the Organization

15. The Tweeners Loosely-coupled with the school mission
Enthusiastic about the idealistic nature of school, but have not quite hit the tipping point
They stay out of school and district politics
Follows instructions as given by administration (considered “good” teachers)
One extreme experience (Moment of Truth) can swing them to be a believer or a fundamentalist

16. Survivors
Objective:
Survival

17. Survivors
Overwhelming nature of the job or life has caused clinical depression (Burnout)
No political or organizational aspirations
Create subcontracts with student to broker a “cease-fire” agreement
Little to no professional practice is evident
All members of the organization agree that they do not belong in the profession
Removal and treatment is the only possible remedy

18. Maintain Status Quo (Leave Me Alone!)
Fundamentalists
Objective:
Maintain Status Quo
(Leave Me Alone!)

19. Apprenticeship of Observation
Educators have been socialized in their field since childhood and adopt the norms
The average educator was a good student
Educators subconsciously protect a system that was of personal benefit
Educators implement practices that protect the system (academic obstacle course)
(Lortie, Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study, 1975)
I assume that this information is a paraphrase from a book. Please let me know if this is so.
Also, we need the title of the work.

20. Fundamentalists Believe not all children can learn (Social Darwinists)
Believe that school reform is a waste of time
Believe in autonomy and academic freedom
Organize to resist threat(s) to status quo
Believe that gaps in learning are solely due to outside forces (students, parents, administration)
Have varied levels of pedagogical skills

21. Methods: The Three “D’s”
Defamation
Disruption
Distraction

22. Control of Language Focus on problem and problem solving
Believers
Fundamentalists
Focus on problem and problem solving
Pragmatic discussions stay within the locus of control
Focus on personal affect of the problem and constant, emotionally-charged description of the problem
Emotional discussions lie outside of the locus of control

23. Believers The Real Difference Fundamentalists
Goal: Success for Every Student
Accepts that change (the right change) is necessary to improve student performance
Student interest is more important that personal interest (Public Servant)
Goal: Maintain Status Quo
Rejects any substantive change if it clashes with personal agenda
Self-interest is more important than student interest (Self Servant)

24. The Current State of School Reform
The Clash
(need for stability/predictability)
Fundamentalists
(need to change to meet organizational goals)
School Improvement
Stalemate

25. The Problem of Our Time?
“Money alone will not fix our struggling schools. The issue of adult dysfunction, at every level, must be addressed and fixed before we can truly have a new American public school.”
Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
Cody High School, Detroit, MI
May 16, 2009

26. A Call to Action
“Education is too critical to our society for leaders to allow it to be hijacked by a group of individuals who refuse to embrace substantive change, even in the face of compelling evidence. School leaders and Believers have to become more active and vocal and meet this challenge of overcoming fundamentalism head on.”
A. Muhammad, Transforming School Culture, 2009, pg. 81

27. What’s Next? Is Change Necessary?
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?” – Albert Einstein

28. Can Fundamentalism Be Reversed?

29. Fundamentalist Change Is Not Easy
“Drop Your Tools” Research
People persist when they are given no clear reason to change
People persist when they do not trust the person who tells them to change
People persist when they view the alternative as more frightening
To change may mean admitting failure
(Maclean, Young Men and Fire, 1992)

30. Level 1 – Make a clear case for change
How do we respond?
Level 1 – Make a clear case for change
Level 2 – Develop relationships, do not ostracize
Level 3 – Increase capacity and consider the context
Level 4 – Monitor Strongly

31. Behavior not People!
If you answered yes to any of the aforementioned questions, you have behaved in a Fundamentalist manner in the past.
The focus in transforming culture is on changing behavior, not getting rid of people.
To “Transform” is different than to “Inform”

32. Leadership at Every Level
Healthy School Culture
Teacher
Leadership
Building
District
State and Federal

33. Creating Healthy Cultures: Everyone Has a Role
Micro (Colleagues)
Macro (Leadership)
Control the language of the informal culture
Remove emotional tone from informal interactions
Focus peers on mission and problem solving
Develop and maintain healthy organizational vision
Develop and maintain healthy policies, practices, and procedures
Institutionalize organizational health

34. Hard Fact #1
Schools are institutions created for the purpose of educating children, not for adult employment.

35. Hard Fact #2
Educators are Public Servants, no different than police officers or fire fighters.

36. Hard Fact #3
If schools are going to improve, the issue of Fundamentalism and inordinate self-interest is going to have to be effectively addressed.

37. Purpose
“The best case for public education has always been that it is a common good. Everyone ultimately has a stake in the caliber of schools, and education is everyone’s business.”
Michael Fullan, The Moral Imperative of School Leadership (2003)

38. Let Us Not Forget!
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”
U.S. Declaration of Independence

39. It’s Not About Us! It’s About Them!