Old School Culture and a New Principal - Research Paper Example

? CASE STUDY Old School Culture and a New Principal ……………………. College ………………………… ……………………… Introduction In the initial stage of the twentieth century, many schools grew from single-room school into schools with multiple phase, classrooms and grades. It necessitate for someone to manage these more complicated organizations. Even the need was initially filled by teachers themselves or principal teachers, but later most principals stopped teaching because of the increased demand for their time to be spent in the fulfillment of management responsibilities. While schools were continuing to grow, principal teachers became full-time administrators in most schools. The school principal is holding the top most position in the administration of elementary, middle and high school. The purpose of this study is to analyze the given case and to conclude an idea about the impact of new principal in the field of school culture, to enumerate the consequences of approaches of a principal towards the factors which directly or indirectly influence the school culture, especially in the rules and procedures and to portrait the vivid behavioral pattern of a principal as he is a good leader. It tries to portrait the school culture and to analyze the plan in relate with professional growth. School Principal as organizational administrator and academic leader The overall culture of an institution is directly linked with principals, so they were responsible for building maintenance, public relations, financial operations, student personality and growth, school policy regarding discipline, coordination of the instructional program, scholastic and co-scholastic area of curriculum and other overall school matters. The culture is a complex term which includes moral belief, customs, knowledge, art, laws and any other habits and capabilities attained by human beings as a member of society (Prus R.C, 1997, p, 28). Normally, an identical set of morale and belief, especially those with which educator deals with can be termed as a strong culture. To be a culture as a positive one the morale, value and belief should be in a harmonious with empirical evidence and other factors having the good knowledge base (Kowalski, 2003). The principal should have a good leadership quality so he has to lead the others to attain their group goal and the level to which the principal keeps to maintain a collaborative relationship with school staff. The principal must aware about prevailing condition with which ancestors guided and sustained the institute and its culture. The sudden changes, even it is necessary in the succession of years with innovative phase, may badly affect the co-workers and friends also. Without question, revamping culture of an institute having the long run history is the most terrifying task in climate change. Underlying shared costumes and believes that influence behavior often are very difficult to identify either because the coworkers are unwilling to talk about them or because they may unable to do so (Kowalski T J et al, 2007. p,27). He or she must be vigilant on his surroundings to make all as supportive for him in his succession with the positive changes especially in affaires relating to teachers, student, parents and community at whole. A slight derail may results in to an explosion due to depending on living matter other than in life less matters. Case Study Reflection: 1. Factors that contributed to the conflict between a majority of the teachers and Principal Lettimore. Lettimore is a newly appointed principal of Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School located in a fading urban area in the large California school district. Even though he had long experiences as principal in other high standard schools of the same district, he faced a sturdy conflict from majority of his staff and co-workers, mainly from teachers, due to the following factors: Resistance to change: John Lettimore adopted a change in the rules with which the school had adopted the plan and its execution. Even though he had life experiences in adopting a new approaches to lead a school in to peak of success, he has to refer the same with those they had a good awareness about the consequences surging aftermath of a sudden change. The senior teachers molded the school culture till the coming of Lattimore. Here an analyst can draw a conclusion that the conflict emerged in this case because of common psychological criteria of human beings against any change. It may be for the following reason that the teachers resist the change (Yukl, 2007) Unclear reason for the change: Blind Dissatisfaction from the part of teachers. Self threatening to implement the changed procedures Failure in proper communication about the change The trouble involved in change may be than that of unchanged rule execution Intervention of inferiority of superiority complex of teachers. Uncertainty about the future culture: As portrayed earlier when Lettimore took steps forward with a change in the procedure to rule out of school suspension and grade retention, majority of the teachers were in tragedy of future uncertainty. In these circumstances elder teachers resist the change in order to keep the culture in certain balanced level. Struggle against the autocrat leadership: Teacher argued that the decision taken by Lettimore in an autocratic style. But Mr Lettimore actually didn’t get informed the dissatisfaction of teachers against the changing the rules because of the teachers merely smiled and talked matter without making aware him about their dissatisfaction. Mistakes in understanding other: Mr. Lettimore tried to uplift the school standard to a higher level. It can be seen throughout the given case especially in the stage where Lettimore replayed to Dr. Danton. He replied that he believed him to be correct. If he was the dictator as they described, he would have changed all such rules immediately after he was named or appointed as principal. He recognized the school as a mess before he took the job and he tried his best to collaborate in bringing and implementing the change. Most teachers simply resisted the change (p. 46). Teachers have to make him aware of their disagreement with change in rule in proper way. 2. Evidence in the case that provide insights into the school’s culture. Culture is a concept that refers to a group’s shared customs, beliefs, and behavior. The obvious elements of curriculum, schedules, demographics, and policies, as well as the social interactions can be referred as school’s culture. Culture may influence the whole thing that occurs in a school. The beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors which differentiate a school from others are together known as school culture (Phillips 1993). In the given case the main elements that indicate or provide insight about the culture of the school are: The infrastructure or physical structure of the school (p. 44) Location of school in an urban area (p. 44) Teachers’ attitude (p. 46) Present rule other than that of out of school suspension and grade retention (p 44-45) Teachers-parental, principal-teachers and principal-parental relations (p. 44) Students behavior, attitude, financial level and discipline (p.46) 3. The leadership style of Principal Lattimore While analyzing the abstract taken from the given case, the conclusion can be drawn about the leadership style of Lettimore. In the petition sent by the teachers to Dr. Danton, the assistant superintendent stated as below: “…..Although it is true that Mr. Lettimore, initially asked us how we felt about the rule changes, you need to know that we responded and he ignored our input. In the end, he simply did what he always indented to Do (Kowalski, 2012, p. 46)” Teachers opine that the principal lead them in an authoritarian or autocrat style, so he ignored their response against the coming change in rules. But principal Lettimore states in the conversation with Dr. Danton, the assistant superintendent that he was act correctly and acted the role of participating or democratic leader trough taking the decision of rule-change. Even if he acted so, the teachers behaved with him in an uncooperative manner. This can be observed from the sayings of Lettomire. As he says, he found the school to be a mess before he took the job there. He tried to bring about the change and many teachers resisted the change. A small group of teachers has been running the school and they even have sent many principals out of the school. 4. Did the teachers act ethically in criticizing the principal to parents? “…..After the next school term started, dissatisfaction among staff was pervasive. Their anger had become malevolent and they took their case to parents and school whenever possible (Kowalski, 2012, p. 46)” The teachers’ criticize was not in an ethical manner with parents. It can identify from the case that the dealings of teachers in this problem not in a proper way because the parent may evaluate that if the teachers who has been entrusted the student to inculcate the knowledge and morale by the parents, behaved in a negative or degraded manner the future or result of the students will be pathetic. 5. Did the teachers act ethically in preparing and signing a petition requesting the removal of Principal Lattimore? This also not in an ethical that done by the teachers for they had not made him aware about their disagreement. As a subordinate the teachers have vital responsibility to make their leader aware about the consequences of his dealing without their support in the change that he indented to apply for. Without giving him any simple signal about their dealing, these all conflicts were a cheating, immoral and not suitable for the teachers, creator of a future generation. 6. The assistant superintendent could reassign the principal or support him by endorsing the changes he made. Are there options she could pursue to resolve the conflict at Holmes Elementary School? Analyze report of the abstracts (below) taken from the given case reveal the extra ordinary ability of Mr. Lettimore. Among the five other applicants, none had previous experience as a principal. He has 31 years of experience as an educator with 22 of them in the role of principal. He previously served as principal of two of the district's other elementary schools Lattimore was highly successful at McKinley, and in the aftermath of his departure, his successor might not be able to sustain the current level of school effectiveness. The assistant superintendent must try to allow the Lettimore to follow as the principal of Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary School, because of the matter already described throughout the case (pointed out above). The efficient principal can do more in the development of an institute but those inefficient can’t able to do for institute much. Lettimore proved his efficiency in his long past running, 31 year, as principal and teacher in different popular and high standard school of same district. The endorsement from the part of Assistant superintendent supporting the changes should affect the other teachers having the good harmony with the school and its culture in last years and they requested to reassign the principal. Their psychology must not ready to cope with Mr.Lettimore and his authority without allow them their request. So it is the only way to solve this conflict that Dr. Danto compels his colleague Mr. Lettimore to adopt changes aftermath of cooling down the conflict unless teachers may take next trace towards the removal of Lettimore or they may depart the institute. Both these should lead to collapse the school’s existence itself. So change can be made only after fixing Lettimore on the post and after cooling down the conflict among the teachers. School Culture Every school has a set of unrecorded rules about a variety of things, so the school culture is kind of the unwritten set of rules, rituals (Daniels, Patterson et al 2010, p, 4), norms and morale traditions that make up the dealings and interventions as good or bad. Every institution has a conscious and conventional part of the rules and procedures and so forth. But the school’s culture is habitually lying below the stream of consciousness and is actually that affects how people interact in such school or institute. The only way to improve the all round culture of an educational institute is to making aware of the student about value and morale oriented education (Gawande,2004) and its influence in molding the standard and prestige in society especially in the next generation at which the present students will be the leaders. There must noted be a chance to read by student as bad, negative, inefficient and any other value less dealing or approaches about their principal, head master, teachers, even about parents because it may pave the way to astray in the mind of students. SQ-the Spiritual Quotient is considered as one of the best factor to scale one’s potentiality in modern world. Effective Instructional Practices: Effective instructional practices are the key factors to achieve preferred results or outcomes in students for developmental programs. According to ELCC standard (2.2) it is very essential to provide effective instructional program based on standard based curriculum and research based strategies for attaining strong acceleration in teaching and learning. The main elements that can be applied in classrooms for the same are: Pleasant greeting while entering to the school or classroom. Pleasant seeking the wellness at first Give clear instructions for day’s lesson Interrelate the lesson to previously trained skills Give opportunity to respond for all students Identify student’s response correctly. Giving reinforcement suitably. Induce to co-operate each other. Inspire them to group work. Exhibit eagerness for content knowledge Learners entirely differ in their personal traits and psychological criteria so the curriculum must in a manner that should consider the factors to be considered. The recommendation for making enrich in the process of teacher learner interaction in the area of knowledge absorption are given below. Sound and prompt learning theory should apply to mould the courses in the developmental program. Curricula must be proved as effective in specific disciplines that are transmitted. The stress should be given to social, intellectual and emotional development of the students as well as to their cognitive growth. Teaching theory having the culturally responsiveness are applied to all aspects of the instructional programs. Trained faculty in developmental education should employ to provide accommodation student diversity. The faculty intervenes and monitor routinely with students in their curricular and co-curricular phases. Highly influential and popular technical application be applied to transmit curricula in a fruitful way Give motivation and energy to lead them to high level research courses and content enrichment as master level. Best practice and Student Learning. The main focus in education as the central symbol of institutional excellence there are many tacit assumptions relating to role of students and faculty. That means the arguments always going on about the positive and negative sides of student centered and teacher centered learning process. The principal, as he is a leader, has greater role and responsibility in making aware the teachers about the best learning practices. Majority of teachers likely to took interest in teaching in traditional and olden method of learning because they have in depth experience in such area of education. To attain the best learning outcomes it is very important to adopt student-centered education (McCombs, 2010), teachers are facilitator and students are learners. Students try to get maximum that they can, and they disturb the facilitators in order to accomplish broad range of learning experiences. The table shows which is the best method (Frey, 2010): Teacher-centered Domain Learner-centered Transmitted from instructor Knowledge Constructed by students Passive listener Participation Active listener Leader/authority Teacher Facilitator/partner in learning Learning correct answers Result Developing deeper knowledge Single dimensional testing Evaluation Multidimensional products Competitive, individualistic Culture Collaborative, supportive Appropriate strategies to promote an environment for improved student achievement can be out lined below: 1. In depth presentation of content through real-world problems or issues. 2. Group work in learning to share and acquire as productive as possible. 3. Allowing enough time for engaging to explore course material. 4. Reinforcement and feedback for self correction 5. Good classroom atmosphere in order to attain blossoming concentration of students The best student learning outcomes and assessment learning cycle The best teacher and student involvement will attain maximum result in teaching-learning process. The figure below shows that the best learning outcomes are the product of teacher practices and students involvement. The more in the same will be the more in result (Frey R, 2010). Figure 1: Assessment and Outcomes (Frey R, 2010), Comprehensive Professional Growth Plan Professional growth or development is the extensive level of activities; here the teachers and school staff engages collectively or individually to attain progress in the teaching-learning process. They may always think how to make better and take a solid decision to execute the maximum that they can do for betterment of their career. The main aim of schooling is to achieve creative learning, to accelerate the learning it is very essential for staff to access effective professional development. Comprehensive professional development plan may be affected by variety of factors. Staff, jurisdiction and school collectively work to get the grip on the efforts to acquire the desired outcomes of learning. The principal of an institute has great responsibility to lead the teachers, staff and students in order to acquire the desired outcomes of education. For which the day-to-day operation of a school must be made in a systematic manner. The figure 2 shows that the improvement and growth of students in their educational career will depend on Individual Professional Growth plan (IPGP), Jurisdiction Education Plan(JEP) and School Education Plan(SEP). Figure 2Comprehensive Professional Growth Plan (Aitkenhead D, 2005-06) A comprehensive and effective plan for professional development can be retrieved from collaborative and shared performance of education partners. They include: School principals, teachers, school administration, support staff, school leadership team and others as appropriate (Aitkenhead, 2006). The discussion, review and analyze are necessary about the plan, implementation and the duty and responsibility of each partners are essential. To attain the lifelong benefits in the teaching-learning process the only way is to give technical training required in the education fields. The professional growth or development in staff can be evaluated through their content knowledge, caliber, submissive mind in teaching, interest in dealing with the affaires that sharpen or update their past experiences, etc. Summary: Education is the process of acquiring knowledge; it may be in formal or informal ways. Only the knowledge must not help others or create any thing for the betterment of society but the knowledge with good culture, all that was considered as good. A well learned person having good character has greater demand in every phase of life. The education process is a collective dealing of different factors- student, teachers, parents and community. Whole factors have their own responsibility in the field of learning. An intervention from a single factor such as principle, a teacher or a student influences the whole program. In the education we deal with human beings, having cognitive, thinking, emotional, reacting powers but in other area of job there may the dealing be with lifeless matters so that is very crucial. A good and prompt plan and its execution are essential to attain the objectives. Here the role of principal is beyond of limit because he has to control teachers, staff, and students. The professional growth mainly be taken consideration in the educational context so that the preferred results or outcomes can be retrieved from the efforts made for that sake and better cultural can be up-graded eventually. References Aitkenhead D et al (2006), A guide to comprehensive Professional Development Planning, Retrieved from http://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Professional%20Development/PD%20Resources/A%20Guide%20to%20Comprehensive%20PD%20Planning.pdf Daniels KN, Patterson GC, Dunston YL (2010) The Ultimate Student Teaching Guide, SAGE publications California Frey R (2010), Assessment and Outcomes Retrieved from http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/cii/resources/outcomes/bestpractices.as Gawande E N (2004) Value Oriented Education, published by Sarup & Sons, Kowalski T J ,Peterson G J and Fusarelly LD (2007) Effective communication for school administrators: a necessity in an information age, Rowman & Littlefield Education, – p,27 Kowalski, T. J. (2002). Contemporary school administration: An introduction Allyn and Bacon. Boston Kowalski, T. J. (2012). Case studies on educational administration, Sixth edition, Boston: Pearson. “Old School Culture and a New Principal” – pp. 43-50 McCombs B (2010) learner centered practices providing the context for positive learner- taken from the Handbook of Research on Schools, Schooling and Human Development the book Prus R.C (1997), Sub cultural mosaics and inter subjective realities: an ethnographic research agenda for pragmatizing the social sciences, State University of Ney York press Albany Yukl (2007) Leadership in Organizations Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd, Read More