THE NORM: WHY TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS

ARE AS THEY ARE

CHAPTER 2
 THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLS

 The concept of culture helps us reexamine schools as places

of human community with histories and stories.

Grasp the underlying values of the school as a work environment

then…

Act to reshape the organization into a purposeful collection of

individuals who believe that schools are for:

• Students
• Learning
• Improvement
• Self- Protection
• Complacency
BELIEFS AND EXPECTATIONS
(ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSES)
Traced to idyllic-looking, clapboard, one-room school houses of
pioneer times
Teachers are responsible for:

 Total Instruction

 Maintenance of the building

 Cleaning the floors

 Collective action in a school was automatic-what

teacher wanted to do about curriculum and
instruction was what the school did!
 CHARACTERISTICS OF TODAY’S
EDUCATION DERIVED FROM THE ONE-
ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE
Isolation
 Classrooms set up structurally in a way that teachers are
difficult to supervise, do not receive feedback from others,
and cannot work collaboratively
 Lack of communication (On the way to the classroom, Lunch,
and leaving the building)
 Teachers in most school are invisible to each other and lack
any knowledge of what other teachers doing in their
classroom.

Adapting to this isolation can lead to psychological isolation. A teacher feels

limited to their classroom, their students, and their teaching.
 DAILY ROUTINE
 Be at school before students
 Remain until they have departed
 Specific times for recess and lunch
 Time allocations for a subject
 Assigned and responsible for a certain amount of students.
 Expected to remain physically in the classroom the entire day (do not have rights to make
changes on their schedule.
 Scheduled responsibilities for duties lunch, recess, and dismissal

Teachers must follow by these routines because “School goes on, students
keep coming, the bells keep ringing, and teachers cannot make individual
readjustments of their professional time.” (Glickman et al., 2010)
 INADEQUATE ENTRANCE TO THE PROFESSION
Inadequate Resources
 The useful materials are taken and the useless ones are left for the new
teacher
Difficult Work Assignments
 Problem children/Lowest achieving assigned to newest teachers
 Larger classes and more duties are given to beginners
Unclear Expectations
 Unaware of what is expected from them professionally
Sink-or-Swim Mentality
 “Trial by fire” – The idea that it’s only fair that you experience the same trials and
tribulations that veteran teachers once navigated
Reality Shock
 Having idealized visions of what teaching will be like, only to be surprised that other
contributing factors will destroy this vision-classroom management, environment
difficulties and student learning difficulties.
 INEQUITY

Lower Income communities:

Teachers:
 Not provided the same resources as other
schools.
• Teaching outside their fields
 Physical facilities may be in ill repair and even • Relocate as soon as possible
present health and safety hazards (transfer)
 Large class sizes than upper class school
 Materials out of date or nonexistent (textbook, Students:
materials) • Placed in remedial tracks
 Shortchanged on human resources
• Miss out on higher level
curriculum
• No attempt to be
culturally/ethnically/racially
understood
• Racism goes unacknowledged
UNSTAGED CAREER

Education majors:
 Enroll in courses
 Spend time in schools/Observe
 Perform as student teacher
 Graduate from College
 Receive your own classroom

 No matter how many years they continue to teach, they do not move
into another stage. Teacher remain in same classroom space and
number of students.
 A LACK OF,

Dialogue about Instruction

Successful schools talk with one another in a problem-solving,
action-oriented way which is…
Generated through faculty meetings, in-service workshops,
observations, conferences, the faculty lounge, and other informal
occasions (successful school)
More likely than not, time is not planned for this type of talk to
occur (social nature)-story telling, community and school event
Lack of such dialogue is related to the one-room schoolhouse
legacy, which accepts isolation, privacy, and lack of career
stages
 A LACK OF,

Involvement in School-wide Curriculum and Instructional

Decisions
Teachers not given opportunity, time or expectation to
be involved in decisions about curriculum and
instruction beyond their four walls.
Shared Technical Culture
Need to develop common purpose, expertise, and
methods for analyzing and solving problems
How? BY TALKING!
The lack of shared technical culture and resulting doubt and uncertainty foster
teacher conservatism.
 Emphasis on short-range goals rather than long range instructional goals
 Satisfaction with successes with individual lessons, students, and projects
rather than with the continuous growth of all students.
 Reliance on personal experience rather than educational research
 Narrow limits on the types and degree of collaboration in which teachers are
willing to engage.
 CULTURES WITHIN CULTURES

Each school has cultural

characteristics of its’ own.
Types of different cultures within a school:
and

These cultures may be based on:

• Race
• Socioeconomic status
• Differences in gender
• Sexual orientation
• Religion
• Different academic departments
• Different instructional teams
• Age
• Career stages
BLAMING THE VICTIM AND STRUCTURAL STRAIN

We cannot improve education by legislating higher

standards and higher stakes (policy makers do not
appear to be listening).

The problems in this chapter remain largely unaddressed

Supervision of instruction can play a strong role in

reshaping the work environment.
THANK YOU