Current issues in my professional context

My school is an integrated boarding and day school for girls in Years 7-13. With a school Chapel that is connected to the Anglican Diocese, it has a strong spiritual component. 

The blend of the level of education, income and occupation of the families whose daughters attend the school has defined the socioeconomic status of the school's community (American Psychological Association, 2016). From the Government's perspective, the school has a decile rating of 9, meaning statistically it is in the 10% of schools with the second lowest proportion of students from low socio-economic communities (Ministry of Education, 2017). The indicators used to define a low socio-economic community are features that very few of the families in the school would be associated with. 

The absence of these features characterises the students' families as those where the parents/caregivers have professional occupations or are owners of business entities who are well educated and have considerable earnings to support a comfortable lifestyle. Due to these aspects, the expectations of those parents in terms of the education they expect the school to provide will be high. The considerable fees paid by these families only adds to the anticipated outcome. Comparing to a non-integrated school with the same decile rating, the expectations of the quality of education provided would be the same, but without the pressure felt by the staff due to the investment made by the families.

The school promotes itself as "an innovative boarding and day school for girls that provides safe, challenging and holistic educational experiences and encourages individual excellence, citizenship, independence and global connectedness". This is the culture the school "sells" to its current and potential clients and their families. Whether the actual culture in the school mirrors this depends on the three dimensions as stated by Stoll (1998); the ways people relate to and work with each other, the school structure and the extent to which there is a learning focus for both students and teachers.

Reading through the 10 influencing cultural norms of school improvement as stated by Stoll (1998); I can recall observing all of these at some stage in my almost 7 years of teaching at the school. 

These norms exist in the school culture and both staff and students are understand their meaning. I would say 2, 4 and 7 are practiced by all staff. 

The existence of 3, 8 and 9 at a whole-staff level is questionable as some working relationships exist merely because school policies and procedures requires them to and discussions that happen during staff open forums always involve the same small number of staff who are willing to voice their views. 

I also question how many staff practice 5 and 6 because they share that belief personally and not because the school expects them to. I have observed a small group of teachers who are openly pessimistic of any change that is proposed and hold the belief they already know all there is to know. While their personal viewpoints and beliefs have no effect on my own, their openness in expressing these within the staff and the resulting effect it has on the atmosphere is worrying.

The changes that are ongoing in terms of the staffing, school structure and learning all point towards a phase that will allow the norms that are missing or minor to develop and flourish. I believe we can influence the culture in a positive way at an individual level by inspiring others to follow in the same path. How we do that does not need to be openly shared in words. It can just as strongly be conveyed through our attitude and actions.