1.1 Building a learning community: the culture and climate of

School culture

What makes a good school? In today's public schools, where diversity is vast and complex, a good school mustprovide a strong functioning culture that aligns with their vision of purpose. Good schools depend on a strong sense of purpose andleadership. However, in order to build a culture that is integral to school life, principals must gear their students, faculty, andstaff in a common direction and provide a set of norms that describes what they should accomplish. Sergiovanni (2001)elaborates on the principal's influence in shaping school culture by stating that, once established in aschool, strong culture acts as a powerful socializer of thought and programmer of behavior. Yet, the shaping and establishment of sucha culture does not just happen; they are, instead, a negotiated product of the shared sentiments of school participants. Whencompeting points of view and competing ideologies exist in school, deciding which ones will count requires some struggling. Principalsare in an advantageous position to strongly influence the outcome of this struggle.

The building of school culture further requires that building leaders pay close attention to the informal,subtle or symbolic aspects of school life. Teachers, parents, and students should look for answers to questions such as, what is thisschool about? What is important here? What do we believe in? Why do things function the way they do? How do I fit into the scheme ofthings? As Greenfield (1973) stated, what many people seem to want from schools is that schools reflect the values that are centraland meaningful in their lives. If this view is correct, schools are cultural artifacts that people struggle to shape in their ownimage. Only in such forms do they have faith in them; only in such forms can they participate comfortably in them.

Leaders of successful schools develop moral order that bind the people around them together. When establishingculture, principals must be able to infuse various ideas, beliefs, values, theories and decision making into their school.Collaborative discourse is a powerful tool that can be used to facilitate the process of developing school culture and climate.Leaders, who look to build their school communities, must recognize that educators, who work together, achieve a collective purposeresulting from their collegiality, which is critical in establishing a successful school. However, for meaningfulcollaboration to occur, capacity building must take place. Capacity building hasfrequently appeared in educational literature across the United States. Ann Lieberman (1997) coined this term which means,organizing schools for improvement by allowing teachers to work in teams and with instructional leaders to channel staff effortstowards a clear, commonly shared purpose for student learning. When channeled correctly, these habits andconditions allow staff members to work and contribute to a professional community. Suchcommunities are places where teachers, specialist and building administrators engage in decision making, have a shared sense ofpurpose and work to support an infrastructure that involves alignment of instructions goals.