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 | | Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership (Jossey-Bass Education) by Terrence E. Deal, Kent D. Peterson ISBN-10: 9780787962432 ISBN-10: 0-7879-6243-0 ISBN-13: 9780787962432 ISBN-13: 978-0-7879-6243-2 Paperback 1999-02-10 Jossey-Bass Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Just as culture is critical to understanding the dynamics behind any thriving community, organization, or business, the daily realities and deep structure of school life hold the key to educational success. Reforms that strive for educational excellence are likely to fail unless they are meaningfully linked to the school's unique culture. In Shaping School Culture, Terrence E. Deal and Kent D. Peterson show how leaders can harness the power of school culture to build a lively, cooperative spirit and a sense of school identity. The authors draw from over twenty years of research on school improvement as well as from their own extensive work with school leaders across the country to identify viable new strategies for effective school leadership. They describe the critical elements of culture—the purposes, traditions, norms, and values that guide and glue the community together—and show how a positive culture can make school reforms work. Deal and Peterson also explore the harmful characteristics of toxic cultures and suggest antidotes to negativity on the part of teachers, students, principals, or parents. Using real-life cases from their own research, Deal and Peterson provide concrete, detailed illustrations of exemplary practice in different school cultures. They reveal the key symbolic roles that leaders play in school change and identify the specific skills needed to change school culture successfully. Shaping School Culture provides an action blueprint for school leaders committed to transforming their schools for success. | ||
Reviews | ||
Nothing Earth Shattering, But Good "Shaping School Culture" is a good overview of the components of culture in a school community. The ideas could easily be applied to any group culture. Although there is nothing earth-shattering and no brilliant revelations, it provides a good lens through which to view the cultural dynamics present throughout the school. | ||
Interesting Read In Shaping School Culture: the Heart of Leadership, Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson illustrate that nothing is more important in schools than culture. They believe that school culture is vital to the success of schools. The authors state that "the culture of an enterprise plays the dominant role in exemplary performance" (p. 1). At first, I was skeptical. I did not believe that culture was more important than structure, strategy, goals, or management. I believed that culture was something that played a role in atmosphere and changed from year to year with the staff. I quickly came to realize that culture is the heart of schools and is a stable element. The reason I was skeptical is because I did not believe that my school had much of a culture. I thought about a few traditions and pondered the high turnover among staff. This book opened my eyes to the fact that our school does have a relatively strong culture and that many of the changes that were made were based on our core norms. In the first part of the book Deal and Peterson examine the components of school culture including values, beliefs, assumptions, and norms (p. 26).The authors expand upon this and include rituals, ceremonies, stories, architecture, artifacts, and logos in school culture. The authors use examples to distinguishing positive cultures from toxic cultures. This was interesting to me because I could see that the last two principals at our school did a great job of building school culture. They had revised our school motto, mission statement, and value statement. They had established rituals and ceremonies. They had started programs that included year-long rituals and ceremonies. These were all positive steps towards a better school culture. I was also better able to understand the toxic cultures within our school and how these subcultures create negative school environments for the students and the staff. The second part of the book shows principals how to create a positive culture in their schools. The key components discussed are examining, reflecting, and reflection on events that have shaped culture in their schools. The final and most crucial component for establishing school culture is executing a plan of action. The last few chapters of the book are filled with advice on how to improve school culture such as developing student-centered mission and value statements, building upon established traditions and values, recruit staff that share values, and sustain core norms (p. 116). The authors forced me to think about the relationships between school rituals, artifacts, ceremonies, symbolism and our school culture. I realized that our school has a great foundation on which to base school culture. I enjoyed this book because it challenged my previously held beliefs about my school. I was also impressed with the author's strategy for changing school culture and the components they outlined for a positive school culture (p. 117). After reading this book I believe that nothing is more important about a school than its culture. | ||
Culture Building 101 Every group you've been a proud member of has had a strong identity. Cultures can be intentional or accidental and likely a mix of both. This book offers lots of anecdotes describing what works and what doesn't. A school's cultural strengths will overcome many other challenges like low funding and large classes. Where principals, teachers and students set their expectations for their small society has everything to do with successful education and having fun at school. If you are an educational professional, parent or student, this will give you lots of ideas to improve the culture of your school (or your own organizatons). | ||
Excellent Resource I found this to be an excellent resource for any educational leader who is looking to create a positive school environment. The authors give many real life examples of leaders who changed the culture of their school and detail how they went about making this change. There are many practical ideas that any leader could begin incorporating right away. In addition, the book is well written. This is not "heavy" reading, but nonetheless I have found myself returning to it time and time again for ideas and inspiration. If you are wondering how one person could possibly make a difference in a school, this book will help show you the way. | ||
Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership This book is a must read for any individual who wishes to create positive change within a school environment. It is written with clarity and wit, appropriate for any agent of change within the field of education. All who have experienced serving in an administrative capacity for a school district or educational service agency will quickly relate and definitely benefit from both the information and insight that is provided by Terrence E. Deal and Kent D. Peterson. In particular, principals will find this book to be an invaluable resource in understanding the potency of school culture and how it relates to leadership techniques, issues, and decisions. Deal and Peterson uncover the impact and consequence of school culture with lucid and powerful examples that support their perspective while entertaining the reader. They unravel the intangible mystery of why those that choose to lead seldom make any real progress toward credible and sustainable changes in our schools. The functions and impact of the values, belief-systems and norms within school buildings are discussed and explained in terms of their hierarchy in the creation of positive and negative school cultures. The authors provide a multitude of scenarios of actual school environments that lucidly illustrate the numerous "hidden" messages that provide the infrastructure and mindsets of school culture. Surprisingly, many of the determinants of school culture will provide the reader with instant (and many times humorous) personalized images drawn from their own experiences. Principals and administrators who read this book will inevitably view their own schools with a refined and newly directed perspective. In addition, they will view their role as a leader within the context of culture. The authors force a leader to consider the dynamics of culture through exploration of school rituals, artifacts, ceremonies and the implications of their symbolism. The authors map out a strategy for change using the regularly ignored mundane routines of the school as the underpinnings for reshaping school culture. This book will "change" and broaden the way any leader comprehends "change". | ||