Accelerating Change in Schools by Dudar Linda;Scott Shelleyann;Scott Donald E.;Scott Donald E.;

Author:Dudar, Linda;Scott, Shelleyann;Scott, Donald E.;Scott, Donald E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2017-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

8.1. TYPES OF CHANGE

We have already noted that there are different types of change but it is common that more than one change is required at the same time. Changes can be roughly categorized into two groups: those that are related to people and those that are related to a specific program(s). “People” or “culture” changes include shifting of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that are instrumental for teaching and learning success and effectiveness. Northouse (2016) defined culture as:

Culture is defined as the learned beliefs, values, rules, norms, symbols, and traditions that are common to a group of people. It is these shared qualities of a group that make them unique. Culture is dynamic and transmitted to others. In short, culture is the way of life, customs, and script of a group of people. (p. 428)

New changes may involve teacher collaboration through various forums such as PLCs, committee work, and/or team-building activities; therefore, the need to work together and have an aligned perspective and vision is essential. People or “culture” changes are the most complex, confounding, frustrating, and contentious. Unfortunately, culture changes are also highly context-specific due to: the context of the school, the historical nuances of the school and community, the leadership approach in past and present school leaders, the background of the staff, and the mix of personalities that have come together in the school. Unlike many programmatic changes, culture changes do not come with reference manuals or guidelines, but require significant philosophical shifts in thinking and behaving.

Within culture change there may be a mix of programmatic and people change whereby staff or other participants need to engage in a program in order to provide them with the requisite knowledge and skills to assist them in making a culture change in the school or vice versa where in order to be more effective in the classroom teachers need to enjoy coming to work again – thus a culture change is needed before a program can be instituted. Thus, in many cases change processes are highly complex, requiring a multidimensional approach to the change – so culture change may be the most challenging because it involves changing people whereas programmatic can be relatively straightforward if undertaken with a cohesive and functioning staff where culture is optimal.

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