Changing organizational culture and instructional methods in elementary schools: Perceptions of teachers and professional educational consultants

Abstract

The present study examines teachers' perceptions of organizational changes in their elementary schools. These changes occurred following the implementation of a long-term comprehensive school improvement project (CSIP). One hundred and seventy one teachers who taught in six elementary schools located in two different school districts in Israel responded to a questionnaire both before and after a period of 3 years during which they participated in a CSIP. The teachers, assisted by six professional consultants, one in each school, studied cooperative learning as well as new forms of collaborative staff work. The study addressed two primary research questions: What changes in teachers' perceptions of their schools' organizational culture emerged from teachers' participation in the project? How were the professional relationships between the schools' supervisors and the teachers in the two districts reflected in the teachers' perception of school organizational changes? Results indicated that teachers in three schools from one district recorded a significant improvement in their perceptions of their schools' organizational culture at the end of the project, whereas the teachers from the other district indicated either no change, or a significant decline in their evaluation of their schools' organizational culture. A crossvalidation of the teachers' data was performed through a content analysis of 500 reports written over the course of 2 years, submitted by six external consultants. The analysis yielded four categories: general difficulties to work with the school's staff, problems implementing the project, teacher resistance, and cancellations of planned meetings. The analysis provided valuable information as to why the teachers from the two districts differed in their reactions to the project.

Professional background and working practices of consultants in school development: Initial empirical findings from Germany

“…Moreover, they consider the characteristics and practices of schools in consulting processes and the relationship between the consultants and the schools. Conceptual and empirically based literature in this field has been available since the 1970s (see among many others Cameron 2010; Hall and Hord 1987;Havelock 1976;Havelock and Hamilton 2004;Lippitt 1979;Miles et al 1988;Reid 1990;Sarason 1982Sarason , 1995Sarason and Fried 2003;Sanders 2012;Shachar et al 2010; see for overviews i.e. Hazle Bussey et al 2014;Holmes et al 2013;Hord 1992;Tajik 2008).…”

Contrasting perspectives on organizational culture change in schools

“…Hannay et al (2005) take a restricted view of culture and adopt a realist and unified perspective while importantly addressing the issue of changes over time in the organizational culture as they have defined it. Shachar et al (2010) assume a highly inclusive standpoint, but their work takes a realist perspective, and they view organizational cultures as unified in that the matter of organizational subcultures is not substantively addressed. Interestingly, they appear to view culture as a static phenomenon despite their finding that their extensive development initiative moved many of the organizations from one culture to another, in way reminiscent of Kurt Lewin's (1947) ''unfreezing-moving-refeezing'' model.…”

“…In studying educational change, Hannay et al (2005) limit their view of it to collaborative inquiry, continual improvement, and mutual self-help, whereas Friedman et al (2009) use a broad definition similar to that of Frost et al (1985). Shachar et al (2010) take a similarly all-encompassing view including staff efficiency, job satisfaction, and the school's physical maintenance to ''provide a relatively inclusive picture of the school organizational culture'' (p. 3). This highly inclusive standpoint on culture gives rise to the ''organizational culture as organization'' perspective because all or a very large number of aspects of the organization appear to be included.…”

“…School culture is highly complex (Firestone and Louis 1999), so we have limited our analysis to the changes in the organizational culture of the staff group. Many commentators (e.g., Shachar et al 2010;Stoll 1999) are also centrally concerned with this group in their analyses of organizational culture in educational settings.…”

Shifting Teachers' Perceptions of School Culture in Turkey: A Mixed Methods Study

“…Therefore, making use of training programs to facilitate this perceptual change regarding school culture can be employed as a tool for improving schools. In their study, Shachar, Gavin, and Shlomo (2010) detected that teachers' perceptions of school culture changed in a positive way in the school improvement project they implemented.…”