Types of School Culture

Cebu Roosevelt Memorial Colleges

REGLYN MAE YLANAN BSED- SCIENCE2

1. Collaborative School Culture- It is vivid in CRMC that the administrators, faculty and
staff share strong educational values, work together to pursue professional
development, and are committed to improve their work despite the individual
differences. For instance, the celebration of Founder’s Week, College Fiesta,
Intramurals, Comparza, and etc., will require full cooperation from different department
of the school to make the event successful. This collaborative culture comprise
evolutionary relationships of openness, trust, and support among individual where they
define and develop their own purposes as a part of the institution. 

2. Comfortable- Collaboration- A congenial culture exists, that values cooperation,

courtesy, and compliance. Teachers may hesitate to voice disagreement with one
another for fear of hurting someone’s feelings . “In the comfortable school culture it’s
more important to get along then to teach effectively” . This type of culture exist in
CRMC among teacher vs. teacher and teacher vs. student. In this meeting there is lots
of laughter, celebrations, awards, comfort food, thanks, praise, and empathy. People
tend to look forward to coming together and are not in a hurry to leave. Support staff
are present and are acknowledged for their good work. The good teachers are
comfortable and feel validated. Self-esteem and self-efficacy are strong. It feels more
like a party than a meeting. There is little self-reflection.

3. Contrived-Collegial – Leadership may generate contrived collegiality when they

enforce collaboration: expecting teachers to meet and discuss student progress and
then file a report to prove they did. A contrived element maybe a necessary starting
point for change but teacher ownership of collaboration needs to be fostered. For
instance in CRMC, the administration meet the teachers and work to implement the
curricula and instructional strategies developed. Contrived collegiality enhances
administrative control. Peer coaching of the technical kind, it is concluded, fosters
implementation rather than development, education rather than training, contrived
collegiality rather than collaborative culture.

4. Balkanized – Despite the unity shown by the institution, there is an imaginary wall
among staff. Collaboration occurs only among like-minded staff. Teachers recruit
colleagues forming cliques that compete for position, resources, and territory. Stronger
cliques bully others by slowly bringing them down and backbite. This is vivid among the
different office and department inside the school. Teacher cliques are arriving together
like teams coming onto the playing field, sitting together, whispering, and giggling at
inside jokes. There is a competitive tone as members of cliques challenge other cliques
to defend their opinions. There is an irrational defense of weak teachers when the
conversations about improvement drift toward blame. In fact, the relationships forged
among faculty members are more important than the school's mission.

5. Fragmented – Teachers function as individuals with classroom doors staying closed

and teachers having their own territory and for the most part liking it that way. For case
in point, at faculty meeting most teachers are very quiet, there is a calm sense of
apathy. Some are grading papers, texting, or checking e-mail as the meeting
progresses. There is a "let's get it over with" feeling. Most conversations are framed
around house-keeping items. School improvement is a topic on the agenda with test
 scores as the usual, sole variable that defines improvement. In this setting autonomy
trumps collaboration.

6. Toxic- The fact that there is no perfect institution, CRMC also has toxic culture. For
instance, some teachers don't show up, new are ideas shot down quickly, sarcasm and
ridicule seem to be the primary tone with most discussions. There is an Us vs. The
mentality, students/parents are "them." There is a victim mentality that serves as an
excuse to do nothing. Good teachers are uncomfortable and either regress to fit in or
leave. Regarding conversations about improvement, toxic teachers want the school to
improve, however, they define improve as making their jobs easier. In this setting. we're
not sure who is running the faculty meeting. The negativity of the meeting will extend
into the parking lot and classrooms.

CONCLUSION:

The Cebu Roosevelt Memorial Colleges is a rich institution; rich in culture. Culture from
different people with individual differences in beliefs, values and perception. These culture
are the foundation of the school and serves as its building blocks. Most culture are for the
improvement and betterment of the institution. But there is also a force that is prohibiting
schools from improving, and this force exists only in peoples' minds. School culture is the
illusion of peer pressure for adults. People needs to realize that school improvement/self-
improvement is a choice, perhaps more will take on the challenge.

The following culture exist in CRMC:

 Administration, faculty and staff has a collaboration especially when it comes to
school events and school activities
 There is an imaginary wall between every department of the school
 CRMCians are very competitive
 CRMC is very flexible and easily adapts to the trend of the society
 The sorting of balkanized culture depends on the office where the teacher is
allocated.
 The administration has a strong sense of authority

All the above mentioned type of culture exist in Cebu Roosevelt Memorial Colleges.