SECTION 3- PRINCIPLES AND THEORIES ON

SCHOOL CULTURE

CHAPTER 7: Culture
CHAPTER 8: School Culture: Principles and Theories
 CHAPTER 7
WHAT IS CULTURE?
According to Cambridge Dictionary, culture is a way of life, especially the
general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of particular time.
Meanwhile, Brinkerhoff (2009) defined it as a way of life that all community
members share. It also involves technology and material objects in addition to
language, values, and symbolic meanings.
Wen Shu Lee identifies different common uses of the term CULTURE.

1. Culture- unique human efforts

2. Culture- Refinement and mannerism
3. Culture- civilization
4. Culture- shared language, beliefs, and values
5. Culture- dominant or hegemonic
6. Culture- the shifting tensions between the shared and unshared
Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned
2. Culture is shared
3. Culture involves large group of people
4. Culture is dynamic and heterogeous
5. Culture affects behavior
6. Culture involves feelings
7. Culture involves beliefs, values, norms, and social practices
8. Culture is based on symbol or language
9. Culture is integrated
Material and Non-Material Culture

◦ MATERIAL CULTURE- refers to the physical aspects of a society, the

objects made or modified by a human.
◦ NON-MATERIAL CULTURE- is tangible, abstract or ideas about culture.
Non-Material culture includes ideas, beliefs, social roles, rules, ethics, and
attitudes of a society.
 Elements of Culture
◦ Culture on our Heads- These elements shape the people’s orientation on
how people think, behave, and view the world. This includes values,
beliefs, knowledge, norms, folkways and mores.
Values- these are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad,
and desirable or undesirable. (As a Filipino, we are well known for being
family oriented.)
Beliefs- these are the opinions that accept as true. (As a Christian, we
believe that God exists.)
Knowledge- range of information, awareness, and understanding that helps
us navigate the world. (Basic understanding of computer)
Norms- a culture expectations for appropriate behavior. (Sharing a seat with
an elderly or pregnant woman)
Folkways- folkways are customs (For instance, a boys who spits on the side
walk might not be seen as immoral but be seen as a little rude.)
Mores- strict norms that control moral and ethical behavior. (Securing
health permit before working in a fast food chain)
Elements of Culture
◦ Communicating Culture- these communicate the concepts and ideas of
culture to another person. This includes language, and symbols.
◦ Language- the ability to communicate the concepts ands ideas of culture
to another person. (Discussing a relevant topic to an Aetas group.)
◦ Symbols- gestures, words, sounds, objects, images that form the basis of
human behavior.
 Elements of Culture
Reproducing Culture- these elements manifest the product of culture and
how it is being transmitted, utilized and shown from one generation to
another generation. It includes behavior and cultural objects.
Behavior- actions associated with group that help reproduce a distinct way
of life. (For instance, we respect for elders by saying “po” and “opo”
Cultural objects- as a basic element of material culture, that are created by
and associated with people who share a culture. (Electronic devices, work of
arts, relics, and artifacts)
Essential Functions of Culture
1. Culture defines situations
2. Culture defines attitudes, values, and goods
3. Culture is the treasury of knowledge
4. Culture decides our career
5. Culture provides behavior pattern
6. Culture provides personality
7. Culture makes man a human being
8. Culture provides solution for complicated situation
9. Culture provides traditional interpretations to certain situation
10. Culture keeps social relationship intact
Cultural Transmission and Education

It is defined as “the process of learning through which the values,

standards, norms, etc. of culture are passed on to succeeding generation”
(Reber, 1995, p. 177)
It also defined simply as the process of passing on from one generation to
another the knowledge necessary to maintain cultural identity.
This can be happen in Two Way
Process: ENCULTURATION and
ACCULTURATION
◦ Enculturation is considered as the process of teaching
another person or group of persons about certain beliefs,
values, ideas, and the like.
◦ Acculturation deals with being able to learn or adapt the
another behavior of another culture, in order to fit and be in
harmony with another culture.
According to Kim and Abreu (2001) Enculturation and
Acculturation construct and encompasses Four Dimensions:
behavior, values, knowledge, and identity.
◦ Behavior Dimension- refers to friendship choice, preference for television
program and reading , participation in cultural activities, contact with
indigenous culture.
◦ Value Dimension- refers to attitudes and beliefs about social relations,
cultural customs, and cultural traditions.
◦ Knowledge Dimension- refers to culturally specific information such as
names of historical leaders in the culture of origin and the dominant
culture, and significance of culturally specific activities.
◦ Identity Dimension- refers to attitudes toward ones’s cultural
identification, attitudes toward indigenous and dominant culture.
EDUCATION
◦ It plays a vital role in passing cultural beliefs and knowledge from one
generation to another. A culture survives or preserved through the passing of
knowledge about their own culture from generation to the next.
Cultural Learning
◦ It made possible because human perceive at a very early age that others are
living mental and intentional lives, like their own ability enables others to see
the world through another eyes and an understanding of the reason for
choosing that action rather than another.
Cultural Learning Defines Three
Kinds
◦ Imitative- the basic and it is how infants initiates learning as they frequently
reciprocate their parents actions.
◦ Instructed Learning- is possible around the age of four, is mutual process
whereby the instructor must know something of the learners level of
knowledge of what is being learned and again, the learner must understand the
teachers perspective.
◦ Collaborative Learning- occurs when neither party in cultural learning
interaction is the authority.
Culture affects how people think, feel, and
act; and has been shown to play an important
role in the professional growth of educators.
What is School Culture
◦ A healthy school culture fosters continuous improvement in student
achievement. School culture is the historically transmitted pattern of meanings
that include the norms, values, beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, traditions, and
traditions and myths understood by members of the community. (Mitchell,
2008)
Types of School Culture
◦ Collaborative- it is vivid in ISCOF DC, that the admins, faculty, and staffs
strong education values, work together to pursue professional development
and are committed to improve their work despite individual differences.
◦ Comfortable Collaboration- a congenial culture exist, that values
cooperation, courtesy and compliance.
◦ Contrived Collegial- leadership may generate contrived collegiality when
they enforce collaboration: expecting teachers to meet and disccuss
students progress and file a report to proved they did.
◦ Balkanized- despite the unity of the institution there is an imaginary wall
among staffs.
Types of School Culture
◦ Fragmented- teachers functions as individual with classroom doors
staying closed and teachers having their territory.
◦ Toxic- they don’t have the sense of purpose, and blame students for poor
achievement, and have norms that reinforce inaction .
◦ In short, the Basic Types of School Culture are
Positive and Negative.
Schoen and Teddlie (2008) Model of School Culture, “The Dimension of Culture”

The Dimension of Culture Model includes:

1. Skilled Orientation
2. Organization Structure
3. Quality of Learning Setting
◦ 4. Student Centered Focus
Senge (2000), in his book , “ School that Learn”, discussed
school improvement with learning organization which have 5
main disciplines:
Personal Mastery
 Shared Vision
Mental Models
Team Learning
System Thinking
On the other hand, Stoll and Fink (1996) grouped schools
into descriptive categories based on dimensions of culture:

Moving School
Crising School
Strolling School
Struggling School
Sinking School
School Culture and Leadership
◦ Leadership is a crucial component to the successful functioning of many
aspects of a school. School heads should familiar with creating a positive
school culture. Culture is an extremely powerful force in school, school
leader is key to shaping the institutions culture. School leaders shape
culture in a variety of ways, ultimately, resulting in a positive or a toxic
culture.
The Powerful Collaboration
◦ Paterson (1994) stated that collaborative school culture do not develop
immediately. They are shape by the way stakeholders, including school
leaders, teachers, and key people, support and reinforce the school norms,
values, and beliefs.
◦ It cultivates the norms, values and beliefs and they strengthen and promote
teamwork and conversations around problems of practice. (The
collaborative school culture development is facilitated through mutual
support, joint work, and broad agreement on educational values.)
The School Community

Classification: Major Concepts:

1. Administrations 1. Parents
2. Faculty 2. Church
3. Non-Teaching Staff 3. Media
4. Ancillary Group 4. Barangay Officials
5. Students 5. Potiticians
6. Parents
The Big R: Representation
◦ PTA is celebration of a school’s unique culture of adhering to principle of
representation.
◦ The parents as one of the stakeholders should be given a chance to voice out
their positive and negative comments.
◦ Representation does not mean that parents can criticize the school without due
respect to its culture. For, PTA to survive, openness to criticism too is enjoined
for as long as it is within the bounds of professional ethics.
Presented By BSED ENGLISH 3-A:

DAWN JEAN DUBAL

FELIE ROSE ESCARTIN
JOAN FLORES