Shaping School Culture

by Terrence E. Deal, Kent D. Peterson

The most trusted guide to school culture, updated with current challenges and new solutions Shaping School Culture is the classic guide to exceptional school leadership, featuring concrete guidance on influencing the subtle symbolic features of schools that provide meaning, belief, and faith. Written by renowned experts in the area of school culture, this book tackles the increasing challenges facing public schools and provides clear, candid suggestions for more effective symbolic leadership. This new third edition has been revised to reflect the reality of schools today, including the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, federal reforms such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), state sponsored improvement programs, and other major issues that impact organizational culture and the role of school leaders. Each chapter features new examples and cases that illustrate persistent problems, spelling out key cultural implications and offering concrete examples of overcoming the challenges while maintaining a meaningful learning environment. The chapter on toxic schools continues to provide the field's most trusted advice on navigating this rocky terrain, and the discussion's focus on how to manage negativity remains especially integral to besieged school administrators across the U.S. Recent years have jolted the nation's school system with a number of new developments that spell problems for the cultural tapestry of schools. This book provides expert perspective and sage, doable advice for administrators tending to external pressures while sustaining�or evolving�a more positive school culture. Test scores as the primary metric, relentless reforms, waning public support, and timid initiatives wrapped in bureaucratic while among the most prominent issues administrators face are only the tip of the iceberg. Shaping School Culture charts a route through competing pressures to help educational leaders hew a positive learning environment for schools.

Genres: Leadership, Education

336 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2016

Reviews

[Gabby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my Master’s program, and overall, it had many great points for teacher-leaders and principals. However, I did not see the need for such a long book, as most of the important information was provided within the first few chapters of the book. The examples provided helped with clarity of ideas, but there were much too many examples that seemed to be repeated throughout the book. Overall, not a terrible book to read as part of a teacher leadership program, but not a book I’d pick up on my own to read for enjoyment or professional development.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My final book for my final class for my Masters (x2)! It wasn't a bad read - some of the stories were fairly interesting and provided examples of tips or tricks a school leader might use to promote positive culture. It was a bit repetitive at times, with too much overlap between chapters. Ultimately, if I were fairly new to public education, I might find this book to be useful, but having spent nearly 20 years in public schools, many of the concepts here proved to be fairly obvious.

[Tillie H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for my master’s in educational leadership. There are some very good ideas in there but some chapters were very dry and unnecessary or repetitive. If it was trimmed down a bit it would be an excellent resource for educational leaders.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an essential resource for any school leader. I highlighted and annotated several ideas in this book to reference for my upcoming school year.

[Michael Waugh]

Essential for a school leader. Provides different lenses to view school culture and how to recreate a broken culture.

[Alex Bergland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading for my master's class. Interesting book on developing and fixing school culture.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good quasi-mystical look at how to approach systemic change and transformational leadership in schools.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of writing- not a lot of action. Not good if you’re looking for a “how to.” Maybe good for 30,000 foot view

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I needed to read this for a grad school class. It is extremely repetitive. There are a few good points in the book but much of the same ideas are repeated throughout multiple chapters.

[Sikna Bazzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was at first for a class I was taking that I was dropped from for reasons that are out of my control but this was such a good read for any educator who’s interested in administration

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Culture is a code word. It has nothing with what the uninitiated perceive as culture, say theater plays.

In short the author decries the later changes that make the students more prone to think for themselves and thus are less inclined to become a blind mass and finally cannon fodder for the enlightened leader. Finally, the author keeps his promise and gives advice on how to shape the school back to its nationalist and religious roots.