Transforming Context and Developing Culture in Schools

Abstract

The major premise of this research was that significant cultural change occurs when school leaders and their staff use their external and internal context to shape innovations that affect the “program regularities” of schooling. The authors conducted interviews, made observations, and studied existing documents prepared by school staff to get a descriptive peek into their school lives. The data were analyzed within and between sites to develop a cross‐site summary of factors. Four factor clusters emerged and are described in terms of context, school responses, and the resultant cultural change. Five propositions were constructed on the effect of context and culture on school people at work.