The Tri-fold Perspective of Schools Today: Where Are We Headed?

Understanding our students today first comes from understanding the learning environments in which they are expected to achieve academic success.  Schools today are as multidimensional as the students and teachers that walk the halls.  To discover a more conducive method of collecting school-based research and understanding school context, educators must begin to look at education from a sociological point-of-view.  From this sociological perspective, schools can be seen as turbulent environments, as workplaces, and as cultures.  In certain circumstances, it may seem as if your particular school only embodies one perspective, when in actuality every school at one point or another will exhibit each of these characteristics, so an understanding of each is beneficial to all current and prospective educators.

As turbulent environments:  When attempts are made to enact change in schools, educators are often confronted by factors of complexity and unpredictability that throw into chaos the different needs, motivations, values, and interests of all involved in the educational exchange of ideas.  When educators and students must struggle to understand one another and the system that they are learning in, it often becomes difficult to focus on the curriculum and the growth of the students.  Every schools has its own history, its own culture, and its own code of conduct and by understanding and appreciating that each element is crucial to studying education and educational change, innovation becomes much easier to implement.  In the end, a school is a complex social system that relies upon every intricate part and detail to succeed, but by sorting through the moments of unpredictability educators can begin to create classrooms that foster questions and progress.

As workplaces:  When we begin to see schools and classrooms as places of work, there is a powerful motivation to “influence teacher behavior and student learning.”  Certain factors to consider in a school that operates as a workplace include how a school may be governed or organized, whether the resources offered to students and teachers foster increased levels of success, how teachers can develop professionally, how the school works to solving problems rather than causing them, and whether or not there is a healthy level of academic growth juxtaposed with academic risk-taking.  One glaring issue in schools that operate under this pretense, however, is that there is often very little receptivity toward new ideas and the sharing of ideas among colleagues.  We must begin to work towards and encourage “teacher collegiality” if we are to expect changes to occur in our classrooms because teaching is not an occupation that was meant to be done alone.
As cultures:  What makes our schools unique learning spaces is that every individual has their own culture, from the teachers, to the students, even to the school itself.  When we look for diversity, it is not always obvious to notice in our colleagues and students.  While there are certain cultural and social norms that are evident once you walk through the door of a school, there are many more that exist at a sublevel of education and that cannot be represented by any organizational charts, surveys, or research.  “Culture influences the actions and spirit of school life; shapes a school’s motivation, commitment, effort, and focus […] and plays a major role in school restructuring and school improvement[s].”  By honoring what makes the individual unique and independent in turn reflects upon what sets a school apart from its contemporaries.  No school is alike in its history and organization, and nor should it be lest the resources for assisting students and teachers are not met.  When classrooms and schools take pride in the cultural differences of everyone, then there is less of an opportunity for discrimination and harassment to appear.

From what other perspectives should we be considering our schools?  Are our schools heading towards becoming hubs of commerce and capitalism?  If we begin to see our schools as turbulent environments, workplaces, cultures, and hubs of consumerism, what message are we sending to students and educators about their futures?  What are the values that we are placing on education today? (JS)