Schools are social organizations and, as such, are adult workplaces as well as places where students come to learn.
People in schools act not in totally free and disconnected ways but in more or less interdependent and predictable ways.
Schools have individual histories and cultures (tone, ethos) with norms and roles that influence school goals and processes and the way people work to achieve them.
Although schools, like other organizations, are characterized by goals and control structures, they also have special features, such as goal ambiguity, compulsory attendance, political visibility, limited resources, and sense of community.
Two important norms that regulate the culture of teaching and behavior in schools are the autonomy norm and the hands-off norm. The autonomy norm allows teachers to do pretty much what they want inside their classrooms. The hands-off norm sanctions teachers who try to interfere with other teachers' teaching methods or processes.
Roles also define how teachers do their work. Some aspects of a teacher's role are contradictory; for example, the need to provide individual attention to students in group settings and the need to maintain a certain amount of social distance from students.
Theoretical and Empirical Support
Research on teachers' work lives has documented that teachers carry out many organizational functions in addition to working directly with students and that the time demands on teachers are quite extensive.
A moderately strong knowledge base exists that helps explain why some schools are more effective than others. Some aspects of this research are still controversial.
Research on schools has illustrated that while teaching performance in individual classrooms is very important, the way that principals, teachers, parents, and students all come together to define common goals, expectations, and procedures and the way teachers take collective responsibility for student learning have substantial impact on what students learn.
More effective schools have processes and procedures characterized by clear goals, high expectations, pervasive caring, strong leadership, community support, high academic learning time, frequent monitoring of student progress, coherent curricula, and variety in the methods used by teachers.
Organizational Skills for Teachers
Teachers contribute to effective schools by successfully working with colleagues; working with school leaders, such as the principal; working with parents; and providing leadership for school improvement.
Establishing good working relationships with colleagues is very important and can be enhanced by observing other teachers in the school, volunteering to work on committees and task forces, and seeking out colleagues for discussion of educational issues.
Teachers build good working relationships with principals and other leadership personnel by meeting with them regularly, keeping them informed about what they are doing in their classrooms, and participating in schoolwide activities.
Parents will become partners in the teacher's classroom if they are kept informed about what is going on, made to feel welcome in the school an at conferences, and enlisted to help in their child's education at home and in the school. This can have very strong effects on how well students do in school.
Helping to improve classrooms and schools is an important aspect of the teacher's job.
Improvement is needed because schools, in many instances, are out of phase with the needs of today's youth and do not live up to rising expectations people have for education.
Teachers who choose to work toward school improvement can do so by becoming thoughtful and informed about change initiatives proposed by others and by helping to create and provide leadership for improvement projects.
