Creating Cultures of Equity and High Expectations in a Low-Performing School

Jorunn Møller

doi:10.7577/njcie.2802

Abstract

The literature on successful schools has revealed that a school culture of high expectations is beneficial for student achievement and that leaders may exercise significant influence on their school’s success trajectory. However, less information is known about how leaders at different levels interact to build such cultures in local schools or how standards of professional work and new demands interact to support teachers’ com-mitment to quality education for a diverse student population. This study aimed to examine the interplay between district and school leadership in creating cultures of equity and high expectations for all students in a Norwegian low-performing school. Methods included interviews with the principal and the superin-tendent, focus group interviews with deputies, teachers and students, and a survey among all students in grade 10 at the selected school. The study demonstrated how leading teachers’ effort to raise academic and social standards among students was a complex endeavour and how a productive interplay between district level leadership and school-level leadership became one of the key enabling factors. A main argument is that promoting quality education for all begins with the question of purpose and requires understanding how principals’ and teachers’ work is embedded in broader social structures of power.

Highlights

The present focus on student achievement in basic skills has resulted in a strong push to reduce education to measurable outcomes (Biesta, 2016), often described as an outcomebased discourse characterised by competition and privatisation (Moos, 2017)
The literature on successful schools has demonstrated how successful principals continually work to mediate government policy and external changes to enable integration with school values and a culture of high expectations, less information is known about how school leaders at different levels interact to create a culture characterised by equity and high expectations
The findings are organised under the following headings: (a) municipal governance, (b) the story of school leadership, (c) school cultures and staff commitment, and (d) students’ framing of their learning environment

Summary

Introduction

The present focus on student achievement in basic skills has resulted in a strong push to reduce education to measurable outcomes (Biesta, 2016), often described as an outcomebased discourse characterised by competition and privatisation (Moos, 2017). A major reason for the differences among schools is their diverse sociocultural and socioeconomic student composition—a well-documented fact drawn from decades of research (Nordenbo et al, 2010). This outcome-based discourse is contrasted to a discourse. ISSN: 2535-4051 focusing on the purposes of schooling and democratic participation. The tensions between these discourses are reflected in many studies on successful school leadership (Day & Leithwood, 2007; Leithwood & Louis, 2012). The reason is that relevant studies have focused on leadership within the school as an organisation, overlooking how school leaders’ work is embedded in broader social structures of power

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