engleski

The culture of educational institutions: developing a new paradigm

Our theoretical discussion will aim to illustrate the differences between the traditional (mechanistic) and contemporary (systemic) paradigms in educational practice, in which our core concern will be the culture of educational institutions. We depart from the hypothesis that important breakthroughs in education can be achieved by making changes in the structure and environment of an educational institution, which we refer to as the transformation of institutional culture. In other words, we will be discussing the changes educational institutions and teaching and learning methods that we deem necessary in, while also reflecting upon changes in the role of the teacher. In order to shed light on the conceptual definition of the culture of an educational institution, we shall first elaborate on the definition of culture in general, intertwining it with the concept of organisational culture to form a dynamic and multidimensional relationship. We shall connect the complexity of this construct with various authors and their definitions, while stressing the reciprocity and causality of the following relation: how much we invest in people, learning processes and training is how much we invest in the culture of an educational institution. In our further elaboration of the key points of the work, we shall discuss the types of cultures of educational institutions based on their efficiency and improvement. The criteria of efficiency and improvement involve various dimensions of the context of an educational institution that implicitly illustate the norms, values, expectations, rights, relationships and roles of every member of the institution and which, taken all together, constitute the culture of an institution. Due to the great differences in value systems that can be found beween different cultures and groups, it is impossible to create a single ideal form of education and implement it throughout the world. Due to the aforementioned reasons, we advocate the development of professional learning cultures that support the professional development of teachers by transforming the teachers themselves into researchers of their own educational practice and making them take responsibility for its quality.

institutional culture, educational practice, organisational culture, professional development, cultural typology

Znanstveni projekt "Kultura odgojno-obrazovne ustanove kao čimbenik sukonstrukcije znanja", Sveučilište u Rijeci, broj potpore: 13.10.2.2.01, voditeljica: izv. prof. dr. sc. Lidija Vujičić