School culture and school achievement

• Main Authors: Björnsdóttir, Amalía, Hansen, Börkur, Kristjánsson, Baldur
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Tímarit um menntarannsóknir 2015
• Subjects: Reykjavík; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/tum/article/view/2070

This is the fourth paper in a series based on the longitudinal study Motivation of Students in Compulsory Schools in Iceland. The literature suggests that student achievement is strongly related to two interrelated factors, namely the school leadership and the organizational culture of the school – the school culture (Deal and Peterson, 1999; Hoy and Miskel, 1996, 2008; Fullan, 2001). The concept of school culture refers to the values and norms that shape traditions and interactions, i.e. how school personnel interact and operate when solving everyday challenges. Accordingly, the teachers’ views towards student learning are a significant part of the culture of schools. Deal and Peterson (1999) and Schein (2004) state that school culture can be of various kinds, but Maehr and Midgley (1996) emphasize that the values and norms towards teaching and learning are of utmost importance for academic success in schools. Hoy and Miskel (1996, 2008) point out that there are a limited number of empirical studies available on school culture. Generally, however, empirical studies suggest that culture in successful organizations is proactive in nature and emphasizes co-operation and collaboration of all their staff. This scarcity also applies to the Icelandic context. The findings presented in this paper shed a light on the relationship between aspects of school culture in eight compulsory schools in Iceland with achievement on nationally administered comprehensive exams. Method Data was collected in eight compulsory schools (ages 6–16), four of them located in the greater Reykjavík area and four in rural areas. Data was gathered with a questionnaire where teachers responded to questions and statements. On the one hand, the theoretical framework that guided the development of the questionnaires for teachers and middle managers was developed from the works of Maehr and Midgley (1996). According to them, the values and norms towards teaching and learning are the most important dimensions of every school culture. On the other ...