Leadership in the formation and change of school culture

Abstract

Educational reform is essentially a cultural transformation process that requires organizational learning to occur: Changing teachers is necessary, but not sufficient. Changing the organizational culture of the school is more imperative and indeed an urgent necessity. The culture of the education system as reflected in various schools must undergo radical change, with the main catalyst being the principals managing the process of formation, sustainability and change of the school culture. This paper has examined the internal and external factors influencing school culture especially the school founders, administrators and school history. Meanwhile key symbolic and cultural leadership roles of school principals were explored calling for the school principals to be role models as well as transformational leaders. Key mechanisms in management and change of school culture especially communication and decision making were equally examined. Lastly the paper engaged the nature of chaos and complexity that obtains in the process of school culture formation and change.