School Codes and School Cultures

Malmö högskola

Lärarutbildningen

Kultur-Språk-Medier

Examensarbete

School Codes and School Cultures

-An Investigation of Two Teachers’ Perceptions

of their Educational Settings

Skolkoder och skolkulturer

-En undersökning av två lärares uppfattningar om deras

undervisningsmiljöer

Mattias Oskarsson

Lärarexamen 200 poäng Vårterminen 2006

Examinator:Bo Lundahl

Abstract

This study explores the complexity of the cultures and codes teachers become a part of at their schools. I present two teachers working on two very different schools to display how they perceive school cultures and school codes in their respective educational settings. A school’s code or culture is a result of a complex interplay between factors such as teacher background, school traditions, colleagues, students and the characteristics of the school’s area. To become aware of this process of socialisation is highly relevant for any teacher or teacher student since it has a direct impact on a teacher’s work. This study displays two cases of perceived school cultures and school codes and links them to theories within this specific research field.

Keywords:

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ...5

1.1. Purpose and Questions ...5

2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...6

2.1. Sampling ...6

2.2. Data Collection...6

2.3. Participants and Ethics ...7

2.4. Procedure………...8

3. LITERATURE ...9

4. KEY CONCEPTS ...11

4.1. School Culture...11

4.2. School Code and Local Adaptation...11

4.3. Self Assortment ...12

4.4. System-, Outer-, and Inner Context ...12

4.5. Local Traditions ...13

5. RESULTS...15

5.1. School Descriptions ...15

5.11. The City School ...15

5.12. The Inland School ...16

5.2. Teacher Background ...17

5.21.Sally ...17

5.22. Rachel ...18

5.3. The Teachers’ Perceptions of their Schools ...19

5.31. Sally ...19

5.32. Rachel ...22

6. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS ...25

7. CONCLUSIONS...31

1 INTRODUCTION

A teacher rarely gets the opportunity to choose which schools or educational settings to work in. In fact, many would argue that considering the condition of the labour market today you should consider yourself lucky if you get a full time teaching position at any school. Schools vary a great deal in character from one setting to another and as a teacher you more or less have to adjust yourself to new school environments. This process, or adaptation, is always a unique situation depending on the school’s particular

culture or code as well as the teacher’s personality and background. A school’s culture

or code depends on many factors such as its location and traditions as well as social and economic factors and is not necessarily something that teachers think about in their everyday work. The study at hand explores two teachers working at two very different upper secondary schools and how they perceive their respective schools, in terms of school culture and school code.

1.1 Purpose and Questions

The purpose of this research is to investigate ways in which teachers are affected by educational settings in their work. More specifically, this study explores how two teachers, working at two very different schools, adapt to and perceive their respective school codes and school cultures, not primarily in terms of positive or negative, but with the aim of displaying potential differences or similarities. The primary questions in this research are: How do teachers perceive their particular school code and school

culture in their schools? How do school cultures affect teachers’ way of working at

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Sampling

This study is primarily based on two interviews with two teachers working at two different upper secondary schools. My aim was to interview two upper secondary teachers of English and I was fortunate to find willing participants during my last period of teacher practice and with the help from my course leader at The Malmoe School of Education. The teacher who in this study will be referred to as Rachel is a teacher I worked with during my last teacher practice. She teaches the Natural Science Programme. The second teacher, referred to as Sally, teaches a law- and jurisprudence oriented version of The Social Science Programme. She was contacted with the help from my course leader at the Malmoe School of Education and the assistant headmistress at her school. The teachers and the schools will be presented in more detail in the results below.

2.2 Data Collection

To choose and use suitable methods in qualitative research is crucial for the final results. At an early stage in the planning of my research I decided that qualitative

interviews would offer a way to explore the perceptions of the two teachers interviewed

in this research. I also regarded this method to have large potential in the process to understand a person’s ways of working in a specific education context, especially in connection to teaching (Johansson & Svedner p 34). Qualitative interviewing is, as opposed to more structured interviewing, an open method which can prove particularly useful when a researcher tries to understand a specific person in a specific context (Johansson & Svedner p 24). The interviews in the study at hand are best categorized as

semi-structured since I as a researcher lead the interviewee into certain areas of

discussion with the use of discussion points and questions. According to Hatch, this kind of interview is a formal interview, even if it can be argued that the method is rather informal in character because of its openness (Hatch 2002 p 94). Additional valid arguments for choosing qualitative interviews as a method can be found in

interviews I aim to “uncover the meaning structures” and to take advantage of the openness of the qualitative interview method (Hatch 2002 p 91).

In order to present two separate schools in two different areas I believe it is necessary to strengthen their characteristics, in terms of socio-economic factors, why I conducted quantitative research on each areas’, or municipality’s, income-, education- and employment level. This method can be categorized as quantitative data collection and was conducted by investigating the two municipalities’ official websites and admission offices (Wiersma & Jurs 2005 p 22).

2.3 Participants and Ethics

Most qualitative researchers aim to investigate “a world from the perspective of cultural insiders” (Hatch 2002 p 95). This also means, however, that the researcher must treat the participants with uttermost respect. As a qualitative researcher you ask a lot from the participants in terms of time, energy and even integrity. It is therefore necessary to inform the participants about what you as a researcher plan to do, how you will do it and why you want to do it (Hatch p 52). Hatch confirms this by stating that “researchers should be prepared to explain what they will be doing, when, and for how long” (p 52). These were relevant guidelines in my contact with the participants in this study. Already at an early stage in my research I informed the involved participants about the study via e-mail and provided them with discussion points for the interviews. This gave them an opportunity to prepare for interviews to come. Hatch claims that the researcher “should be able to tell participants what the purpose of the study is in words that are easily understood”, which I used as guidelines and advice when I explained my research to the two participants (Hatch p 52).

The participants in my research are of great importance since they are interviewees as well as participants in the educational setting they work within. The participants have a major impact on the outcome of a qualitative study, especially since they are closely connected to their environment (Hatch p 48). In this study, the two teachers will be referred to as Sally and Rachel in order to keep them anonymous. The same system applies to the educational settings, the schools, which will be referred to as The City

2.4 Procedure

The results are based primarily on two qualitative interviews with two teachers. The interviews were recorded on Minidisc and later transcribed into text. When conducting the interviews I followed a structure, which started with a discussion of the teachers’ background and gradually moved towards their own perceptions of their respective schools. The purpose of starting the discussion by discussing the teachers’ background was to “brake the ice” in order to create a relaxed atmosphere and to get the teachers to take control of the discussion. This method proved to be both a good starting point and an icebreaker, since it appeared that both teachers enjoyed looking back at their respective careers. The discussion structure was based on the following parts: background/students/colleagues/school atmosphere (See appendix). The parts did not necessarily come in this specific order during the interviews as the discussions were open ended and somewhat spontaneous in their structure depending on what was brought up by the teachers. Nevertheless, these four parts, or discussions areas, functioned as framework of sorts, in my attempt to reach a certain level of equivalence between the two teachers’ background, perceptions and environments. In order to display potential differences and similarities between two “cases” I believe equivalence is something to take into consideration.

In this study I present two upper secondary schools situated in different municipalities with different socio-economic conditions. In order to present the municipalities’ characteristics I used the Internet as a tool to find information. On each municipality’s websites I found statistics of income levels, employment levels and education levels. By e-mailing the two municipalities’ admission offices I was provided with statistics showing how many applicants there were for each teacher’s primary programme in 2005. With this data of (the law- and jurisprudence oriented) the Social Science Programme and the Natural Science Programme I am able to present a quotient in which I have divided the number of applicants with the number of posts available on the specific programme. This number is presented in percent and is used in the results below as support in displaying the two programmes’ “popularity” among first choice applicants.

3 LITERATURE

In terms of research methodology, Amos Hatch’s Doing Qualitative Research in

Education Settings (2002) has functioned as my main source of information regarding

qualitative methods. This book has been a valuable source as the author presents qualitative research in a detailed yet comprehensible way. The chapters that deal with how to design, collect and analyze qualitative data are particularly useful in connection with my research. The author also presents ethical aspects of qualitative research and discusses the relation between the researcher and the participants, which is highly relevant in any qualitative research.

In comparison to Hatch’s text, Examensarbetet i lärarutbildningen, by Bo Johansson and Per Olov Svedner arguably represents a more basic guide to qualitative research. This book touches upon rather similar methodology, but it is written in Swedish and it is directly aimed at teacher student’s dissertations, which is indispensable in connection to this research.

The focus in this investigation is on teachers’ perceptions of school cultures. In my research I refer to the term school code, which is presented in Didaktik för lärare by Gerd B Arfwedson and Gerhard Arfwedson. The book was published in 2002 and deals with teachers’ problems in their everyday work. The authors describe a teacher’s problems as complex and context-bound and suggest that a teacher’s working position always is unique due to its specific context. Arfwedson & Arfwedson also present the terms teacher’s local adaptation and teacher socialisation. I found this book very useful in my research since it provided a framework for this area of investigation.

Arfwedson & Lundman introduced the terms school code and school culture in 1984. The authors explain their theory of school code to be influenced by three different contexts: system context, outer context and inner context. These theories are presented in Pedagogiska frågeställningar by Arne Maltén and will be explained in more detail under “key concepts” (1997).

The term school culture is also discussed in Skolkulturer, a collection of seven reports written by researchers from different branches of learning (Persson 2003). The authors,

especially Andersson, Bennich-Björkman, Johansson & Persson, discuss the general meaning of the term culture and how it can be applied in educational settings. They also present three research fields that have functioned as the major fields in previous Swedish research on school culture.

There are not many previous Swedish studies of teacher socialisation and school culture of a more comparative character, such as the study at hand, to which there are several explanations. Arfwedson & Arfwedson declare that teachers in general tend not to change jobs very often, which makes the study of so called “local socialisation” difficult. They state that: “Most teachers do not change working place more than once or twice in their careers. The socialization process and its great variety of factors are therefore difficult to observe and to interpret, even for the teachers themselves” (Arfwedson & Arfwedson p 205).

4 KEY CONCEPTS

4.1 School Culture

Since the term “culture” can be defined in many different ways it is necessary to specify how the concept of school culture will be used in this study. Persson presents three fields of previous Swedish studies on school culture, which are : 1) School culture in terms of atmosphere and spirit, 2) School culture as a teacher culture and 3) School culture as a vast culture of organisation linked to local institutionalized values (Persson 2003 p 16). According to Bennich-Björkman, Johansson & Persson, previous Swedish studies of school culture have generally been conducted within the second field mentioned above, school culture as a “teacher culture”. The research at hand focuses on all three fields, even if the teacher plays a central part in it. The three fields, or aspects, of previous school culture studies will be used as framework in the final discussion.

4.2 School Code and Local Adaptation

To adapt the local school code is an important process for new teachers in new educational settings, according to Arfwedson & Arfwedson (2002). This process is referred to as local adaptation and is, according to the authors, always a unique case, where “generalized knowledge is inadequate in the concrete situation” (2002 p 201). This suggests that teachers’ local adaptations cannot be generalized and that the process a teacher goes through in a new environment is directly linked to the specific existing circumstances in that environment or context. Arfwedson argues that people who are a part of school codes never are aware of it (Maltén 1997). In fact, school codes are never known or visable for the people involved. Nevertheless, it is manifested through actions and interpretations, in other words: expressions for the codes. The school code is, in more concrete terms, a product of what the involved believe is possible/not possible and sensible/not sensible to do in their positions and schools (Maltén 1997 p 67).

Arfwedson & Arfwedson discuss the expectations and the process a teacher or a teacher student goes through when applying for or starting a new job. They explain how experienced and inexperienced teachers have different expectations on the new school due to their previous experiences of students, colleagues and general working conditions (p 200). For instance, the older a teacher is, the firmer or clearer are his/her

expectations. This is due to his/her, compared to an inexperienced teacher, more concrete experiences from previous schools. This suggests that the more experiences you have as a teacher, the clearer are your expectations. Teachers adapt to the main actors at the school: the students and the teacher colleagues. The students can be described as carriers of their society’s human-, social- and cultural values and Arfwedson & Arwedson explains that these values are brought into the school environment through them (p 202). Arfwedson & Arfwedson discuss the school code as linked to teachers’ local adaptation. They argue that teachers should form their teacher role so that it does not diverge too much from his/her colleagues’ code. A new teacher needs to establish a considerate role and adjust to an approach that works well both in the relation to the school’s students and the relation to the teachers. According to the authors there exist a wide range of opinions and standpoints within a teacher team, but at the same time there are also common interests and values that every teacher agrees on. To discover and to handle the school code is argued to be an important process for new teachers’ local adaptation (2002 p 203)

4.3 Self Assortment

Arwedson & Arwedson use the term self assortment when explaining the process teachers go through during his or her first years of working (2002 p 183). This process is directly linked to the teacher’s background and is described to be one of the main factors that determine which type of school a teacher aims to work at. A teacher’s self

assortment tends to result in an aim to work at a school that “fits his/her personal

demands and expectations” (p 183). Teachers in general tend to prefer tranquil and peaceful schools, but naturally, there are exceptions. Newly graduated teachers who are socially driven, for instance, often choose to work in more “problematic” areas (p 183).

4.4 System-, Outer- and Inner Context

In 1983, Arfwedson presented his theories of what the term school culture signifies in eleven points. One of the points describes how a school code is formed by its

The system context describes the school code as subordinate to state and community, in the form of rules and regulations to follow. Arfwedson declares that every school develop strategies to meet, neutralize or resist requirements from the system context, which in the Swedish terminology could be for instance Skolverket and its national curriculum. Another example of system context would be the Swedish municipalities, “kommuner”, which ever since the decentralization of schools has a major impact on how schools are run and controlled.

The outer context is explained to be the school’s surrounding environment, which naturally varies from one place to another. It is directly linked to the character of the society in terms of, for instance, socio-economics, industries and history. A way to display this is by the fact that we often categorize cities or societies. Lund, for instance, is often categorized as a “university city”. Another example is Gothenburg, which sometimes is categorized as a “harbour city”. What is also a factor in the outer context are socio-economic characteristics such as the students’ parents’ level of education and types of occupation. All factors mentioned here affect the outer context and therefore also the school culture.

The inner context is described to depend on the school’s pedagogical tradition and is linked to teaching traditions, which, according to Arfwedson, can change quickly. It is explained that the characteristics of a school’s inner context can vary a lot depending on, for instance, if the school is new or old. A school can in this respect be, for instance, “old-fashioned” or “progressive”. The teachers in a school are a part of the inner

context and they can also change its character. An example of this is when an older

teacher retires and gets replaced by an inexperienced teacher who has just recently graduated from teacher education (Maltén 1997 p 67).

4.5 Local Traditions

Teachers’ work is influenced by schools’ local traditions, which can vary a lot in character from one place to antoher. Arwedson presents an interesting example that illustrates this. He says that schools can be based on different cultural traditions and that a common tendency is that the further away a school is from the big city areas, the clearer the frames of local tradition and culture you will find (Arwedson & Arfwedson

2002 p 152) In other words, schools in bigger cities normally do not have a strong local culture, as compared to a school closer to the countryside. Local history, culture and traditions can have a direct impact on a teacher’s professional work and can thereby affect their teaching, both in regards to what they teach and how they teach (p 152). Socio-economic factors, such as education- and income levels can also affect school codes and school cultures and thereby teachers’ work, which explains why schools, even within the same area, can vary in character, in terms of culture or attitudes towards education (p 159).

The key concepts presented above function as framework in the discussion chapter in which I aim to link the concepts to the results that now follows.

5 RESULTS

In this chapter I present the results based on the interviews with the two teachers. The chapter starts with descriptions of each school and continues with the two teachers’ backgrounds and finally, the two teachers’ perceptions of their schools. The school descriptions are based on official statistics and printed sources. The reason for looking at official statistics and printed sources is to present the two schools’ characteristics and marketing profiles in order to display two separate socio-economic environments, with different characters and conditions. The statistics do not refer to any sources due to a promise of anonymity to the two teachers. As mentioned earlier, the schools and teachers will be referred to as The City School, Sally, The Inland School and Rachel for the very same reason.

5.1 School Descriptions

5.11 The City School

The City School is situated in the central parts of Malmoe. The school has for some years had a bad reputation of being a “low-status” school and is not considered a first-hand choice among most students. Organizationally, The City School has been through many changes since its establishment. It has for instance been consolidated with another school, which has had an impact on which type of programmes The City School offers. When looking at the average income level for a person living in Malmoe it is approximately 203.600 SEK, according to statistics from 2004. Malmoe as a whole has an employment level of 62, 3 per cent, according to statistics from 2003. When it comes to education levels, statistics from the same year show that approximately 36 per cent of Malmoe’s citizens have some sort of upper level education, which is education after upper secondary school. The number of first choice applicants for the specific programme, a law and jurisprudence oriented version of The Social Science Programme, is 26 and there are 31 posts available. These data give a popularity level of approximately 84 per cent.

In printed marketing material from 2001 and 2003 The City School is marketed and profiled as “the school of opportunities” and is presented as an international school. As a reader you will be informed that The City School is in the lead when it comes to IT and language education. As a student you should get the opportunity to gain confidence, take

responsibility for your own studies and be able to increase student’s rights. It is stated that The City School aims at good relations between students, teachers and parents. The text also points out that The City School aims at a good learning environment with committed and competent teachers.

5.12 The Inland School

The Inland School is situated in a sparsely populated area near the country side about 20 kilometres from Malmoe. The municipality is well known for its high standards and upper class citizens which is evident in official statistics of income, employment and education. The average income level for a citizen in this municipality is approximately 250.000 SEK, according to data from 2003. Approximately 79 percent of the population have some sort of employment. Education-wise, official statistics show that 40% of the population have some sort of post upper secondary education. The specific programme, the Natural Science Programme offers 32 posts and has 42 first choice applicants. This results in a popularity level of approximately 131 percent.

In its promotion, in this case a printed source from 2004, The Inland School markets itself as a school with lots of resources in terms of teacher support, facilities and education. It is clearly expressed that: “at this school, knowledge is bigger”. In a catalogue or a brochure, available for the public, you can read about the school’s “spirit”, as the school claims to have a unique and particular spirit. It is explained to involve an open and close relation between students and school staff and a serious attitude towards students’ responsibility of their own studies. The catalogue also declares that the school offers a high level of security and acceptance in a beautiful and well preserved study environment with enjoyable venues for meetings. As a reader you are also given “the five advantages of The Inland School”, which are: 1) their primary goal is to educate you in order to prepare you for your future life in studies or work. 2) The Inland School goes in for study visits and study trips to anchor your studies in working life. 3) The Inland School emphasizes your development as a person and aims to “expand your perspectives”. You will be taking part of many culture-, art-, concert- and theatre arrangements. 4) The teachers in The Inland

5.2 Teacher Background

5.21 Sally

Sally has worked as a Swedish/English teacher in The City School for ten years and comes from a working class family. Sally has experiences from working at different schools, but regards The City School as her primary working experience. There were no study traditions in Sally’s family as she became the first family member to study at a more advanced level. After graduating from the teacher education she went to The United States for one summer to work on a summer camp for underprivileged kids and teenage mothers, which in this particular case meant a majority of Afro-Americans and Hispanics. She was in her mid-twenties and remembers this as a challenging time as she got to work with teenagers with rather different experiences compared to her own. One of the challenges Sally had to face was that many teenagers, especially the teenage mothers, questioned her presence and her teacher role, since she was white, did not have any children and was highly educated. Sally describes this experience as a tough time, but also as enlightening and rewarding, as she declares that it helped her in her future teacher career.

Sally has also worked at a school in Rosengård and sees a possible connection between her background and previous working experiences and the type of educational setting she now works in. She explains that during her years of university studies she did not get much support from her parents, not due to any disputes or lack of interest, but rather due to the missing study traditions within her family. Sally explains that she can see the same tendencies in her own students’ relations to their parents. She explains that “School studies often require parents’ engagement, but a back-up system at home can not always be taken for granted by all teenagers”. This combined with her experiences from the summer camp in The United States have influenced Sally in her selections of schools and students as she explains: “It was a rather instructive yet hard lesson, because since that experience I have not been put in a position which I have not been able to deal with. I believe this has influenced my choices of schools to work at”. Furthermore she expresses that “It might just be a coincidence which school you end up working at” and states that she did not consciously apply for a job at her present school for its specific characteristics or types of students, but adds “I do not believe it is a coincidence if you stay at a school or

not. It is whether you like the school’s codes or not that decides if you stay at a school or apply for another job”.

Sally and many of her colleagues have experienced several changes over the years. During the last couple of years The City School has been consolidated with other schools as well as divided into smaller independent schools. These organizational and administrative changes have affected her job as the different consolidations and divisions have had a direct effect on which type of students Sally has been teaching. Today, Sally teaches one programme, a law and jurisprudence-oriented version of the Social Science Programme, which was not the case some years back when she at times taught on three different programmes. Teaching just one programme is not always necessarily an advantage, according to her. She explains that there might be a risk of becoming somewhat narrow-minded after a while, since you only get to work with one type of students.

5.22 Rachel

Rachel has worked as a Swedish/English teacher at The Inland School for seven years. Both of her parents are teachers and to continue her studies after compulsory school was therefore something that came rather naturally. She got her first teaching experiences at an early age in so called “omskolningskurser” at AMU. At this stage she did not have a teacher’s degree. It was not until she was around 30 years old that she graduated from teacher education. Rachel’s primary teacher experience after graduating was at an upper secondary school. She did not apply for jobs at any other levels since she specifically wanted to work at an upper secondary school. When she applied for jobs she did not consciously look for any specific characteristics in the schools in terms of environments, students or types of programmes. “I had children, so I needed a job a soon as possible”, she recalls. The only specific criterion Sally recalls is that she did not want the school to be situated too far away from her home in Malmoe. A commuting distance was preferable.

Before Rachel ended up at The Inland School she worked for 17 years at an upper secondary school in the south eastern parts of Sweden, mainly teaching work-oriented

program. This position was clearly different compared to her position at her previous school where she had taught several different programmes.

Another thing that was different at The Inland School compared to Rachel’s previous schools was its division of “programme teacher teams”, which place teachers in a team based on which programme they primarily teach. In Rachel’s case this means that she is the only English/Swedish teacher in her programme team. This does not mean that more traditional “subject teams” are missing at The Inland School. On the contrary, many teachers are a part of so called ”subject teams” as well. Before Rachel was employed at The Inland School she had to sign a policy document, in which she had to agree to several points, which handled for instance an agreement regarding following the school’s distinctive period system, which will be explained in more detail below.

Working exclusively with NV-students was a new experience for Rachel. She describes her previous students as “turbulent” in comparison to the NV-students and says: “I felt there was rarely a case where I would give a student an MVG and that was a bit sad. That did not feel good”. When discussing how NV-students differ from her previous students she states that there were differences in dynamics of the classes since: “ In an NV-class there is always a couple of students with MVGs and they can lead the way for their classmates since they, in their turn, can sense and see what is required for an MVG”.

5.3 The Teachers’ Perceptions of their Schools

5.31 Sally

Sally describes her class as an “average Malmoe class” when looking at the class’ composition of origin, admission points, gender and social class. A few of the students come from the western, wealthier parts of Malmoe and there are also students from Rosengård, a less well-off area of Malmoe. Sally explains that, since many of her students originate from other countries and cultures, she occasionally tries to use this as a theme on her lessons. This usually creates curiosity among the students. She states that she has never experienced any conflicts between the different ethnic or social groups within the class. On the contrary, many students with more than one first language consider their bilingualism a positive aspect, even if some of them have difficulties with the Swedish

language. Some students in her class have trouble with the language level that the course in some regards requires, according to Sally. She explains that the programme’s orientation towards law and social science requires a certain level of vocabulary.

Sally believes that the types of students who study in The City School have changed over the years. One reason behind this is, according to Sally, a change in the application system, which now allows students to apply for programmes in any school in the city of Malmoe based on their grades instead of, like before, the area they live in. In other words, as a student in Malmoe you are not bound to go to the school in your own area of living. This system has, according to Sally, segregated the schools of Malmoe into A- and B-classified schools.

The programme she teaches is a rather exceptional version of the Social Science Programme which is law and jurisprudence oriented. This may have an effect on which type of students who apply for this specific programme as Sally believes this particular version of the Social Science Programme attracts certain students who may see “the regular programme“ as “too average” or “having a low status”. This may imply that this class is not representative of an average class on The City School.

Further, she explains that motivation levels and study achievements vary a lot between her students. On the one hand there are students who are highly motivated, but on the other hand there are students who have social problems or do not possess either high motivation or lack study experience. This may be linked to the fact that some of the students in her class may not have been admitted to any other school or programme and to the fact that the City School is not a very popular choice among applying students.

When Sally discusses the situation of when you start to work in a new school, she argues it is better to keep a low profile rather than being too authoritarian. When discussing her first teaching jobs, she explains that it takes some time, up to a couple of years, to become confident in your teaching role. “Eventually, you find colleagues and other people within

Sally believes that the students have the largest impact on her working role when looking at the educational setting as a whole. She explains that she tries to relate her subjects to the students’ different origins and sometimes to social science and moral dilemmas linked to law and jurisprudence. Moreover, she explains that: “it is the students I meet the most. I’m here for their sake. There’s no doubt about that”. When discussing her teacher colleagues, Sally uses the metaphor “oasis” to describe their relations. She explains how her teacher colleagues function as support and that “they are good listeners, no matter if you want to complain or just tell them about a lesson that went very well”. Furthermore, she explains that she has always regarded the school’s atmosphere as tolerant, especially in relation to her teacher colleagues. She explains that: ”You are accepted the way you are, irrespective of your background or teaching styles” and declares that this has been the case since she started to work there, ten years ago. When Sally compares The City School to the school she has previously worked at she states that she got more support during the first years at her present school. This was, according to her, evident in the way her teacher colleagues introduced her to the new setting. Several teachers took a tutoring role and guided her to the facilities. This has since then become something of a recurrent procedure within the teaching team when new teachers start to work at The City School.

The teacher colleagues may be one of the primary reasons why Sally has stayed on The City School for ten years and in an retrospective reflection on the type of schools she has worked at she says: “If you decide to stay at a school is not only down to how the students are, but also due to which type of colleagues you have, a general comfort. I believe they are of great importance, especially if you work in a school with rather troublesome students”.

Sally does not feel that she has to follow any specific guidelines from the school administration and considers her work to be “free” to the extent of having the freedom to plan the content and structure of her lessons. Here, collaboration between teachers, for instance, is normally a result of two teachers’ own initiatives. To find a colleague with a similar view on teaching, students and aims can require time, according to Sally. She states that: ”The key to a successful collaboration is to find a colleague that has a similar

view on the students and on what we want to achieve”. She explains that project work in collaboration with other teachers and subjects usually is rather time consuming and often results in more work, but she also feels that the outcome is always worth the effort.

In the near future, The City School will merge with another school, which means that The City School will have to move its facilities, administration and staff to a new setting. Sally has sensed some anxiety among her teacher colleagues and she believes that this might be due to the two schools having different “cultures” and atmosphere. Her impression of the other school is that the teachers working there do not work with the same degree of freedom as at The City School. She believes that the teachers are more controlled from an upper level there. “I do not think it is going to be without problems”, she says, “but I hope the problems will be solvable”. She also declares that she is optimistic by nature. The consolidation involves a larger teacher staff but Sally does not see this as a threat to The City School’s positive atmosphere or character, since the majority of the teachers in the “new” teacher staff will be teachers from The City School. Sally hopes that the atmosphere from The City School will prevail in the new environment.

5.32 Rachel

Rachel works with the Natural Science Programme and says that most of her students are “motivated” and “ambitious”. They have a positive attitude towards studies and accept the school code. Rachel express: “They have chosen this programme because they want to achieve something”. When it comes to the students’ background, all of them come from the municipality and Rachel is under the impression that most of the students come from families with high standards, economically and education-wise, even if she has not looked into any statistical data on the matter.

When discussing her previous working experiences the discussion lead us to how you, as a teacher should adapt yourself to new schools. Rachel says that: “I have never been in a position where I have wanted to break any codes. In general I would not advise anyone to make enemies by breaking all kinds of codes. As a new teacher I believe it is wise to have

protesting”. She believes that being too critical at an early stage is a sensitive issue at any working place.

Rachel considers herself to be lucky to work in the kind of educational setting that The Inland School offers. She clearly expresses that she likes her colleagues and her NV-students and declares that: “the conditions here are good and I believe that teachers on other programmes probably have more problems with their students”. Rachel refers to the possibility that students in other programmes may be more tired of school and have a lower level of motivation, but adds: “There are of course students who chose the Natural Science Programme and became tired of school after that. But most of my students are motivated. I do not believe that you choose the natural Science Programme very often if you are tired of school”. When discussing what factors that influence or restrict her the most in her work as a teacher, she states: “Naturally, it is the students”, but quickly adds “and the policy document and the national curriculum”. Even if Rachel mentions the last two factors as possible restrictions she regards her teacher work The Inland School to as to be free. Her teacher colleagues are also important for Rachel and says: “To have a social life is important for me. We talk and get to know about each other’s private lives a little”.

The new establishment which Rachel arrived at in 1999 had “a pioneer spirit and a happy and pleasant atmosphere”. The teachers were generally younger compared to her previous schools and she could enjoy being a part of a new established environment with a positive atmosphere. One thing that was rather different at The Inland School compared to her previous schools was its division and distribution of courses into rather “compressed” and intense study periods. The Inland School has its own period system, which divides a year into three study periods. Most A-courses in the “core subjects” are distributed into two periods, which is 24 weeks. This system is called “concentration studying” and is compared to many other upper secondary schools a rather compressed system in terms of time and intensity. The idea behind it is to counteract a system which makes students study too many courses simultaneously, since it can be difficult for many upper secondary students to focus on too many subjects at a time. Rachel believes that the “concentration studying” does not always go hand in hand with the pedagogies of language teaching and language learning and that it in a way puts too much pressure on the courses. Rachel comments: “I do not know why this system was applied in this school, but you often hear

students say that they have too many subjects at a time. On the other hand, I do not think this system works that well with language courses”.

Some years back, many Swedish-teachers reacted to the distribution of the B-course in Swedish and were after many years of lobby work able to change the school’s distribution of it, from two to three periods. As mentioned, Sally has mixed feelings about the period system and says: “I get the feeling that I do not have enough time now compared to when the course was distributed in three periods. That is the feeling I have. But, many teachers like this system. Many students say they like it. The school management and the municipality think this is the way to go, but I personally regard it as a stumbling block. It is something I do not like about this school”.

When you as a teacher apply for a job at The Inland School you have to sign a policy document. This document includes several points you have to accept and live up to. As a teacher on The Inland School you are to some extent bound to, for instance, arrange subject integrated projects with other teachers and classes and accept and follow the school’s period system. Another point in the policy declares that you have to be available for the students between lessons as every student has a personal mentor. Rachel tries to follow the policy as far as possible, but explains that the directions sometimes collide. For instance, the concentrated period system which, compared to many schools, compress some courses into lesser time, can sometimes counteract the subject integrated projects, since different courses are distributed on a different number of study periods. To collaborate with a chemistry teacher, for instance, could be difficult since the chemistry course is differently distributed during the semesters. Rachel declares that she cannot ignore the directions in the policy, but that she sometimes has mixed emotions about it. It is suggestible that the policy regulations can be changed, even if it can require years of lobby work, as in the case of the B-course in Swedish.

What has been presented above is a summary of the reflections and thoughts that the two teachers shared during the interviews. These results will be used as a link to the theories

6 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS

How can you put the two teachers’ perceptions within the frames of school culture? As mentioned in “Key concepts” above the discussion will be based on the three previous study fields of school culture. The field, or aspect, that becomes most evident when analyzing the results from the interviews is arguably “school culture as teacher culture”, since the interviews conducted put the teachers in focus. But when analyzing Sally’s and Rachel’s perceptions separately I see how they can be put into different fields of school culture. A general impression of the results is that Sally tends to discuss the role of her colleagues more as compared to Rachel. I argue that Sally discusses “teacher culture” when she describes her colleagues as tolerant and helpful. She uses the metaphor “oasis” to describe their role, which can be interpreted as emotionally charged and I suggest that Sally’s colleagues are of great social and emotional importance to her. This may be due to that the teachers at The City School, as compared to The Inland School, work under more difficult conditions, for instance students with a higher degree of social problems, as compared to The Inland School.

“School culture as teacher culture” is arguably not as evident in the case Rachel, but there are possible connections between the two. Rachel describes the “pioneer spirit” that she was a part of during her first years at The Inland School. The teachers were rather young and there was a “positive atmosphere”, which could fall within the frames of “school culture in terms of atmosphere and spirit” and also “teacher culture”, since the teachers assumingly were the contributors and actors in the “pioneer spirit”. “School culture in terms of atmosphere and spirit” is explicitly outspoken in The Inland School’s marketing which describes the school’s unique spirit, but I find it difficult to state that Rachel reflects on her setting within these frames. To investigate “atmosphere and spirit” further would probably require a more in-depth study of the schools’ environments including methods such as observations. Qualitative interviews can in this respect be a rather limited method. Nevertheless, both Sally and Rachel touch upon atmosphere and spirit when they discuss how they perceived their schools when they started to work there. What Sally and Rachel primarily emphasize when they discuss how they first perceived their schools is

their colleagues and students, which arguably falls within the frames of “teacher culture” and possibly, as mentioned, “atmosphere and spirit”.

The third field of school culture, “School culture as a vast culture of organisation linked to institutionalized values”, is harder to display, but The Inland School and its policy may be linked to it as the policy, assumingly from an institutional level, to some extent determines how Rachel and the other teachers at The Inland School should organize their work. It is here possible to see how the policy is a part of the school’s organisation, but to describe or categorize it as an institutionalized value would probably require a more in-depth investigation of the school setting itself.

Sally reflects on her school’s upcoming consolidation with another school. What is interesting about the consolidation is that Sally explicitly expresses a slight fear of a clash of school cultures and that she hopes that The City School’s culture will prevail in the new setting. Clearly, Sally describes herself as being a part of a school culture or school

code in her own school when she expresses that the teachers at school they are

consolidating with do not work with the same degree of freedom. This shows that she has perceptions of The City School’s “teacher culture” and how it is different compared to “the other school”. The fact that she, in a way, compares the two schools suggests that she is part of a culture that she wants to protect.

School Codes, Local Adaptation and Contexts

Rachel represents an interesting case of local adaptation and school code in this research. What arguably puts Rachel within an obvious school code is The Inland School’s policy document, which has to be accepted and signed by every teacher before an actual employment. The policy agreement can, if put into a context of school culture, be used to illustrate an interplay between the system-, outer- and inner contexts, explained by Maltén (1997 p 65). If look at the policy from an upper level, it is possible to interpret it as guidelines and restrictions from the schools administration or from the municipality, which arguably can be seen as a part of the system context affecting the inner context.

I find The Inland School’s strong marketing profile particularly interesting since it can be used to display interplay between institutionalized values, school, code, school, culture and local adaptation. In this case, both teachers and students who want to study or work at The Inland School more or less arrive in an already clearly defined school code, which they have to adapt. Evidently, teachers who work at The Inland School are part of an “outspoken” or “known” school code. The policy agreement confirms this. But naturally, the school code is not exclusively formed by this policy agreement as school codes are more complex and interplaying. Nevertheless, it is clear that the school code is used in The Inland School’s marketing and that it is a part of its atmosphere. At The City School, school code is not as clearly defined as in the case of The Inland School, but what Sally describes in her reflections on her teacher colleagues may very well a part of the school’s code. The tolerance, her colleagues’ role as an “oasis” and the tradition of guiding new teachers to the schools facilities may be characteristic for The City School’s school code. The City School’s marketing profile is arguably not as clearly linked to school code as in the case of The Inland School.

Local Traditions and Contextual Compositions

The two schools may very well be influenced by an invisible code or tradition that exists in the areas. To analyze local traditions would probably require a study more focused on the areas, but I suggest that the codes and cultures of The City School and The Inland School may be “results” of their specific areas. Arwedson suggests that schools on the countryside tend to be more clearly connected to its local traditions as compared to a school in a big city. This theory, or tendency, helps to display differences between The City School and The Inland School as The Inland School, which is closer to the countryside, has a clearly defined “school culture”, both in its marketing and through the policy agreement. But, I want to point out that The Inland School’s particular school culture not necessarily is the same as the entire municipality’s culture. In order to display this connection, I would have needed a broader focus that had included a more in depth study of the areas or municipalities.

Two different settings

Sally and Rachel arguably work in two rather different contextual compositions and also within different school cultures and school codes. This is not only evident in their expressed thoughts and perceptions, but also in the fact that the two teachers had a clear tendency to emphasize on factors and parts of their school settings they found particularly relevant. As discussed above, it is possible to put Sally’s and Rachel’s perceptions within different fields of school culture. But evidently they also share, or express similar thoughts and experiences from their educational settings. When looking at local adaptation, for instance, I conclude that both teachers express a contentment of working at their respective schools. The fact that they both have stayed at their respective schools for several years suggests that they to an extent have adapted the school codes. As Arfwedson & Arfwedson suggest, “a new teacher at a new school needs to establish a considerate role and adjust to an approach that works well both in the relation to the school’s students and the relation to the teachers” (2002 p 203). When looking at how the two teachers perceive and adapt school codes I see several similarities. Both teachers agree on Arfwedson & Arfwedson’s argument that you as a teacher should form your teacher role so that it does not diverge too much from your colleagues’ codes. This is stated explicitly when both teachers suggest any new teacher to keep a “low profile” in the beginning of an employment and gradually become integrated in the school code. Both teachers consider their work to be “free” even if Rachel points out some of the regulations in the policy

agreement and the national curriculum. Arguably, Rachel does not work under the same

freedom, organisation-wise, as Sally as the policy agreement binds her to work with subject integrated projects, for instance.

The Teachers’ Background and Self Assortment

When looking closer at the teachers’ background we know that Sally comes from a family without any study traditions and Rachel from a “teacher family”. The teachers’ different backgrounds would be possible to categorize as a “working class” and “academic”. Thereby, it is possible to see how self assortment, consciously or unconsciously, may have influenced their choices of schools to work at. When looking at the statistics of the two

Further, I see how self assortment can be related to Sally’s previous experiences, as she states that her experience of not getting much study support from her family may have led her to work with students in the same situation. What is also interesting is that her experiences from working with underprivileged kids in the United States also may her influenced her to work with students with some degree of social problems. She states: “It was a rather instructive yet hard lesson, because since that experience I have not been put in a position which I have not been able to deal with. I believe this has influenced my choices of schools to work at”. But, as Sally also declares: “It might just be a coincidence which school you end up working at”. The self assortment in this case might not have been a conscious process for Sally, but I argue that her choices of students to work with combined with her quotes above show a potential link to it.The process of self assortment is not nearly as evident in the case of Rachel, who does not express any obvious thoughts of assortment, except more practical requirements, such as that the school should be an upper secondary school within commuting distance.

Concluding remarks

I conclude it is possible to display the two teachers as being parts of different school cultures and school codes. Their perceptions can be put into more than one field of school culture, which suggests that school culture involves several actors and factors in educational settings. Nevertheless, I suggest that Sally’s perceptions for the most part falls into the “teacher culture” field, while Rachel’s perceptions to a higher extent can be linked to “atmosphere and spirit” and “institutionalized values”. Rachel arguably works under more regulated conditions, which affects her planning and structuring of her teaching. She clearly expresses that she does not like certain parts of her school’s policy, but also that she tries the best she can to follow it. Naturally, the policy agreement is only one of many factors that influence the code or culture at The Inland School, but since it so clearly affects the teachers work and is so clearly defined I argue it is a part of The Inland School’s code and culture, no matter if you as a teacher at the school approve to it or not. Sally’s work may in this respect be more “free” from upper level regulations since she does not have to adapt a policy or a school culture/school code. The school code and school culture in her case appears to come from a more spontaneous social development within the teacher staff combined with her students’ different origins, which to some

extent affects her work. It is thereby possible to categorize The City School’s culture as “school culture as a teacher culture” (Persson 2003 p 16).

Both Sally and Rachel seem to perceive their students as the primary influence on their teaching. Sally explains that the students in her class have rather varied levels of motivation and that she occasionally tries to use their different backgrounds as a theme on lessons. This shows how Sally’s students have a direct impact on her teaching. The students’ different origins and backgrounds may not only affect the contents of lessons, but also the school as a context and possibly the school code and school culture. This is fairly difficult to display, but as Arfwedson & Arfwedson argues, students are “carriers of their society’s human-, social-, and cultural values”. In the case of The City School, we know that its students come from different areas of Malmoe, which makes a generalisation of their socio-economic characteristics difficult, since Malmoe and its different areas vary a lot in that respect. Rachel does not point out any specific characteristics of her students and tend to mainly discuss motivation levels more. It is in this case harder to see a direct connection between her students’ background and how it affects her work. I can only assume that the statistics and Rachel’s perceptions of her students display a case where good socio-economic conditions contribute to a high motivation level among the students.

When summarizing the two teachers’ perceptions and linking them to the key concepts above I cannot help but to think of how the students seem to be somewhat underrepresented, especially in the literature handling school code and school culture. Both teachers declare that the students have the largest impact on their work as teachers. In the theories above, students are described to be part of, for instance, the so called inner

context and are also factors to include in the local adaptation as they are “carriers of their

society’s human-, social-, and cultural values” (Arfwedson & Arfwedson 2002 p 202). I find it surprising that the students’ part of school cultures and school codes is not discussed more explicitly when compared to the emphasis the two teachers in the study at hand put on their students’ influence. Naturally, students’ influence on school cultures somehow goes without saying, but I still want to raise this notion as an open question for a

7 CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this study was to investigate how two teachers working at to different schools perceive school codes and school cultures. I argue that this has been possible to display. The qualitative interview method proved to be a very suitable method in this study. Along the way I have come to the conclusion that the research field of school culture is somewhat narrow and difficult to investigate. But, as presented in my study, there are several ways to display its influences by conducting qualitative interviews. The theories of school culture and school code have functioned as a framework in this study. Without this framework I believe this study would have turned out somewhat unorganized or unstructured. On the other hand, I can see how the theories in a way may have narrowed down the focus of this study, which arguably was a necessity.

School codes always exist in every educational setting even if it is rather difficult to observe. There are many factors that influence teachers’ work in different settings. I argue that newly graduated teachers need an insight of the fact that working as a teacher at a school involves coming across a unique and complex context and that this will affect the way you work. While working with this study I have learned that perceptions are relatively hard to explore, especially when trying to display “atmosphere and sprit”. A person’s perceptions can arguably exist consciously or unconsciously in their mind and to display an atmosphere or a spirit would probably require more advanced qualitative methods, including observations. In this respect, qualitative interviews are limited, yet relevant.

To observe the settings that the teachers reflect on could have helped to display and analyze school cultures and school codes at a more advanced and detailed level. Nevertheless, I argue that qualitative interviewing is a most relevant method in a study of this character. During my work with this investigation I have narrowed down my focus along the way, in order to display as clear connections as possible between the results and the key concepts. But, since school cultures and school codes involve so many factors and actors and affects teachers’ everyday work I believe this field needs to be further explored.

REFERENCES

Literature:

Arfwedson, Gerd B, Arfwedson, Gerhard, 2002 Didaktik för lärare – En bok om

lärares yrke i teori och praktik, 2:a uppl, Stockholm: HLS Förlag

Bjereld, Ulf, Demker, Marie, Hinnfors, Jonas, 2002 Varför vetenskap?, 2:a uppl, Lund: Studentlitteratur

Hatch, Amos J, 2002 Doing qualitative research in education settings, New York: State University of New York Press

Johansson, Bo, Svedner, Per-Olov, 2001 Examensarbetet i lärarutbildningen, Uppsala: Kunskapsföretaget i Uppsala AB

Maltén, Arne, 1997 Pedagogiska frågeställningar, Lund: Studentlitteratur

Persson, Anders (red), 2003 Skolkulturer, Lund: Studentlitteratur

Wiersma, William, Jurs, G.Stephen, 2005 Research methods in education- An

introduction, Boston: Pearson

Internet:

http://www.malmo.se, Malmö Kommun, 2006-05-11 http://www.xxxxxxxxxxx, Municipality X, 2006-05-11

http://www.ne.se, Nationalencyclopedins Internettjänst, 2006-05-09

Other sources:

Interview 2 Rachel (2006-05-04) Pamphlet, The City School, 2003 Pamphlet, The City School, 2001 Leaflet, The Inland School, 2004

Admission statistics, The City School, 2005 Admission statistics, The Inland School, 2005

APPENDIX

Intervjufrågor

1. Din yrkesbakgrund – Var har du jobbat tidigare? Tidigare lärarerfarenheter? 2. Hur påverkar dina tidigare yrkeserfarenheter dig på din nuvarande arbetsplats? 3. På vilket sätt framstår denna skola som annorlunda jämfört med de skolor du tidigare

jobbat på?

4. Hur skulle du beskriva eleverna på denna skola vad det gäller social bakgrund, attityder och uppförande?

5. Hur skulle du beskriva dina elever? Dina kollegor? 6. Din relation till dina kollegor?

7. Upplever du att skolan har en policy som du bör följa? 8. Upplever du läraryrket som ett ensamarbete?

9. Hur skulle du beskriva den skola du är verksam på?

10. Ett citat lyder ”Varje lärare strävar efter att komma till en arbetsplats som motsvarar hans/hennes förväntningar, behov och ambitioner”. Hur ser du på detta?

11. Hur har du formats av att jobba på denna skola? 12. Hur har du fått anpassa dig till denna skola?