Professional culture of teachers

 Professional culture of teachers

ABSTRACT

Professionals/groups require designated and different ways of forming synergies at a specified work place. These linkages help the individuals to operate on a common objectivity, vision and mission (Vangrieken, et.al,2017). Thus the concept of group culture germinates. it’s evident therefore, to notify that these cultures includes, shared beliefs, values, goals, attributes, shared responsibilities and the relevant structures of leadership alongside the information circulations from the top management to the subordinate staff. these factors affect or rather influences the general performance of professionals as well as influencing the intrinsic motivations of workers. The highlighted factors are site specific and vary across institutions and therefore newly recruited professional need to be keenly matriculated and initiated into the systems and synergies. (Carpenter, D. (2015).

                                     Professional culture of teachers

The key embodiments of teachers culture are networks, school culture and general institutional  improvement. The continued evaluation of teacher collaborative network success has proved to be of much  important to the making of a operational school community, the culture and a shared focus on achievement. School cultures are complex labyrinths of underlying ways of working that have been preserved over time as learning stakeholders and administrators work together on establishing a web of collaboration geared towards improved learners performance.(Schein, 1985).

School culture is therefore determined by the values, shared beliefs, and behavior of the various stakeholders within the school’s community and reflects the institutional social virtues.(Groseschl and Doherty, 2000). Factors that affect school culture include policies, procedures and expectations for teaching, learning and student performance(Giles and Hargreaves, 2006 ). To ensure positive School improvement, its key to consider the connections of both learners and other salient learning stakeholders. student achievement have been positively attributed to how successful learning communities are.

Professional learning community   can be linked to committed to working collaboratively in a continuous process of collective reasoning and action aimed at achieving  better results for the served students. Feger and Arruda (2008) and Bolam et al. (2005) highlight the characteristics of effective professional learning communities includes reliable leadership, sense of purpose and values, a collaboration, problem solving and collective reasoning on teaching and learning and continuous improvement of the institution.

Institutional leadership is instrumental in providing  structure for professional learning communities while also providing genuine advice for teachers to problem solve within the institution (DuFour et al., 2008). This sense of shared leadership requires administrators at schools to provide consistent professional developmental knowledge on proper functional professional learning community practice (Chapman and Harris, 2004; DuFour et al., 2008). according to Hord,(1997), school leadership systems are internalized and are deeply embedded in the institutional functioning. therefore, sub-ordinate teachers tend to follow the example of their seniors. if leaders of  the learning institution negates or withdraws themselves deliberately from daily functioning of the school, the minors also are demoralized and the general shared goal of improved performance is frustrated.(Hord,1997).

conclusion

As evident, this profession requires proper integration of all stakeholders in efforts to achieve a common-set goal of quality students’ performance. this therefore encompasses all functioning, existing leadership patterns in the institution, levels of relevant motivation and overall efforts by all learning actors. for a  professional learning communities to be effective and meet the overall visional  purposes described by schools, leadership is required to ensure the provisional of supportive and shared leadership structures that promote effective collaboration and therefore teacher doing real work in schools. Real teacher work must directly impact student achievement (DuFour et al., 2008). Given the demands on schools to increase student achievement, there is a need for school leaders to build  teachers leadership skills by providing training and evaluation. this promotion process will help leaders focus on increasing student achievement, quality and enhance teachers’ motivation.