BUILDING & SUSTAINING POSITIVE SCHOOL CULTURE: A CASE STUDY ON HOW EDUCATIONAL LEADERS CREATE & FOSTER SCHOOL CULTURE

Abstract

Building and sustaining positive school culture significantly enhances the overall healthy and conducive culture of teaching and learning process. This study therefore examines the process through which educational leaders cultivate and maintain such cultures and what the literature points out as its major components. This research explores the different ways these leaders deploy to foster student participation, teacher interactions and community participation, which is actually scenarios-dependent. The study employed case study which is a qualitative research method through conducting semi-structure interviews with ten educational leaders from ten different secondary level public schools in North Sindh, besides observing school environments including taking field notes in order to corroborate the findings. Despite some challenges affecting leadership in education, the study identifies ways, manners and measures that visionary leaders use to provide effective leadership in schools such as communication, decision-making, teacher learning communities and student voice initiatives. They also engage the parents, community agencies, and other stakeholders to forge successful systems of support. Furthermore, the findings call for attention to the dire need of positive school culture in terms of stimulating student engagement, enhanced teacher morale, and better performance. Study also offers some useful insights for leaders and policy makers in terms of enhancing leadership skills. Overall, this paper offers a way forward towards successfully building and sustaining positive school culture.