The new principal and the diagnosis of school culture

• Main Author: Craythorn, Vincent Martin
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: School principals - South Africa; School administrators - Rating of; School personnel management - South Africa; Schools - South Africa - Management
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/10903

M.Ed. (Education Management) === Taking up the first principalship is a demanding career transition involving emergency professional development, not only for the new principal to move from the role of teacher and administrator, but for him to successfully diagnose a new culture. The degree of success that a new principal -has in discovering, understanding, developing further and managing a new school culture within the first year of his appointment, will determine his overall effectiveness in managing the new school. Against this background, the focus of this research paper will be to identify and define school culture. Included here will be a discussion of what constitutes culture, the process of acculturation, the influence of sub-cultures and the impediment of culture on both management and change. The role of the new principal in managing and where necessary changing existing culture in a school is described in this paper. The problem areas likely to be encountered and the solutions to these problems are also discussed. A strategy is proposed to assist future new principals with the problem of managing existing culture in the school. Divided into three parts, the strategy assist the new principal to read the existing culture of the school. Secondly, it proposes that the new principal follows a collaborative process for the review of and transformation of existing school culture. The final part of the strategy is to revise and establish innovative communication networks to ensure the strategy's overall success.