Cultural Audits

I would like to critically discuss the statement by Williamson & Blackburn (2009) that “A cultural audit can help educational leaders assess the existing culture and develop a shared commitment to high-quality educational experience for every student/person” (p.62).  Firstly I will talk about the importance of conducting cultural audits in schools.  Secondly, I will discuss different methods that can be used to assess culture.  Finally I will talk about the importance that culture plays in providing high-quality educational experiences for students. 

Blackburn and Williamson (2009) state that “culture reflects the complex set of values, traditions, assumptions, and patterns of behavior that are present in a school” (p.60).  Cultural audits are an effective tool to measure the quality of the school environment.  Nelson et al. (2008) discuss how cultural audit data is able to comprehensively provide advice and guidance on what is working well within a school and what needs to be developed. Deal and Kennedy (1988) also talk about how conducting a cultural audit helps to identify strengths and weaknesses and enables leaders to pinpoint areas for growth and development.  I have been able to do this at Hinuera School, identifying areas of strength and areas to be developed.  I was also able to plan professional learning based on this information.

There are a range of different ways that a cultural audit can be conducted.  Roach and Kratochwill (2004) discuss the importance of selecting assessment instruments that measure what you are trying to evaluate.  Williamson and Blackburn (2009) state that “an audit can be as simple as a quick assessment of current activities and routines or it can be a complex, comprehensive evaluation” (p.61).  Observations, surveys, questionnaires, artifacts and working with consultants are all ways in which a cultural audit can be conducted.  A cultural audit should be conducted based on what you are wanting to assess.  Williamson and Blackburn (2009) also suggest looking at Bolman and Deals (2017) four indicators of culture.  Previously I have wanted to assess the quality of our leadership team so chose to create a cultural audit based on the Ministry of Education (2018) Educational Leadership Capability Framework. I was also able to examine Bolman and Deals (2017) four indicators of culture in relation to Hinuera School in part two of this assignment.

Culture has an important impact on the outcomes for learners and the ability for schools to provide high quality educational experiences for students.  Leaders should be the first to critically examine school culture and make plans for change based on their findings (Argyris, 1991; Argyris, 1999; Deal and Kennedy, 2000; Schein, 1992; Testa & Sipe, 2013).  Taking part in cultural audits is one of the ways to assess the quality of the culture and what you do with the data gathered is how you can impact on the learning environment to ensure that educational experiences are quality for students.  People who take part in cultural audits are more likely to be invested in change and building their professional capacity because they were part of the process (Hoerr, 2004; Giles & Hargreaves, 2006). The professional development session that was planned for the leadership team was based on the findings from the cultural audit, encouraged discussion and working together to form ideas to add to our strategic plan.  When planning this session it was important that I did not include learning based on the assumptions that I had made, but solely based on the audit data.  Ensuring that my assumptions and judgments remained out of the professional learning will impact on the engagement in the tasks from the leadership team (Deal and Kennedy 1988; Fevre et al.  2014; Gruenert and Whitaker, 2015).  High performing leadership impacts on school culture and educational experiences for students (Argyris, 1991; Argyris, 1999; Deal and Kennedy, 2000). 

Deal and Kennedy (2000) state that “culture may well be the key factor influencing whether a company succeeds or fails” (p.40).  When leaders conduct a cultural audit, in an area which they would like to develop, using the data gathered to plan professional learning and co-construction of knowledge and ideas for change is an effective way to ensure high quality educational experiences for students in the school setting.

“The culture audit essentially serves as a comprehensive means for assessing school-wide cultural competence by identifying strengths and need areas to guide strategic planning efforts (Nelson et al., 2008, p.215).