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- Anita Lie
- Prof. Dr. Anita Lie mendapatkan gelar Doktor Pendidikan dalam bidang kurikulum dan pengajaran dari Baylor University, Amerika Serikat pada 1994. Pada 1996 dia menjadi dosen tamu di SEAMEO RELC, Singapore. Dia juga pernah menjadi dosen tamu di beberapa universitas di antaranya Kwansei Gakuin, Fu Jen University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ateneo University dan De La Salle University, University of Brunei Darussalam, Universiti Putra Malaysia dan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Dia mendapatkan penghargaan The Rotary International Ambassador of Good Will dan 2000 SEAMEO Jasper Fellowship Award dari pemerintah Kanada untuk kategori penelitian terbaik. Saat ini, Anita Lie berkarya sebagai Direktur EduBusiness Consulting (www.edubusiness.info), dosen di Universitas Katolik Widya Mandala, Surabaya. Anita Lie menulis artikel-artikel untuk media massa serta buku-buku pendidikan di antaranya 101 Cara Menumbuhkan Rasa Percaya Diri Anak, 101 Cara Mengembangkan Kecerdasan Anak, 101 Cara Menumbuhkan Kemandirian dan Tanggung Jawab Anak, Cooperative Learning, English via Environmental Education, Building Bridges, dan Beyond the Classroom.
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Culture and climate of the working institution are parts that are usually considered for some employees before deciding to get involved in the institution. School, as one of working institution,also considers this point. Teachers, as the employers in the schools, become the party who mostly analyze and " judge" the culture and climate of the school where they work.
Normally, an employee will enjoy working in an institution if the culture and climate are good, so will the teachers. Having a good and constructive culture and climate at school becomes the expectation of all teachers. As the leader of the school in the highest position structurally, principal carries this responsibility. There are several things that a principal can do to build a constructive culture and climate such as :
a. avoiding " alienated situation "
There are some studies show that recently money and wealth are no longer at the 1st priority of the employees to feel comfortable in their job. They will be happier if they are " heard ". Applicatively, it means that the principal listens to all opinion without cornering anyone. When the principal listens and respects the opinion stated, the teachers will not feel that they are the alient of the school that are not known.
b. opening the opportunity to all teachers equally.
A person will feel " I am someone " if they can show his potential. Therefore, the principal should be smart in knowing the talent of the teachers and then give the chance/ responsibility equally. Let the teachers show who they are and what they can do.
c. Orientating both on tasks and relation.
A good principal should focus equally on the achievement and process. By doing it, teachers will try their best to achieve the goal and at the same time, they have a good relationship with the principal. Without being forced, they will accomplish their job well. The principal should be able to get related with the teachers, "throwing away" the label of " boss".
d. Praising and Reminding
Everyone loves to be praised. If the teachers do something perfectly, the principal can just praise them. On the other hand, when they make mistake, principal should remind them personally so that they can improve themselves. It is a " reminding " not a " judging ".
Applying those things, a constructive culture and climate will be obtained.
Dian - 8212708012
To build a constructive school’s culture and climate, a principal should:
1. Know well about the existing climate of the school, including how the present situation is. Besides, he/she should know exactly all the teachers, staff, and students’ condition in order to be able to make decision-what steps to do next.
2. maintain good human relations (for the sake of trust and cooperation culture) by encouraging teachers to cooperate with each other (teamwork)
3. Enrich the teachers’ and staff’ knowledge. A good principal should be the best leader for the teachers. I believe that a principal should be aware of the quality of the teachers. S/he must know how to up-grade the teachers’ knowledge by giving them training or scholarship.
4. Set high expectations. Setting goals and deadline, also expectations for all the school stakeholders is a must. By setting high expectations, the climate and the culture of the school would be better than before since everyone would be motivated to change.
5. Give ‘constructive’ feedbacks. Feedback is very important, so that teachers, staff, and students know how well they are. Immediate feedback will overcome conflicts and hesitations. The challenge is that how should the principal deliver his feedbacks. The one should have a good communication skill.
6. Have ‘patience’. As a principal, he should be careful and patient in dealing with complaints, conflict, or problems which may come from parents, students, or other stakeholders. Everything should be dealt with patience and unemotionally. Since a principal brings the image of the school that s/he leads, being careless or taking emotional actions will be a threat for the school itself.
7. Have a good interpersonal skill. The principal should be able to reach ‘consensus’ for every dispute or conflict. So that, every decision will be taken for the best goals for everyone.
8. Give reward or appreciations. Rewards can be manifested in various things or actions, not always ‘material things’, such as certificates, awards, promotion, training, or even gracing words would motivate the school’s stakeholders to create the constructive climate.
In conclusion, a principal should know about the school and its stakeholders as well as s/he knows himself. The school is like his own family. He should take care of everyone involved wisely The most important thing is that the principal is like the ‘father’ and the school is like his children, so he should give a good ’model’ first. He should be able to walk the talk. Thus, the culture and the climate will be constructive.
By Beatrice (26)
What should a principal do to create a constructive culture and climate in school. Hmm... it is really interesting. First of all, the principal himself should be the main actor of it. He should be a model of constructive doer. It means do the morally correct thing and avoid any kind of thing that is sensitive for the others. Secondly he should be able to know what culture his subordinates have. By knowing their culture, the principal will know what behavior he will do in dealing with the teachers. Furthermore he should not discriminate someone's culture since it will make him/her feels reluctant towards the principal. The third is that a principal should be one of the people who maintains the condusive atmosphere. Usually a school may change its principal for several times. A new principal should have the ability to observe and consider the walking culture in school he just hold. If the culture is good he must be the one who maintains it. If he has some more good things to be added in it, go ahead. If the old culture is bad he has to change it by being the model for it. In conclusion, culture is a sensitive thing if you are wise enough it will be a helpful tool to create a conductive atmosphere otherwise it will create chaotic surrounding where people may feel reluctant.
To build a constructive school culture and climate, a principal should:
1.Develop personal relationships with staff, students and parents.
There are some factors that contribute to the culture of a school that should be noticed such as: operating agreements, relationships among the staff including the teaching staff and administration. A principal should always improve collegial and collaborative activities that in turn promote better communication and problem solving.
Teachers would always appreciate having the support of the principal to assist with discipline issues and to get involved with parents when situations become difficult. The presence of a principal is reassuring to staff. My fellow friend said that he felt comfortable when he saw a principal presence at the staff’s room and had a chat with teachers. The principal should act with care and concern for others.
2. Perform modeling positive behaviors.
Modeling positive behaviors makes a tremendous impact on relationships with staff, students and parents. Maintaining a professional attitude and role modeling behaviors that expecting staff and students to demonstrate. For example: Simple things such as taking the time to chat with staff about personal matters, keeping communication open, facilitating a staff development opportunity, writing a thank card to someone, making a good news phone call to a parent, having food at a staff meeting, not discriminating any religions or even apologizing if someone makes a mistake, – all that makes a huge difference in a school.
3.Maintain safety and discipline atmosphere.
"Safety and discipline are really important to the tone of the school. We can’t learn or teach if we don’t feel safe or secure. We need to have respect for ourselves, each other and our surroundings”. The atmosphere also comes from what is happening in the building, how people work together, whether people are collaborating, are adaptable to new ideas and changes.
4. Building commitment and helping students and teachers identify with the school, focusing attention and daily behaviors on what is important and valued
School as an organization is really not a kind of individual-work product but a team-work product. Ads a team-work organization, it needs structure , system, leader, staff and of course facilities. All aspects must be well coordinated in order to produce the best result. The principal as the top management in this organization is the one who must be responsible in coordinating those aspects to build up a constructive school culture and climate.
There are three levels of Organization Culture that must be built up by the principal:
1. Culture as a Shared Norms.
It is the basic elements of school that is usually unwritten and informal and they can influence the school members’ behaviours that will that will be retold by the following generations. For example: a) being ready to give students extra help b) not criticizing others , c)supporting each others, etc. As the leader, the principal should maintain and improve those activities.
2. Culture as a Shared Values.
It depicts the basic characters of school and gives the school a sense of identity. This is the value that is desired by the school members in order to be successful in the organization. The principal should be open to receive the teachers’ and students’ ideas so they trust each others to maintain the intimacy for constructing cooperation to build a team-work.
3. Culture as Tacit Assumption.
It is a kind of abstract premises about Human Relationship, Human Nature, and Environment. The principal should be the model that individuals at school must be responsible, motivated and capable of doing their jobs and of course they must feel that they are a family that love each others.
To keep and maintain the good school climate, the principal should reflect a basic concern for teachers by using constructive criticism, complimenting teachers who do great jobs, listening and accepting teachers’ suggestions.
Indah Noor Aini
8212708018
I realize that to change school’s culture and climate is a very hard task to do. Culture and climate in a school connected closely with the people involved in the school’s life. Those who work in a school for a very long time usually do not like changes. It will take a long time and great effort to change those people, and sometimes to no avail. However, I still believe that it can be done.
In my opinion, the first task that he/she should do is to found out about the existing climate in the school. If there are areas that need to be changed, then he/she could make a plan on how to change those. The tools that can be used to make changes are the school’s rules, teachers’ education development programs, rotation for teachers based on their weaknesses and strengths, the clarity of the rules and expectation, getting people involve in the decision making process, and give the same opportunity to every person working in the school based on the merits each one made. I will explain a little more for each point.
Teachers’ education development program is a very important program in my opinion. In Surabaya International School, every teacher is given a chance to further their education. As we, educators know that education can build up minds and character. By giving this chance, the school gives the opportunity for the teacher to grow as individual and professional. The school itself will take the benefit from it by having teacher with better education.
Rotation for teachers is used at the beginning of the school year, only if it is necessary. The purpose of the rotation is to move teachers to a better position that suited his or her strength. This is only happened if the principal has a teacher who showed that he or she did not perform as he or she should, or if he or she had problems in the previous years. However, it depends on how the principal executed this rotation. If he or she can do it with clear directions or information about the expectation before hands, then it may run smoothly and the teachers involve will not feel dissatisfied.
The clarity of the rules and expectation is an important part in any organization. Without clear expectation, employees will not be able to perform well and give their effort to the goals as expected by the school. The rules and expectation has to be informed to the employees at the beginning of the school year. Then, the employees will be able to direct their effort to fulfill the school expectation.
In the process of decision making, a principal can assemble committees consists of teachers and other people that will be affected or may give a good contribution in the decision. For example, a principal can assemble a technology committee that consists of technology teachers, the administrators, the IT staff, and people who have interest in the development of the technology in the school. Instead of the principal only responsibility, by involving teachers, the principal has empowered teachers in the development of the technology at school.
Opportunities at school have to be opened to everyone. In an education institution, the principal should not be subjective in giving the opportunity for teachers. Opportunities should be open to anybody who wants and shows effort to reach it. If not jealously will arise among the employees, and it will create destructive climate in the school.
In conclusion, even though changing a school’s culture and climate is difficult, and yet there are some tools that a principal can use to create changes toward a more constructive school culture and climate.
Retno Indrasari
8212708014
Ranto Sarindo Hinsa
Making a school culture and climate is not an easy job because we deal with people. Their ideas and thought can be changed in every second. As a leader in the school, she/he must be wise and be patient. As I ever said that my secondary grade 10-12 principal had a great method (I think..). He will spend times in the morning before we start the activities only for saying hello or asking our condition. He does that because he wants to know more about his teachers. I think this is really a great example for all of us. He also will give a hand every time we need help from him and his door is always open. From this example, I can say to build a school culture and climate, the leaders in school must do :
1. Be the real example ; I am teaching Maths and my students will be able to solve the problems after I give examples. So, the leaders must (not only has to ) do actions in front of his teachers. I will be followed later on.
2. Listen more and talk-less; when teachers come to see the leaders, we must pay attention to their sharing or opinions. Let them talk first until they finish to share their problems and then we talk.
3. High Expectation but not pushing ; I know it's really difficult. On the other hand we put a high expectation about one thing to teachers but we do not push them for it. It looks like playing kites, we know when should we pull or release.
4. Appreciate and give positive statement towards the teachers tasks ; Some principals or leaders will be easy angrily if teachers make mistakes but they forget to give an appreciation when the tasks are well done. As a subject leader in my math team, I give my appreciation for those who do their tasks well but I will give a positive statement for those who fail. By doing this one, I hope they will try to do their best for the next tasks.
5. Feedback ; I believe that teachers need feedback or comments about their performance in school or in class. It's really importance to make the culture nicely.
I believe we can do many good things to build up a school culture and climate better. But, the most important thing is to understand the people who work with us. Knowing them well will make the environment be a conducive situation.
Eric Sulindra W (MPBI batch 12)/ 2nd assignment
To build a constructive school culture and climate is a process, taking time, patience, energy, and all the ‘self resources’ which a principal has. What I mean is that building a constructive school culture and climate is more than applying a set of ‘good tips’ such as ‘the 3 keys to build a constructive school culture and climate’ or ‘ the 5 simple tips of building a constructive school culture and climate’ or such other tips and keys. Building a constructive school culture and climate takes all the ‘self resources’ of a principal, the principal’ life long commitment and character. Sounding too idealistic, but many researchers in human resource development have found that a leader’s character is the main factor of the ‘rising’ and ‘falling’ of an ‘empire’. If a principal is to build a constructive school culture and climate, he or she firstly must have the constructive self commitment and character him/ herself.
Constructive self commitment means a commitment to anything constructive and whatever building the school climate and culture. An example to see if a principal is self committed to build a constructive climate and culture is this one; when there is an international seminar about education and the foundation asks the principal to send someone. The principal will easily send him or herself, but a principal who really wants to build a constructive culture and climate will find out who is the best candidate to send concerning to the topic of the international seminar. This is not idealistic, (I mean, the principal will not be dying if he or she does not go abroad, right?) but takes the principal’s commitment to a constructive climate and culture. Say, if the principal takes a decision based not on the commitment, nobody knows. (There is always a reason.) However, if the principal does it repeatedly and it becomes a habit, soon or later everybody will notice. (Human being is created with an inherent ability to recognize pattern of anything.) When the teachers and staff notice that the decision at school is always made based on personal interest, not a commitment to build constructive culture and climate, the school’s culture and climate will not be constructive anymore.
Self commitment is related to one’s character, not one’s knowledge about character. If a principal wants a long lasting constructive culture and climate in his or her school, building his/ her personal character is not a choice, but an absolute task. Of course replacing character with money (especially for a well funded organization) to build a constructive school climate and culture is one shortcut, but the effect will not stand for long. When a principal resigns, what is left on the teachers’ and staff’s mind is not how much money the school has got, but mostly, the principal’s character. The recognition of the principal’s character, the memory about it, they are the ones which build the school’s culture and climate. If the memory and recognition are filled with constructive things, the culture and climate will be constructive.
I realize that none is born with a perfect constructive character. A character takes a life long work out and exercise. However, practicing a constructive character, with what ever result might come up (it can be very good, good, not too good, or still in progress), will surely, I mean it, surely give a constructive effect (in various degree, but still constructive) to the school’s culture and climate.
Talking about culture and climate in a working institution brings me to my past life how I decided the workplace I would join in. I would mostly use my intuition to feel the atmosphere of my intended workplace by analyzing how people greet and communicate each other. In my point of view, culture and climate of an institution can be seen and felt once we step on the place we are in.
Due to this overview, a principal should build a constructive culture and climate by:
1. Having a sense of belonging
Considering that we will spend one third of our time in workplace, it seems that the workplace can be our second home. Therefore, we have to create a comfortable atmosphere with an assumption that this condition will make us feel safe when doing our job. Having a sense of belonging itself will give a notion that everybody bound in the institution will hand in hand to precede the convenient feeling in a workplace.
As a leader, a principal must be a part of any rules constructed to perform his/her sense of belonging in a real practice. By this chance, teachers and staffs will see him/her to be a model how to follow the rules as agreed. If teachers and staffs walk aside the principal to warm this ‘second home’, the culture and climate of the school will be good.
2. Establishing a mutual close relationship among teachers and staffs.
As a principal, s/he should get involved in every program done at school since there is a tendency that a principal prefers assigning the job and demanding the good result to involving in planning and conducting the program. Even though a principal is structurally a leader, yet s/he can sit equally with his/her subordinate. Therefore, the subordinates can feel the warmth of his/her leadership and s/he becomes the trustworthy person who can be a leader, a problem solver and a colleague.
Whoever comes to the school, I believe, can feel the warm and comfortable atmosphere since there are a sense of belonging owned by the principal, teachers and staffs and a close relationship that unconsciously occurs in the way everybody communicate and work together. These ideas lead to the happening of a constructive culture and climate at school. Great and constructive habitual activities performed by a principal and teachers will result a tremendous effect.
Esti - 8212708009
A constructive school culture and climate is actually the results from a lot of parties’ behavior, effort, and background, including those of students, teachers, parents, surrounding communities, systems, rules, and principals. However vast the influence, at least a principal, as a part of the influence, can do the following things to promote a constructive school culture and climate:
a. Maintain a good and personal relationship with all teachers and staff. There is no way a school culture and climate can be constructive if there is no good personal relationship. As a leader, a principal should initiate and work on this.
b. Be a leader of integrity who set an example for all members of the school. If a principal can set an example of promoting good culture and climate, teachers, staff, and students will notice and do the same thing.
c. Set expectation of the supposed culture and climate so everyone goes to the same direction of achieving it. When people are expected, they are likely to try to achieve that expectation.
-Fanni Leets-
A principal has an important role to build a constructive school culture and climate.
First, s/he should have good relationship with all elements of school such as teachers, staffs, students and even janitors. If they feel the culture and climate are good, they can enjoy working in that school and have sense of belonging.
Second, a principal should be a good model of leader although no one is perfect. A principal should give example in the form of performance, how to socialize, communicate, interact, share ideas, and face the problem.
Third, be a good listener and does not judge someone only from his/ her own sight. We realize that we can not avoid problem since we have to deal with others. When someone at school has a problem, a good principal can see it from his/ her face and attitude. Suppose, there is a teacher has a confict with other teacher. A principal should ask the people to share the problem personally and listen more and make a win-win solution without judging from his/ her own view. It seems that a principal will determine that a school can run well or not.
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