Commentary – The “KSL” school culture slot machine

Asking the questions that matter

Asking the questions that matter is an art form which Karen Seashore Louis has perfected over many years. Go to her overview piece to read more about her journey as a scholar. In it she identifies the “knots” the real-world experiences that seemed ripe for exploration and the “strings”: the theories that have helped give meaning to those knots.

Sharon Kruse and Jeff Walls sketch out some key elements of Karen's prolific oeuvre. Its the scope of her analysis which makes her contribution to the field so distinctive: the ways in which she has drawn on organisational theory to provide rich insights into how schools operate as organisations; her recognition of leadership as an active and developmental process; her facility for not only asking “why” leaders do things but also “how”.

The “why”, “what” and “how” questions matter for leaders, at every stage of their career. Meeting with a group of fledgling leaders recently I ask them, “Why do most children and young people start school with joy and enthusiasm and yet many drop out or come to feel alienated or excluded?” This question puzzles them, particularly if their own school experiences have been positive. The question “What kind of leader do you want to be?” flummoxes the whole group. “You mean, we have choices?”

The breadth and depth of Karen Seashore Louis's work helps clarify what some of those choices are. Her analysis enables us to understand more about why some schools fail and some succeed. It reminds us that a school is just a building. What matters is what goes on inside, and how the inside connects to the outside (the community).

Seeing through the looking glass

It's all about school culture but getting the culture right is far from easy. This is why developing tools and perspectives that enable educators to make sense of how to do this complex task is so important. Torres Clark and Janet Chrispeels undertake this task with clarity and purpose. Using a “multiple frames” structure, they signpost the culturally responsive leadership practices and behaviours that can make a difference, particularly in schools serving impoverished or marginalised communities. Their analysis serves to highlight those features of learning, relationships, trust and collaborative intent that can help bring communities into the frame.

A key factor that makes a difference is collaboration and Moosung Lee, Jin Won Kim, Youngmin Mo and Allan Walker home in on the notion of professional learning communities: an area in which Karen Seashore Louis, along with Louise Stoll, have made significant contributions (Stoll and Louis, 2007). The quartet of researchers demonstrates their analytical craft by mapping the instruments and methodologies which have been used in a range of studies on professional learning communities. Their “tools to take the school temperature” approach is a wonderful source of information for aspiring masters or doctoral students, as they carve out their thesis proposals.

It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it

I recently had a discussion with a friend about the difference between an “A+” and an “A−” school leader. (Forgive the grading rating!) Through their four rich case studies, Molly Gordon and Holly Hart provide us with wonderfully nuanced data which enables us to see something of the gap between the two. The “A+” leader goes beyond the technical and walks their leadership in an ongoing process which is about making connections and building trust. The positive school culture or climate that emerges from this leadership walk finds expression in a shared vision of what is possible.

The OECD's Andreas Schleicher argues that “a positive school climate is difficult to define and measure”, adding that when you see it, you recognise it (OECD, 2019, p. 47). This certainly was the case for me in Chile, in a research inquiry aimed at identifying what leaders of public schools – serving communities facing many tough social and economic challenges – can do to make the difference (Riley et al., 2016). We found schools where the determination of the principals to create places of belonging and learning pervaded. These leaders loved their students, had a strong belief that the young people would succeed (and they did). They knew the names of everyone in the local community – and in one instance even the dogs too – and were compassionate about the life challenges which many families faced.

This story from Chile leads me to wonderful “Jessica” who appears in the article on social justice leadership by Bodunrin Nanwo, Muhammad Khalifa and Karen Seashore Louis. Jessica leads a district-wide team whose task is to enable the key players, in the local school system and in schools and their communities, to work towards “organizational fairness”, in ways that have meaning to all concerned, particularly those whose voices have long been ignored. Jessica's actions are overt but non-judgemental. She uses her “soft power” and wisdom to build relationships and to encourage critical self-reflection in ways that can help grow inclusive and positive school cultures. “Jessica” I award you and your colleagues the “Riley Gold Star Leadership Medal”. It does not say “trust in me”.

Trust in me

Trust is key. It allows conflicts to emerge and understandings to grow. Trust of course is hard to gain and easy to lose (Louis, 2007; Bryk and Schneider, 2015). Yet in our uncertain world, trust has become a precious commodity, and the practice of trust building an essential leadership activity.

Reviewing the democratic governance of schools, Olaf Johansson and Helen Arlestig encourage us to look more carefully at the “intervening spaces” in any education system. These are the spaces where different “players” operate, asserting their power and responsibility to shape and interpret policy. The authors map the levels and the relationships at national, intermediary and school levels. The “players” are from regulatory bodies, elected organisations, teacher unions, interest and community groups and, of course, from schools. At every level, there is “space” for procrastination, yet equally too, there is the opportunity to build collaboration and shared sense-making.

This analysis leads to an important question, “How can you create a dialogue in these intervening spaces, in ways that help build consensus and shared understanding?” The authors conclude that it is the responsibility of each player, as a leader in their own sphere of influence, to interpret their own meanings and mission in ways that can be understood by others. This is the part of the practice of trust building.

In an internationally orientated book on Leadership and Change which Karen Seashore Louis and I co-edited some years ago, we wrote about the lack of shared understanding about the complexities of the change process, as well as the challenges of deciding whose views count when the different actors do not agree (Riley and Louis, 2000). These issues were illuminated in one of my all-time favourite case studies, “Celebration School” which describes how the Disney Corporation's ambitious attempt to create a school culture from the bottom up goes badly wrong when the main actors fall out and trust breaks down (Borman et al., 2020). I am still waiting for the film.

All change

The “all change” theme touches on what has changed, as well as what still needs to change. In providing a historical overview, Andy Hargreaves offers further testimony to the significance of Karen Seashore Louis' contribution to our understanding of how schools function as organisations and how leaders enact their role. He maps the various attempts made over a number of years, to crack that organisational tough nut, “the America High School”, and goes on to identify the features of a range of successful networks, collaborations and social movements that have brought about significant improvement and even transformation.

This final “all change” strapline also leads to the kinds of question which many educators are struggling with today. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and an uncertain and unstable world:

1. How can we accelerate the process of change in schools?

2. How can we create schools which are safe and secure environments for young people, places where they feel they belong?

3. And what do we know about the kinds of leaders that are needed to enable this to happen?

Leadership has always been an uncertain and messy business, and no more so than today. The reality of the future is unknown and unknowable. Attempts to find certainty when there is none adds to the stress. It is hard for leaders to feel safe and secure when they do not “know” what is to come. The new leadership challenge is how to lead others into, and through, the unknown.

This is something which Karen Seashore Louis has turned her attention to over recent years. Working in collaboration with Mark Smylie and Joe Murphy, her journey has led her to the notion of caring leadership. Caring leadership, these three scholars argue, is a moral endeavour – a dynamic ministry – and a highly relational and place-based activity, driven by deep wells of compassion (Smylie et al., 2020, 2021).

Compassion is the super-glue that can bring school leaders, staff, families and communities together. It is the ingredient which has the potential to redress some of the imbalances and inequities revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Compassion brings joy to the lives of young people, creating bonds and friendships in a shared community of learners (Riley, 2022).

My own work has taught me much about the practice of compassionate leadership, as well as the features of compassionate schools and school systems. I have come to conclude that system approaches which rely on mechanisms of order and control, over-rigid testing regimes and hard line, sanction-driven behaviour management approaches are long past their sell-by date. Young people tend to be happier, more confident and perform better academically in schools where they have a sense of belonging. Their teachers feel more professionally fulfilled and valued and families more connected (Riley, 2022).

In my final session with the fledgling school leaders I discussed earlier, I suggested them that whether a school becomes a place of belonging or a closed place where young people are ostracised by a clique, and staff feel unappreciated is shaped by the leadership. I asked this next generation of school leaders who come from many parts of the globe, “What kind of school do you want to lead?” Their insightful responses about connectivity and belonging, personal and social responsibility, creative endeavour, equity and social justice and global citizenship leave me with a deep well of optimism about the future.

Schools can and should be places of welcome, possibility and connectedness. Karen Seashore Louis' powerful professional contribution is to show how, organisationally, this is possible and to signal the actions, behaviours and values of leaders that can help move school cultures in that direction. I hope that the “goodies” in The KSL School Culture Slot Machine have given you a flavour of her legacy, and how it can be applied.