preview

The Subculture Within The School Culture

Good Essays

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people. It is learned and transmitted from one generation to the next. Culture will change as situations and the needs of people change. A school environment itself constitutes a subculture within a larger society. Each school has a culture of its own, like a minuscule society. The school culture reflects the community in which the school is located and its students’ characteristics. This will consist of the values, attitudes, beliefs, norms, and customs of those making the system. This is because of the racial and socioeconomic segregation of residential communities. A school’s culture is formed by its history context and the individuals in it. Each school has a …show more content…

This is when administrator’s actions need to be examined in an effort to ensure that their decisions are in the best interest of the students. For instance, Arizona’s School District had come under examination from a federal court case and by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights over their methods of identifying students in need of ELL services. Arizona’s pull-out program provides a four-hour pull-out session for ELL students. Many argued that “the pull-out sessions deprived students of educational content they needed” (Ballentine & Hammack, 2012, p. 114). Shedding light on this information allowed Arizona’s School District to re-assess their practices to ensure that it was best practice. Also, it permits the administrators to make any necessary modifications.
Next, we will discuss the teacher subculture of a school environment. Teachers are an important “subculture since they make the most contact with students” (Ballentine & Hammack, 2012, p. 216). The culture that is set by the teacher impacts the learning process by either helping students thrive or be unsuccessful. Also, the subculture that includes teachers can be further broken down into grade levels, content areas, or length of service. For instance, an inexperienced teacher will not immediately be included in the subculture of seasoned teachers. It will take time for him/her to be accepted into that subculture. A new teacher who tries to be too friendly to students may receive sanctions from

Get Access