Improvement Culture in a "Beating the Odds" U.S. Urban High School: Mapping an Emotional Ecology

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Abstract

Drawing on findings from a multi-year ethnographic study, this paper examines the cultural and organizational characteristics which underlay a “beating the odds” U.S. urban high school’s improvement efforts. The study contextualizes these processes in the everyday work of staff members and school leaders during a time period when the school was struggling to implement a district-mandated push-in inclusion policy. The paper demonstrates how key shared meanings and organizational practices built collective efficacy among staff members and enabled the school to successfully integrate the policy. It also shows how key components of the school’s emotion culture were involved throughout, especially in motivation, confidence, and social and institutional bonding.

Author

• Peter Demerath, University of Minnesota