FROM ISOLATION TO COLLABORATION:
THE EMERGENCE OF A COLLABORATIVE CULTURE
IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL
Timothy M. Gabauer, Ed.D.
University of Pittsburgh, 2005
Advisor: Joseph S. Werlinich
The landscape of American education is constantly changing. The most current trend that is dominating the field is accountability that resonates throughout the entire organization. Accountability becomes one of the six change indicators that provide the framework for the study. This study recognizes a middle school that has seen success in changing from what Richard Elmore defines as a default culture to one that supports collaboration and a focus on student achievement. The foundation of this study is to analyze the change indicators and to determine their influence on moving the culture of the middle school out of its crisis and into its more productive realm. The indicators identified as positive contributors to the cultural transformation are Staff Changes, Accountability Measures, Renovations, Middle School Merger, Leadership and Educational Programming. The use of qualitative research and the semi-structured interviewing process known as Responsive Interview Model highlight the inner most thoughts and feelings relating to the dissertation question. The interview data was analyzed by organizing the responses into unanimous, supported and individual themes. A survey derived
from the probing questions along with a rank order of the indicators provided a triangulation of data that validates the overwhelming results of the study. The value of the leadership is underscored in each data collection and becomes the primary influence in moving the building culture forward. Palestinis principles of effective leaders is the framework chosen in the final chapter to highlight the importance of leadership in cultural change as well as depict the strong relationship between the collected data and those identified principles. This study shows a positive correlation of each indicator in the cultural change and supports the abundant research on the role of the leadership as most critical in promoting effective change in any organization.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08052005-143300 |
| Date | 09 August 2005 |
| Creators | Gabauer, Timothy M. |
| Contributors | Dr. Richard Seckinger, Dr. Shirley A. Golofski, Dr. Joseph S. Werlinich, Dr. Sean Hughes, Dr. Sue Goodwin, Dr. Otto Graf |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08052005-143300/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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