| Significant data exists to support teacher professional development and a positive school culture as important components of school reform and school restructuring for improved student learning outcomes. This study investigated the ways that professional development and school culture interrelate to enhance or serve as barriers to each other, and to the larger goals of school improvement and improved student learning outcomes.; This study is a replication of a dissertation completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Education Administration Department in 1996 by Jay Scribner. Dr. Scribner studied professional development in large urban high schools. This qualitative study was conducted instead, in three Middle Schools in non-urban districts in Wisconsin. The following research questions formed the framework for the study; (1) What are the ways teachers experience their own professional learning and development? (2) What are the ways teachers experience school as a workplace? (3) What is the relationship between school culture and professional development?; This study found evidence that school culture and professional development form a complex, intertwined and inextricable web. Principals and district administrators have opportunities to influence and shape the culture of the school and the way teachers experience school as a workplace. One of the single most critical changes a leader can make to improve the way teachers experience work is to make the planning of teacher learning collaborative and influenced more by teachers themselves. The history of the school, especially the history of collaboration or control, shared decision making or teacher/administrator power-struggles, is an important force in determining school culture. School culture and work context factors, including the way professional development was planned, district initiatives, organizational structures, district leadership, school leadership, resources for professional development and staff relationships or isolation, enhanced or impeded the way teachers experienced their own learning opportunities.; Conversely, professional development impacted the way teachers experienced school as a work place. Relationships within the teachers' group and between teachers and administrators developed or improved. Teachers felt more or less valued and respected by administration, based on how professional development was planned and individualized or not. School culture and professional development are so intertwined that any effort to improve one will likely not succeed without considering the other. |
