The Contribution of School Management in School Development Processes for the Creation of an Action-Guiding and Value-Based School Culture

Abstract

School principals are central actors in school development processes (cf. Hameyer and Tulowitzki 2022), who have a significant influence on the value- and norm-based negotiation processes in a school and thus also on the school culture (cf. Helsper 2010). In view of this, this article explores the question of how principals can support the creation of an action-guiding and value-based school culture within the framework of school development processes. After an approach to the topic and a look at national and international research results, a structuration-theoretical understanding of school culture will be developed, the 3-level-model of culture according to Edgar H. Schein will be presented as a possibility for school culture analysis, and subsequently, the functions and tasks of school leaders for the creation of a value-based school culture will be discussed. In the context of the introduced findings, results from a school leadership study are presented as empirical support. The article ends with a classification of the collected insights in the current discourse on values and an outlook.