Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2011, Page 34

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Amalía Björnsdóttir, Baldur Kristjánsson og Börkur Hansen
Context
This is the fourth paper in a series based on
the longitudinal study Motivation of Stu-
dents in Compulsory Schools in Iceland. The
literature suggests that student achieve-
ment is strongly related to two interrelated
factors, namely the school leadership and
the organizational culture of the school
– the school culture (Deal and Peterson,
1999; Hoy and Miskel, 1996, 2008; Fullan,
2001). The concept of school culture refers
to the values and norms that shape tra-
ditions and interactions, i.e. how school
personnel interact and operate when solv-
ing everyday challenges. Accordingly, the
teachers’ views towards student learn-
ing are a significant part of the culture
of schools. Deal and Peterson (1999) and
Schein (2004) state that school culture can
be of various kinds, but Maehr and Midg-
ley (1996) emphasize that the values and
norms towards teaching and learning are
of utmost importance for academic suc-
cess in schools. Hoy and Miskel (1996,
2008) point out that there are a limited
number of empirical studies available on
school culture. Generally, however, em-
pirical studies suggest that culture in suc-
cessful organizations is proactive in nature
and emphasizes co-operation and collabo-
ration of all their staff. This scarcity also
applies to the Icelandic context.
The findings presented in this paper
shed a light on the relationship between as-
pects of school culture in eight compulsory

schools in Iceland with achievement on
nationally administered comprehensive
exams.
Method
Data was collected in eight compulsory
schools (ages 6–16), four of them located
in the greater Reykjavík area and four
in rural areas. Data was gathered with a
questionnaire where teachers responded
to questions and statements. On the one
hand, the theoretical framework that guid-
ed the development of the questionnaires
for teachers and middle managers was
developed from the works of Maehr and
Midgley (1996). According to them, the
values and norms towards teaching and
learning are the most important dimen-
sions of every school culture. On the other
hand, questions concerning school culture
focused on organizational and manage-
rial elements. There were 318 teachers in
these eight compulsory schools and the re-
sponse rate was 75%.
Findings and discussion
Factor analysis was carried out on the data
collected from teachers and middle man-
agers. Two separate factor analyses were
done, one for statements that describe in
general terms the school culture and the
other on statements describing the culture
in relation to teaching orientation. Scores
on standardized tests in Icelandic and
Abstract
School culture and school achievement