The Culture of Your Program (February 27, 2014 - ExchangeEveryDay) Good child care centers, like any good organization, have cultures that shape how members think, feel, and behave, wrote Jim Greenman in his article Of Culture and a sense of Place in the Beginnings Workshop: Building Classroom Culture. Just like the culture we are born into, we enter a world of shared beliefs and values, behavioral norms, and attitudes. In programs with strong cultures, one can go to two programs and see very similar people, yet one program feels relaxed and fun-loving, accepting and creative; the other, efficient and business-like, formal and industrious. In some centers, everyone and everything is managed to the edge of regimentation; in others, spontaneity and discovery rule, flirting with chaos. One program may have a drive for excellence; another is just getting by. Programs vary greatly in the way people treat each other — whether relations are respectful and caring or not, formal or informal, collegial or distant.... Culture is a powerful medium, one of the basic organizational dimensions that create and maintain quality, along with designing the environment; creating organizational structures, systems, and routines; and maximizing human resources. Culture creation is a major part of developing a new center, and acculturation of new staff (and parents and children) is a key task in maintaining quality. Reflecting on the culture of your service, especially as an Educational Leader or Director, and seeing strengths, weaknesses and where improvements need to be made is beneficial to all staff. This would also be a great staff meeting topic of discussion, everyone reflecting on how they themselves see the culture, how they contribute to that culture and if there needs to be a conscious effort to make changes. The culture of a service can make or break it, if a negative culture is formed there is high staff turn over, sick leave increases, unhappy staff, children quickly pick up on this and so do families so vacancies occur, and the quality of the service suffers. How is the culture in your service? Are there things you could do to make it better?
Posted on: Sun, 02 Mar 2014 06:05:36 +0000
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