SCHOOL CULTURE, SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

The relevance of the concept of culture to school effectiveness and sc hool improvement is explored. Two typologies are developed. The first proposes four 'ideal type' school cultures, based on two underlying do mains; the second, a more elaborate and dynamic model, proposes two 'i deal type' school cultures, based on five underlying structures. Each is discussed for its heuristic, conceptual, methodological and explana tory potential in research in the fields of school effectiveness and s chool improvement. In distinguishing collegial cultures from collabora tive styles, the article advances recent writing on collaboration. Fro m the theory hypotheses about the relationship between school culture and school effectiveness and improvement can be derived as well as tec hniques to test such hypotheses.