ABSTRACT
This chapter will focus on school cultures and outline what fear-based cultures look like as well as the key indicators, namely:
Significant percentages of people on long-term sick leave
Low morale
High union involvement
Few people in communal areas such as the staffroom
Defensiveness
Passive aggression
Pedantry about hours and time spent on things
Little collaboration either inter or intra departments, phases
Training mainly focused on external providers
Little smiling or laughter
Little curiosity or conversation about life beyond work
Leaders behaving like parents and other staff behaving like children
Feedback given only through very formal structures – from top-down
Low-social capital
The chapter recognises fear as the root cause of much of the current unhappiness and lack of wellbeing amongst teachers and a core reason for the underperformance of schools. Shifting to trust and enhancing social capital are symbiotic; each will facilitate the other and raise standards. The chapter determines this by showing what a trust-based environment looks like in a school, namely:
Discussion and challenge are natural
Very little union involvement
People are kind
Open flows of feedback
Staff regularly upskill one another
Consensus, focus and understanding of what people are there objectively to achieve
Smiling, laughter
Collaboration
Internal training and recognition of expertise
The hierarchy is not visible, i.e. it is less obvious who might be the headteacher and who might be a TA
People understand how to behave with one another
