A review of inventories for diagnosing school culture

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose is to provide a critical review of existing school culture inventories and to provide a bibliography of questionnaires that can be used for diagnosing school culture.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature search was conducted to identify school culture questionnaires in international research indexes and educational administration abstracts. Multi‐dimensional questionnaires were selected that were directed towards measuring organisational culture in schools and which were validated. Where insufficient data were available in the literature, authors were contacted for additional information and/or to check the descriptions of the instruments.

Findings

Questionnaires can be a valuable tool in diagnosing school cultures. A number of validated instruments are available for measuring cultural factors in both primary and secondary schools. School culture inventories are primarily concerned with the identification of particular cultural traits in schools.

Research limitations/implications

The validation of school culture questionnaires has been limited to the countries in which they were developed. A validation in other educational contexts and systems, therefore, is still necessary for a wider application of these inventories.

Practical implications

Researchers, consultants, school boards, principals and teachers who want to diagnose the culture of a school will find this article helpful in determining whether they are willing to use a questionnaire for that purpose, and (if applicable) which instrument suits their objectives best.

Originality/value

No similar overviews of school culture inventories are available yet.

Citation

Maslowski, R. (2006), "A review of inventories for diagnosing school culture", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 6-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230610642638