This paper discusses the cultures of three schools that fostered successful learning among children from socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods in greater Beirut. The schools were mainstream English medium Elementary schools. Findings from a fourth school in this study were reported at ECER 2006. The culture of a school expresses the values, beliefs and purposes of the people (teachers, pupils, parents, support staff) in that school (Begley, 2007). It underlies all the actions that go on in it (Hopkins, 2001). It provides a series of rules and guidelines through which its members can address problems they face (Trompenaars and Woolliams, 2003). It drives shared patterns of behaviour (Robbins, 2003). It is manifested through the rituals, ceremonies, rules, patterns of action and language of its members (Beare et al., 1989). It is woven in and around organisational processes and structures (Foucault, 1977). All members participate in its construction but recognised leaders are usually more powerful in this than others (Busher, 2006). Within the formal and informal organisation of a school groups of staff and students construct sub-cultures or micro-cultures (Mittendorf et al. 2005) that complement the school culture. Holliday (2004) prefers the term ‘small cultures’ to that of ‘sub-cultures’ to indicate the autonomy of such cultures. It changes through time as members of a school interact with each other and with their socio-political and organisational contexts. Cultures and micro-cultures are normally occurring phenomena in schools, not the dark side of enterprise (Hoyle, 1986). Particular school cultures in Western societies, such as those of improving schools (Chapman and Harris, 2004), seem to foster positive interpersonal relationships that construct a sense of community (Sergiovanni, 2001). These permit a critical dialogue about teaching and learning (Smyth et al, 2000), the core processes of schools, to promote achievement through nurturing others as learners (Cooper et al, 2000). Learning in the formal curriculum is mediated by teachers’ pedagogic practices as well students’ perceptions of schooling. The former are shaped by socially constructed discourses and stories of acceptable practice (Smyth et al, 2000) with which teachers have engaged during their careers. These are likely to reflect commonly held adult societal views of effective teaching and effective teachers (Wragg et al, 2000) but may not reflect students’ views. However it is students who do the work ‘of producing knowledge ..., of performing that knowledge in a variety of assessable products, of explaining how those performances and productions reveal their understanding’ (Starratt, 1999 p.23). Students are important actors in school (Fielding 2004) and have pertinent insights into what constitutes effective teaching and learning (Riley and Rustique-Forrester, 2002). Students shape learning processes through the ways in which they respond to teachers and to the curriculum. Understanding students as individuals and how they perceive the processes of schooling (Rudduck and Flutter, 2000) helps teachers to construct successful learning experiences for them. Greater social and cultural diversity in a school increases the need for equitable practice by teachers to reduce student disaffection (Riley and Rustique-Forrester, 2002), but this requires schools to involve parents and neighbourhoods more centrally in school processes (Vincent, 2000). The research project from which this paper arises investigated what culture was constructed in each of the study’s schools; in what ways these reflected an inclusion agenda; how these were manifested in the teaching and learning process, and in the relationships between teachers, students and parents; and what evidence there was that students and teachers were excited to work in this culture and parents to work with it.

The research project focused on four case study schools selected opportunistically. To investigate each school’s culture, teachers and students were observed at work in classrooms and corridors. Ten teachers, including the Principal, were interviewed and available school documents scrutinised. In three schools student groups were also interviewed. This methodological triangulation was intended to strengthen the trustworthiness of the study. Observations were recorded with handwritten notes and, in two schools, photographs. Interviews were recorded with handwritten notes. In one school teacher interviews were carried out online. The records were analysed thematically and then interrogated for the discourses they revealed. The research was mainly carried out in English, but some participants respond in French or Arabic (the local national language). Data collected in French or Arabic was back translated to check the accuracy of the English version of it.

Our findings indicate the importance of: stimulating classroom environments that promote student engagement with the curriculum; teachers understanding students as individual people and learners; empathetic teachers engaging in their own as well as their students’ learning; a school nurturing close and mutual relationships between itself and its students’ parents. The findings coincide interestingly with models already established in the international literature about what factors are conducive to constructing engaging and inclusive school learning communities.