The question of how can education and educational research best support the charting of the way forward is still important and relevant. Determining the factors shaping educational processes, influencing the functioning of the school, and thus determining the quality of the school, creating a learning environment conducive to the well-being of young people are among the many challenges that educational research must address. Also those studies whose subject is the phenomenon of school culture, which is not easy to recognize theoretically and empirically. The concept of culture as applied to schools is difficult to define as well as to operationalize in research terms. That is why there are attempts to create different models of school culture with a promise of more comprehensive and coherent approach to school culture research (e.g. Kent, 2006; Brady, 2008; Schoen & Teddlie, 2008; Torres, 2022). School culture can be defined as “the basic assumptions, norms and values, and cultural artifacts that are shared by school members, which influence their functioning at school” (Maslowski, 2001, p. 8-9). It can be viewed as the implicit set of beliefs that determines ‘the way we do things around here’ (Deal & Kennedy 1982), and the means by which a school establishes self-identity. Undoubtedly, the study of school culture is quite a challenge, not only because of the difficulty in operationalizing the object of analysis itself, or even because of the need for interdisciplinary profiling. The study of school culture requires reaching the subtle elements of the phenomenon being explored such as values, perceptions, experiences, feelings etc. However, taking them into account is necessary to build a coherent, complementary picture of the school environment. The issue of organizational culture is now one of the fundamental pillars for understanding how schools can promote well-being, equity, inclusion and democracy. The global movement to rationalize school networks, the establishment of school clusters in certain countries and the expansion of the principles of new public management have contributed to recentring analysis on the cultural and symbolic dimensions of the school, demanding new, more pluralistic perspectives, less bound by compartmentalized and one-dimensional views. While over recent decades we have witnessed a broadening of theoretical and methodological approaches, we have also seen the adoption of the term “organizational culture”, driven by international political agendas. This tends to be interpreted as a simple variable, beholden to other agendas: management and leadership, success, learning, school dropout rates, and results (Torres, 2022).

The aim of the presentation is to identify the major models of school culture as well as to discuss the major lines of research and theoretical perspectives shaping research in this field. For this purpose, an analysis of a wide range of international publications was conducted on the subject of school organizational culture. Among the numerous publications, the analysis of two types of works was privileged: (1) articles and conference proceedings published in scientific journals; (2) works by authors who have dedicated a large part of their academic career to the study of the theme. The subject of the analysis will be the models of school culture described in the literature and their empirical application, as well as the dilemmas, difficulties and tensions related to the emergence and application defined by the authors of the analyzed concepts and researchers who use them in their research projects. The presented content will allow us to see the multifaceted, complex nature of school culture, as well as to notice the importance of studying this phenomenon in the process of profiling social and educational practices that nurture individual potential and support social and organizational transformation.

To find relevant literature, a search strategy consisting of several stages was developed. At the beginning, a search of the following databases was undertaken to identify theoretical and empirical studies on school culture: Education Source, Academic Search Ultimate, ERIC, Teacher Reference Center, Web of Science, Google Scholar. The timeframe of the search activity was October – November 2024. Search items were the following terms: “school culture”, “organizational culture of school”, “models of school culture”, “conceptualization of school culture”. Search parameters were set to include peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings published in English (1999 – 2024). In the next stage, it was also decided to search the publications by authors who have dedicated a large part of their academic career to the study of the theme. The obtained results including doctoral thesis were then checked in terms of the title and then the abstract. Reviews or popular science publications were rejected. Based on this strategy, documents that were relevant for further systematic review were identified, selected, and read. Each paper qualified for the review was critically assessed. Critical evaluation is often combined with data extraction (Petticrew & Roberts, 2006). At this stage, key details and information from each study qualified for review were extracted and entered directly into the previously prepared table. The last stage was the qualitative analysis and synthesis of the obtained data, searching for patterns and interpretations. This methodological approach allowed the identification of general trends and models of school culture, but also some inherent dilemmas and difficulties. This approach also allowed for reflection on the potential of each model of school culture which has been tested in the empirical study of certain educational realities. On the basis of the analysis of the collected materials, various models of school culture were selected: a model that includes visual, behavioural and verbal symbols (Svetlik, 1996; Eger, 2010), a model of secondary school culture (Brady, 2008), “a jigsaw puzzle” model of school culture (Bell & Kent, 2010; Kent, 2006), “an analytical” model of school culture (Torres, 2022), “a new” model of school culture (Schoen & Teddlie, 2008). These theoretical–conceptual proposals incorporate some of the most expressive theoretical contributions of school culture, as well as insights from various empirical research conducted in school settings.

The world of tomorrow is unknown, the world of today is a world of escalating ideological tensions, dizzying and unpredictable growth of technologies, uncontrolled migration movements, etc. The effects this uncertainty already bears on school and education may be as novel as they are numerous, but the question they bring to the fore is one: how can education and educational research best support the charting of the way forward? Looking through the prism of these challenges at school and education, it can be seen that school culture is closely related to the healthy and sustainable development of a school, the development and well-being of the school members, and objectives of the school and education. The presented results show that that school culture is a multifaceted concept, composed of different dimensions. To construct a positive school culture is an important goal and step forward educational change. Both theoretical reflection on school culture and its empirical analysis are therefore very critical for all educational institutions to meet the new demands and prepare students for the changing society. By deepening our understanding of school culture, we can be better equipped to shape the values, beliefs, and attitudes necessary to promote a positive and nurturing school environment for teacher well-being and student development.

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