Schools & Changing Culture

Generally in research there is no reason to start from square one. There is ample research out there to use as a baseline for understanding the next steps that your organization can take, and smart institutions utilize these as a framework for understanding how to shape the future.

But for schools in the US (and abroad), the research of the past is quickly becoming obsolete. That's because the culture of the world is quickly changing. There is considerably more diversity in today's school system than at any time in the past, and this diversity needs to change the classroom style and setting.

Culture plays a considerable role in the classroom, often in ways that are difficult to notice or measure. In psychology, cultural competency is considered a tremendous factor for providing quality counseling, and something that has gained considerable research in recent years as the immigrant popular grows and culture itself changes in the United States. Your school needs to look at education the same way, because the reality is that culture really does impact your school system.

For example: Sarah is a child of a middle class family. Her parents are from a little known country called Studyonia. Her parents chose your school because it has a large Studyonia population, as many of your other students are also from the same country.

Their parents, not surprisingly, embrace a culture of intelligence and it's reflected in the child's study habits. This implies that their child is going to thrive in most classes.

But of course, there may be cultural issues that show up as well. For example, perhaps those from Studyonia are ill equipped to assist in math, or their language is so vastly different than English that syntax struggles, etc. These are all cultural issues that affect your school specifically, in a way that won't affect other schools.

Often times culture affects your school in ways that are far more difficult to examine than that. But it does affect your school, and since the culture of almost every school in the US and abroad is changing – indeed, technology has changed culture itself – and your school needs to make sure it adjusts if it wants to stay ahead. This is another area where your research is going to be very important, and an example of why sometimes you'll need to start your research from scratch in order to understand the needs of the specific culture and demographics of your school.