School Culture, Effectiveness and Low SES in Trinidad

Abstract

This chapter presents a cultural diagnosis of three schools of differing effectiveness states – ‘excelling', ‘mostly effective' and ‘under academic watch' within Trinidad, which face socio-economic challenges. It utilizes a multi-method, multiple case study approach and presents an adapted conceptualization of school culture, which is used as an analytical framework to diagnose the professional orientation of teachers within the cultures of the participating schools. Findings reveal that teachers' professional orientation, particularly their dispositions and psychological states, are critically important to many aspects of schooling, including students' orientations and their academic performance and achievement.