School leaders and administration have the greatest and the most significant impact on culture and curriculum structure of a school. Their beliefs and values are reflected in morals and ethical standards applied to the school environment. Schools are a key institution for shaping the cultural values of honesty, integrity, patience, fairness, nobility, and self-discipline that are transmitted from school administration to their students. The most important fact is that school leaders and administration are bearers of these cultural values and morals and, in many cases, the only source of cultural values at schools. History and literature also shape and form cultural and personal values of students, but the role of a teacher and administrator is to select the main cultural values and explain their meaning and significance to students. The best approach educators have devised for engaging students in broader historical, political, ethical, and social communities are comprehensive thinking and reading practice in literature, history, management, science, and the arts. The school leaders and administrators are responsible for articulating comprehensive educational goals, providing resources commensurate with attaining these aims, engaging in the professional practices required to reach these aims, and formatively evaluating these practices in ways that actively involve teachers in their own culture improvement efforts (Deal, 2005).
Individual beliefs and values of school administration influence the selection of educational tools and methods, approaches to teaching and understanding of culture. They are responsible for developing a balanced curriculum in school, providing time and resources for improvement, and insuring equity in the distribution of these resources. School leaders provide and support a common and rigorous framework of cultural values and principles that still leaves room for necessary contextual changes. Federal or county administration has virtually no involvement in the specifics of instruction, yet they have increased accountability for the basic norms that can either facilitate or hinder the local development of culture and values at schools..Shaping and transmission of cultural values ad beliefs is exercised through sustained and systematic dialogue, decision-making, action-taking, and analysis –the identification of problem areas, the gathering of relevant data, accurate discussion, formulation of a value system, and the monitoring of behavior patterns of schools. To be sure, executing these duties requires effective school leadership abilities in the principal; and it is the accountability of districts to cultivate and nurture cultural values and high moral standards rather than hand out the job aimlessly for reasons of seniority, political favors, or the like. School leaders and administration develops the capacity for renewal and the structures for cultural values and moral standards. But it is also the task of community and its representatives to create the conditions necessary to teach and educate students. Indeed, the mixture of commitment to a set of curricular and instructional values and goals, ethics leadership, morality, and quality working circumstances is a influential force for school improvement (Deal, 2005).
In sum, School leaders and administration have the greatest influence on beliefs and values of students as they communicate their ethics and morality in everyday discussions and conversations with students. Students evaluate which standards are considered priorities at any moment in time. The educational curriculum and communication standards are subjected personal principles and values of a person developed them. These standards of cultural principles, morality and ethics are relevant for the student and for every group in community.
References
Deal, T. E., (2005). Peterson, K.D. Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership (Jossey-Bass Education). Jossey-Bass; 1 edition.