The Opening of a New High School: The Emergence of a Culture

The Opening of a New High School: The Emergence of a Culture

This study, with the unit of analysis as a new high school, examines the process of opening and developing a new school, with specific emphasis on the role of leadership and the influence of the external environment. The methodology for this research was an eighteen month interpretive case study. The high school, as the unit of analysis, is a bounded phenomenon in a real-life context. The boundaries between the context of the new school itself, its leadership, and its internal and external constituencies are not clearly evident and were provided through the research. Using a case study and purposive sampling, data were collected from interviews, document reviews and observation. Triangulation and member checks were conducted. The study produced two findings of note: First, that the school, to be successful, must be interdependent with its community, and secondly, that leaders need to have the skills to approach this possibility. We will never have good schools if we have detached participants; they are interdependent.