The Powerful Role School Culture Plays in Teacher Professional Development

Hear “school culture” and some people think of spirit week and free bagels in the staff room on Fridays. What is often missed is the system underneath all of that — the norms, routines, and values that shape how teachers teach and children learn.

Doctoral marshal Santiago Pulido-Gómez, who prior to his doctoral studies was a research fellow for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, is deeply engaged with school culture and the possibilities it holds. His dissertation, “Teachers as Culture Carriers: Teacher Culture as a Tool for Teacher Professional Learning and Development,” explores the elements of the school environment that foster or hinder teachers' growth.

Two days before Commencement, Pulido-Gómez spoke about his research, his motivation, and how family and friends are critical to the successful completion of a Ph.D.

How does it feel to be selected by your peers as a class marshal?
I am very honored to have this opportunity. It was such a nice surprise, and I see it as a meaningful recognition on top of all the excitement of culminating my Ph.D. experience.

What is your personal motivation for your research?
I've always been a teacher at heart. I loved my school experience, not just academically, but my school had a very strong culture. I went to a British school similar to Harry Potter, so we had houses and house competitions, and that was unusual in a Colombian context, right? It was very formative for me, and it made me enjoy my time at school. I wanted to become a teacher, and I was a very good student. In my country, there is a social stigma that you're too smart to be a teacher. I heard that phrase over and over, so I decided to study the economics of education to understand the problems that prevent some of the best students from becoming teachers. And it’s the path I have been on ever since.

How do you define school culture?
Culture has visible and less visible elements. There are visible artifacts: uniforms, how people dress, architecture, how spaces are decorated. Then there are behaviors and practices: the norms, rituals, routines, and day to day practices. Finally, there is a deeper level of culture that we cannot see directly but know is there: shared values and beliefs, the things that are taken for granted. In my research, I focus specifically on the subculture of teachers within schools.

How can school culture support teacher growth?
One key theme that appears across settings is privacy as a strong professional norm in teaching. It has important purposes: it protects teacher autonomy and gives teachers ownership over their classrooms, but it can also hinder learning and cultural transmission — the possibility of learning the school culture from colleagues. In my dissertation, I describe three kinds of boundaries that protect this privacy: spatial boundaries that disperse or compartmentalize teachers, temporal boundaries that leave little shared time for interacting, and social boundaries, such as frictions between teacher groups, that limit peer learning.

I examine how these boundaries operate in a case study of an established charter management organization in Colombia that ran several long standing schools with strong cultures and was then given six new schools to manage. The organization transplanted teachers from the old schools into the new ones with the goal that they would carry the culture with them. This case allowed me to see which elements enable culture carrying among teachers, which elements hinder it, and how teachers overcame those barriers in some instances.

How did they do that?
One example is what I call conjoint work rituals. These are intentional moments when teachers work together synchronously. They might share a physical space to plan, co create materials, troubleshoot issues, or simply work side by side while talking through questions. Another example is what I call conjoint duties. In one case, a new teacher told me she learned a great deal from a colleague while they did recess supervision together. They would walk around the schoolyard, talk, ask questions, and share experiences. These routine tasks, which we often take for granted, can become meaningful spaces. If we want to change the profession as a whole, we need to foster more opportunities for peer learning, which can’t happen only through top down directives. By shifting to a culture in which teachers are willing to trade a bit of privacy, there’s more structure for cultural transmission and mutual learning. 

Thinking about your six years at HGSE, is there any academic highlight?
One of the most enriching experiences was building close relationships with my dissertation committee. Before starting the Ph.D., I imagined that you only interact with your committee at a few formal moments. Instead, the three professors on my committee became both academic and personal mentors. They supported me, taught me how to be a good scholar, and modeled how to navigate the personal dimensions of academic life. Another set of important relationships has been with my peers. I learned early on that you need to learn from “insiders” who can help you navigate the program. I was fortunate to form strong friendships with more advanced Ph.D. students, especially through my work with the Harvard Educational Review. 

Tell me about your work to help future Ph.D. students.
Because I started during Covid, I felt that my own orientation had been incomplete. As a way of giving back, I worked with the doctoral programs office — especially with Clara Lau (Director for Doctoral Studies) and her team — and with other students to enhance the orientation process. One concern is that the Ph.D. journey, while structured around clear milestones, can be very isolating. One change I pushed for was to ensure that later year Ph.D. students met the incoming students as early as possible. They could ask about courses, research paths, and personal experiences. More importantly, those early conversations could form the basis of lasting relationships. 

It sounds as if much of your work’s focus is about not leaving things to chance — creating structures that support learning and relationships. Does that resonate with you?
Yes, very much. I think I have also absorbed this perspective from my advisor. We talk a great deal about culture. One idea that has stayed with me is that a lack of structure can itself be a kind of culture. However, if you want to intentionally shape culture, you must create systems and structures to support it. That applies to academic life and to teaching. Both can feel very unstructured and “sink or swim.” I believe you can and should put structures in place, though they may look different in each context, that foster collaboration, mentorship, and shared learning. 

What do you plan to do next?
I hope to continue contributing to the challenge of teacher professional development. For me, research is a way to amplify educators’ voices and to show how their daily experiences should inform school leadership and education policy at district and national levels. My plan is to return to Colombia and contribute from the academic sector to these conversations and efforts. 

Is there anything else you would like to add?
I think sometimes we underestimate the role that family plays in getting us through the Ph.D. journey — the ups and downs, the stress, and the uncertainty. Staying healthy and grounded requires people who remind you that the Ph.D. is not the only thing in the world. In my case, my partner has been an amazing source of support and without him, I could never have done this. My parents and siblings in Colombia have also been very supportive, and they deserve to be mentioned for getting me through this process. There is just immense gratitude for all of that.