Focus on Culture, Not Strategy

Having taught and worked as an administrator for more than 16 years in settings including private schools, public schools, charter schools, and Head Start programs, Jerusha Ignacio has seen any number of education strategies come and go. Known for her affable, adventurous, and dedicated approach, Ignacio often felt frustrated that the strategies she and her colleagues employed seemed to fall short.

For Ignacio, this impact was disheartening. In 2024, she started her second stint as an elementary teacher at Ojo Encino Day School, a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) school in Cuba, New Mexico, where she grew up. Students and faculty there were struggling: test scores were low, chronic absenteeism was high, ongoing staff changes were taking a toll, and the school was in turnaround.

Today, Ignacio’s outlook is more positive. Led by a focus not on strategy, but school culture, Ojo Encino has successfully moved out of turnaround. And Ignacio says her experience at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s School Turnaround Leaders (STL) professional education program played a key role in making that progress.

An Adventurous Spirit Meets Strategic Issues

An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Ignacio grew up in Cuba, about 1.5 hours northwest of Albuquerque. After earning a bachelor’s degree in education, she started work at the Ojo Encino School in 2007. Ignacio left Ojo Encino in 2012 to pursue teaching and education administration jobs in other parts of the state and in Arizona.

The health needs of Ignacio’s parents prompted a move back to her home, and in 2024 Ignacio returned to Ojo, which by then was in turnaround status. There, she watched both students and faculty struggle their way through a number of different education strategies. But progress, she says, remained elusive, and positivity became harder to sustain.

“We were just throwing different strategies at these issues in our school climate, and it wasn't really changing anything,” says Ignacio.

Professional Development Brings a New Perspective

In 2024, the BIE offered Ignacio the opportunity to attend HGSE’s School Turnaround Leaders program. Created to help educators learn to drive fundamental shifts in school culture and instructional practice that result in rapid gains and ongoing performance, STL brings educators from around the world together on the Harvard campus each summer.

“When I heard about STL, I definitely jumped in and wanted to get involved,” Ignacio says. “I’m a learner, so anytime that I can improve myself, my career, I’m totally for that. It also meant helping to turn around a school in my community, so that was a driving force as well.”

At Harvard, Ignacio says, the days were packed with critical learning. She loved having the opportunity to connect with and learn from educators from around the world. But, she says, the critical takeaway from the program for her was a simple idea: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

According to Igancio, in order to turn a school around, educators must first focus on culture change. And it’s only when the culture is ready to welcome improvement can strategy truly do its part.

Using Navajo Culture to Create Strong Educator Teams

So, how can educators focus on culture change? A good place to start, Ignacio says, is by building connections and trusting relationships.

“You can mandate initiatives and protocols,” she says, “but you can’t mandate trust among people. So, culture becomes this lens through which we begin evaluating any decision that happens in the school. And when you start thinking that way, then you approach things differently. You're able to connect with people better.”

For example, Ignacio and her colleagues have been putting a sharp focus on creating a strong, connected community of educators, drawing on Navajo culture to help make those connections.

“We are part of an indigenous tribe, and we look to our elders, because they're essentially knowledge keepers. And the culture of our school was trying to emulate that. We started doing icebreakers during staff meetings, being intentional with those questions that will open people up to what knowledge they bring with them.”

Simple questions like “What's your favorite memory of reading? How did you learn to read?” she says, “opened up this dialogue and we learned a lot about one another, and how we’re connected, even though we’re all from different areas. And we also learned the struggles. Doing that helps build a stronger team.”

Navajo Culture in the Classroom

Ignacio and her colleagues have also used Navajo traditions to try to build a stronger classroom culture, she says. “A lot of our work has been focused on our core values and trying to look at it through their indigenous lens. You know, ultimately, we don't want just smart kids. We want good relatives and great adults after they leave us.”

Some of this work includes bringing Navajo stories into the classroom. “We use the stories to talk about Navajo core values such as honor,” Ignacio says. “Then we explore questions to define and build on shared culture: What does honor look like in your family? What does honor look like in the community? What does it look like as a Navajo person? Why do, and how do, we honor people?”

Beyond Turnaround: A New Navajo Curriculum

All this focus on school culture has paid off. Ojo Encino is now out of turnaround. And Ignacio, her colleagues, and members of the Navajo community are working to build on their success by creating a K-8 curriculum program that teaches the Navajo language.

The program is scheduled for full release in fall 2026, but Ignacio and the team have already been testing the curriculum in the classroom. The results, she says, go well beyond teaching children Navajo. The work has helped connect elders and young people and build cultural pride. The curriculum used at Ojo is also being turned into an open-source template for other schools interested in building their own Indigenous culture-based language programs around the world.

All of these connections, says Ignacio, are reinforcing the school’s new culture. “People perform differently when they feel seen,” she says. “They’re valued; they're connected. And that's a big part of what I learned at Harvard. It all starts with people. Before you can reach any student's brain or mind, you have to reach the heart first. And that’s true with adults, too.”