The Heartbeat of a School: What Strong Professional Culture Looks Like

Culture is the heart of every school. It’s not written in policy or easily captured by data—but you can feel it in the hallways and see it in the classrooms. A school’s professional culture is how teachers work and learn together—or don’t. In my nearly two decades of visiting schools and working alongside teachers, I’ve noticed three elements that consistently show up in the best professional communities:

1. Teachers see themselves as lead learners.

They believe that if a student didn’t learn it, they didn’t teach it—so they relentlessly work to expand their skills to serve the widest range of learners. These teachers admit when they don’t know something and model how to figure it out. Most of all, they make meaningful mistakes and grow through the process, showing students that learning is lifelong and deeply human.

2. There is a collective responsibility for the quality of teaching and learning.
There’s a deep, shared commitment to excellence that goes beyond individual classrooms. Everyone—teachers, leaders, and staff—sees themselves as co-creators of the educational experience and outcomes for all students. Therefore, colleagues support one another’s growth and uphold high standards of practice. Classroom doors are open and teachers have the psychological safety to take creative risks and ask each other for help. 

3. Everyone reflects—all of the time.
Strong professional culture is fueled by ongoing reflection and honest, constructive feedback that flows in all directions. This kind of reflection is a deeply embedded habit, a continuous system of quality and care that empowers teachers to try new things,  iterate, and learn from what unfolds. Stakeholders use data to inform practice and make decisions–not to shame or rank. These habits of ongoing, data-driven reflection allow teachers to look both backward and forward, using reflection as a bridge between their experience and possibility. 

The result of these three elements is that learning is never static. Curiosity replaces complacency. Feedback fuels progress. And excellence is not an individual pursuit—it’s a shared expectation. More than contributing to a strong professional culture, together they create a dynamic, student-centered ecosystem where adults model the very habits we hope to inspire in the students we teach.