School Culture and Effectiveness: An Autoethnography of a Casual Relief Teacher

This qualitative study adopts an analytical autoethnograhic approach to present an exploration of school culture and pedagogic effectiveness as experienced by a casual relief teacher in six P-12 public schools in Victoria, Australia, 2022-2023. Organisational culture theory, as presented by Schein, and culture and effectiveness theory, as presented by Quinn and Rohrbaugh, as well as culturally responsive teaching, presented by Vavrus, are utilised to extend current understandings of school culture on teaching and learning. The empirically driven results indicate that cultural context impacts educational and pedagogical practice, which generates teaching and learning outcomes. The findings have implications for strengthening the daily pedagogic practice of casual relief teachers.