January 2024 Parenta magazine_website

Embedding
culture in your
“That’s because, in a healthy culture,
there are clear expectations. Expectations
around how work gets done, why that
work is important and how teams are
expected to treat each other. There is
also a sense of alignment between the
company vision and core values and how
those values and vision show up in the
workplace.”
What do we look like? What do we sound like? What do we act like?
How do we present ourselves
and our environment; what do
people see?
Our dress code – can we
express our individuality?
How do we communicate with
colleagues, parents and children?
Language – what kind of language
do we use in the staff room/on the
floor/with parents?
How do we behave at work?
Which attributes are evident?
Gossiping
Helpfulness
Pam McFarlane
I am a globetrotter, a wayfarer and a
wanderer. I have visited twenty-two
countries and made my home in four. For
every traveller, the most fascinating part of
travelling is experiencing the local culture
of the places we visit. I have wrestled
(unsuccessfully) in an impromptu wrestling
competition next to a clear blue river in
Mongolia, survived a 7.2 earthquake in
The Philippines and enjoyed the dubious
pleasures of long-drop toilets in the hills of
Venda, South Africa. I have ridden a very
grumpy camel under a moonlit Saharan
desert sky and had a full-blown panic
attack in a crowded, chaotic Moroccan
medina.
Planning to set up a school on a tropical
island seemed a good idea when I was
living in the suburbs of Johannesburg.
However, when I disembarked from a local
ferry onto a seaside market on a small
Philippine island, with the smells of dried
fish and mangoes heavy in the humid air,
I realised I hadn’t quite taken the cultural
difference into account. This was a very
different world, one whose norms I could
not comprehend. I knew instantly that this
society worked in ways that I had to learn
and understand.
There are commonalities between cultures,
especially today in the age of globalisation
and easy online access. In the middle
of a very deprived community in Addis
Ababa, I swapped Facebook details with
a local teacher. Last month I connected
with a teacher in Botswana – we met
over WhatsApp and shared our areas of
interest. I scroll through TikTok as I relax on
my bed and am connected with a myriad
of different cultures whilst dressed in my
pyjamas.
early years ethos
Today, almost worldwide, there is a
common dress code; jeans and T-shirts,
business suits, tracksuits and trainers are
found wherever you go. However, when
you are in a different country, the subtle
and not-so-subtle differences are there.
Architecture, music, transport, language,
clothing, and food, all tell us where we are.
These things tell us what is important and
what is expected.
Culture is defined by the Cambridge
Dictionary as: