2.4 Why School Culture Is Not Experienced Equally (and what this means for teachers and school staff)
For teachers and school staff
Part of the Positive School Culture Guide for Teachers/School Staff: What students’ experiences of Year 7 can teach us
This series shares insights from research exploring how students experience the transition to secondary school, and what these experiences reveal about how Positive School Cultures develop through relationships, expectations, and everyday classroom interactions.
Fairness does not guarantee the same experience
Schools often aim to be fair. Within the structures they work in — timetables, class sizes, policies, and accountability demands — most staff seek to make expectations clear, apply rules consistently, and provide support for all students. These are important conditions through which a positive school culture is generated.
However, even when these conditions are in place, this does not mean that all students experience school in the same way. This is especially important when thinking about student experience, engagement, and participation in everyday school life.
A school can be fair in the conditions it establishes, but unequal in how those conditions are lived and experienced by different students. Students encounter school not only through what is in place, but through how they are able to engage with and interpret these conditions in practice. Across classrooms, corridors, and social spaces, students’ experiences of school culture can differ in subtle but important ways.
Why the same rule or lesson can be experienced differently
In many classrooms, expectations are communicated clearly and applied consistently. Yet students vary in how easily they can understand, interpret, and act on those expectations.
For some students, it is straightforward to contribute to discussions, ask for help, or navigate routines. For others, these same situations may feel uncertain or difficult. Students may feel more or less confident depending on how familiar they are with the ways their new school expects them to participate, how secure they feel in relationships with teachers and peers, and how clearly expectations are understood in practice.
When students understand expectations, feel recognised by others, and know how to participate within classroom routines, participation often feels more straightforward. When they do not, the same situations may require more effort to navigate, or may be approached differently.
These differences are not always immediately visible, but they shape who participates and who remains on the margins of classroom life.
Over time, these differences can become patterned, shaping which students consistently participate, and which remain less visible within classroom and school life.
As a result, access to the kinds of experiences often associated with positive school cultures is not evenly distributed, even within the same classroom.
At the same time, classroom and school experiences are not shaped solely by adult expectations. Students also contribute to school culture through community-making, kindness, friendships, group dynamics, and how they respond to one another. These interactions can support participation, but they can also make it more difficult for some students to take part — and in doing so, they contribute to shaping how culture is experienced in the classroom.
Receptivity: why access to the same experiences differs
Students do not simply experience school differently; they also vary in how they are able to respond to and engage with the conditions, expectations, and interactions that shape school life.
Receptivity helps explain how similar conditions can be taken up differently by different students in practice. However, participation is also shaped by the opportunities students have to engage, the recognition they experience from others, and the relationships they are able to build within the school community.
Even when these conditions are broadly similar, students may interpret and take them up in different ways.
This helps explain why the same lesson, rule, or interaction can enable participation for one student, while another may experience it as uncertain, limiting, or difficult to engage with.
Across repeated interactions, these differences can shape patterns of participation, influencing how students come to see themselves — and are seen by others — as participants in school life.
These differences are not simply a matter of individual preference or disposition. Students’ responses are shaped by their prior experiences of school, the relationships they are able to build, and how secure they feel within a particular setting. As a result, receptivity to the same classroom or school conditions is often uneven.
Understanding school culture, therefore, is not only about what is put in place, but about how everyday practices are enacted, experienced, and taken up by different students. Attention to who feels able to engage, speak, and participate — and who does not — becomes central to understanding how culture operates in practice.
Students’ receptivity is closely linked to experiences of recognition. When students feel seen, listened to, and taken seriously, they are more likely to engage with classroom expectations, contribute ideas, build relationships, and participate more fully in the life of the classroom. Over time, these experiences can also shape students’ sense of confidence and ease in participating.
When recognition is uneven, students may hold back — for example, choosing not to answer, avoiding group discussions, or remaining quiet even when they understand.
In research with Year 7 students exploring their experiences of starting secondary school, these differences were consistently evident. Students described similar lessons, rules, and routines, but very different experiences of whether they felt able to take part.
Students do not all arrive in the same place
These experiences shape how students approach new classrooms and interactions. However, a new school environment can also reshape these patterns over time. For some students, it can open up new opportunities to participate and feel recognised. For others, it may reinforce existing uncertainties or make participation feel more difficult.
School culture is not something that simply meets students as they are; it is generated through interaction with what they bring, sometimes expanding their participation and sometimes narrowing it. In this way, the same school environment can open up new possibilities for some students, while leaving others less certain about how to take part.
This is often most visible during the transition to secondary school, where new environments interact with students’ prior experiences in different ways.
Fairness, access, and participation
Schools may establish the same rules and expectations, but students differ in how easily they are able to:
- understand what is expected
- participate in lessons
- feel recognised
- build relationships
Positive school culture is therefore unevenly experienced and continually generated through everyday interactions. A central question becomes not simply whether opportunities exist, but whether students feel able to participate in them.
Fairness, in this sense, is not only about equal provision, but about how students are positioned within the everyday life of the school, and how they are able to respond to and participate in it.
This means that improving school culture is not only about what is put in place, but about how it is enacted and experienced across the school.
Students as participants in shaping culture
These differences are not only shaped by school structures and practices. Students themselves also play a role in shaping how school culture is experienced.
Through everyday interactions — who they include, who they respond to, and the norms they establish — students can contribute to making participation feel more accessible for some peers, and less so for others.
Students are not simply responding to school culture; through their everyday actions, they contribute to making it real. In this sense, students are not only participants within school culture but active contributors to how it develops over time.
This does not mean that students are equally responsible for these patterns. Their actions are shaped by the same conditions, expectations, and relationships that structure school life. However, it does highlight that school culture is not only something delivered to students, but something continually generated through the interactions of the school community.
This is not about lowering expectations
Recognising these differences does not mean lowering expectations or reducing challenge. High expectations remain essential.
Rather, it means recognising that students do not all encounter those expectations in the same way. When expectations are experienced as clear, accessible, and accompanied by recognition and support, more students are able to engage with them.
Recognition is not only interpersonal. Students also notice whether school systems and routines respond to their concerns, ideas, and experiences. These experiences can influence whether students see the school as a place where their participation matters and whether they feel able to engage more fully in school life.
What this means in practice
This shifts the focus from asking:
- Are our rules and expectations fair?
to asking:
- Who feels able to engage with them?
This is not about adding more to teachers' workload, but about noticing how everyday interactions shape who feels able to take part.
Small differences in how expectations are explained, how students are invited to participate, and how recognition is distributed can shape who participates and who remains on the margins.
Participation is not simply an individual choice; it is shaped by how students experience and interpret the classroom and the wider school environment. Over time, these patterns influence students' sense of belonging, confidence, well-being, and engagement, and can also shape wider outcomes such as behaviour, attendance, and attainment.
These patterns are not fixed, but they can become established over time if they are not recognised and addressed.
The key question becomes:
Do students feel able to participate in the everyday life of the school?
Key ideas
- The same rules and expectations do not lead to the same experiences for all students
- Students differ in how they understand, interpret, and engage with school cultures
- Experiences such as confidence, ease, and willingness to participate are shaped over time through relationships, recognition, and familiarity with expectations
- Participation depends not only on what is offered, but on how accessible and meaningful it feels to students.
- A positive school culture is not uniformly delivered; it is unevenly experienced and continually shaped through everyday interactions
- Students are not only recipients of school culture — they also contribute to shaping it through their interactions with others
- Fairness is not only about equal provision, but about whether students are equally able to participate
Reflection questions for staff
These questions are designed to help you notice how school culture is experienced in everyday interactions. They are not checklists or judgements, but prompts to explore what may be happening beneath the surface.
- Are our expectations equally clear and understandable for all students?
- Who seems to find it easiest to participate in lessons — and who does not?
- How do students experience asking questions, making mistakes, or contributing ideas in our classrooms?
- Where might participation feel more difficult, uncertain, or risky for some students?
- How is recognition distributed across the classroom? Who feels seen, listened to, and taken seriously?
- How do peer dynamics shape who feels able to take part?
- In what ways might our routines, explanations, or interactions make participation more — or less — accessible?
- How might students’ prior experiences of school be shaping how they respond to this environment?
- How do students know that their concerns, ideas, and experiences are taken seriously within the school?
Next in the series
The Positive School Culture Guide for Teachers/School Staff: What Students’ Experiences of Year 7 Can Teach Us
- Positive School Culture Is Not the Same as Being Happy
- Why Recognising Students Matters More Than Praise
- Why Clear Rules Do Not Always Feel Fair
- Why School Culture Is Not Experienced Equally
- How Everyday Interactions Shape School Culture
- Belonging Takes Time: What Schools Can Learn from the Year 7 Transition
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