< Back to previous page
Project
Agency and structure in practices of educational innovation. A description and analysis of implementation practices in primary and secondary schools.
Research has amply documented that the implementation of educational innovations takes very diverse and often not sustainable forms in practice. In order to understand the diversity in implementation practices, thisdissertation starts from two dualities that have figured vividly in theinnovation literature: change versus stability</> and agency versus structure</>.
Firstly, the diversity in implementation practices reflects an inherent tension between change and stability in school organizations. Despite the fact that constant change is the norm today, schools are at the same time required to perform as relative stable and reliable entities. We therefore conceptualize the relationship between change and stability as interdependent and complementary. Secondly, we focus on the duality in research approaches emphasizing the ability of individual actors to make a difference in the flow of events (agency) versus those approaches highlighting structural and cultural constraints on action in understanding (the variation in) implementation practices (structure). Rather than treating these as opposing ideas - requiring us to privilege one over the other - this dissertation explicitly aimsat developing and empirically grounding a theoretical approach that acknowledges and integrates the interplay of social actors and the structural reality in which they operate. We therefore draw on concepts from twocomplementary theoretical traditions: neo-institutional theory and sense-making theory. Whereas sense-making theory privileges the role of social actors and their individual and collective sense-making, neo-institutional theory emphasizes the role of more formal structural aspects and institutional rules in understanding organizational behavior. The main research interest in this dissertation can be formulated as follows: How can we understand implementation practices from the interplay between meaning-making actors (making sense of structure) and structural factors (structuring the sense-making)?</></>
In response to this research interest, we designed and conducted three qualitative-interpretative studies, each starting from a particular implementation practice.
In the first study, we applied a sense-making approach to studythe implementation of a new mathematics curriculum in secondary schools. More particularly, we analyzed how teachers sense-making of the new curriculum was mediated by their personal beliefs about the content, their normative ideas about good teaching, and the structural reality in which they were working. As such, the analysis highlighted how teachers interpretation and implementation of the reform strongly depended on the congruence between the normative ideas in their personal interpretative framework and in the rationale underpinning the reform. Based on the first study it also became clear that it is not enough to take into account only the role of human actors and their sense-making in understanding implementation processes.
In a second study, we therefore addressedand unravelled the important role ofmore structural factors in implementation processes by focusing on the role of an artifact as an (institutional) actor in school organizations: the Educational Care and Support-file (ECS-file). The data analysis revealed how the artifact (and its materiality) had a constitutive role in the actual implementation process. The ECS-file not only transferred care-related data, but also changed the discursive interactions in the school team around pupil/student care. Moreover, we determined how the ECS-file acquired its authority from the institutional pressure mechanisms in the schools organizational field.
In the third study, we re-introduced the actor in our analysis. Wefocused on the impact of the introduction and subsequent withdrawal of mentoring-hours on the actual mentoring practices in one school. This case study identified how the mentoring-hours not only introduced additional resources for mentoring, but also installed a new institutional logicwith regard to mentoring in the school. Moreover, it demonstrated how organizations are not only the instantiation of institutional logics, butare also places where people and groups make sense of and creatively use logics. The fact that the mentors internalized the new logic because it lent legitimacy to their position as a mentor illustrated how the institutionalization of mentoring operated in part through the actions of local actors in the organization. This micro-organizational analysis provided insight into the nuances of how messages from the environment entered into schools and how such messages were (re)interpreted, filtered, andstrengthened through local actors social interactions.
The reports of the three studies are preceded by an introductory chapter, and followed by a final chapter in which we provide a conclusive overview of the results of these studies, together with a general discussion, directions for future research, and implications for the educational practice.
Firstly, the diversity in implementation practices reflects an inherent tension between change and stability in school organizations. Despite the fact that constant change is the norm today, schools are at the same time required to perform as relative stable and reliable entities. We therefore conceptualize the relationship between change and stability as interdependent and complementary. Secondly, we focus on the duality in research approaches emphasizing the ability of individual actors to make a difference in the flow of events (agency) versus those approaches highlighting structural and cultural constraints on action in understanding (the variation in) implementation practices (structure). Rather than treating these as opposing ideas - requiring us to privilege one over the other - this dissertation explicitly aimsat developing and empirically grounding a theoretical approach that acknowledges and integrates the interplay of social actors and the structural reality in which they operate. We therefore draw on concepts from twocomplementary theoretical traditions: neo-institutional theory and sense-making theory. Whereas sense-making theory privileges the role of social actors and their individual and collective sense-making, neo-institutional theory emphasizes the role of more formal structural aspects and institutional rules in understanding organizational behavior. The main research interest in this dissertation can be formulated as follows: How can we understand implementation practices from the interplay between meaning-making actors (making sense of structure) and structural factors (structuring the sense-making)?</></>
In response to this research interest, we designed and conducted three qualitative-interpretative studies, each starting from a particular implementation practice.
In the first study, we applied a sense-making approach to studythe implementation of a new mathematics curriculum in secondary schools. More particularly, we analyzed how teachers sense-making of the new curriculum was mediated by their personal beliefs about the content, their normative ideas about good teaching, and the structural reality in which they were working. As such, the analysis highlighted how teachers interpretation and implementation of the reform strongly depended on the congruence between the normative ideas in their personal interpretative framework and in the rationale underpinning the reform. Based on the first study it also became clear that it is not enough to take into account only the role of human actors and their sense-making in understanding implementation processes.
In a second study, we therefore addressedand unravelled the important role ofmore structural factors in implementation processes by focusing on the role of an artifact as an (institutional) actor in school organizations: the Educational Care and Support-file (ECS-file). The data analysis revealed how the artifact (and its materiality) had a constitutive role in the actual implementation process. The ECS-file not only transferred care-related data, but also changed the discursive interactions in the school team around pupil/student care. Moreover, we determined how the ECS-file acquired its authority from the institutional pressure mechanisms in the schools organizational field.
In the third study, we re-introduced the actor in our analysis. Wefocused on the impact of the introduction and subsequent withdrawal of mentoring-hours on the actual mentoring practices in one school. This case study identified how the mentoring-hours not only introduced additional resources for mentoring, but also installed a new institutional logicwith regard to mentoring in the school. Moreover, it demonstrated how organizations are not only the instantiation of institutional logics, butare also places where people and groups make sense of and creatively use logics. The fact that the mentors internalized the new logic because it lent legitimacy to their position as a mentor illustrated how the institutionalization of mentoring operated in part through the actions of local actors in the organization. This micro-organizational analysis provided insight into the nuances of how messages from the environment entered into schools and how such messages were (re)interpreted, filtered, andstrengthened through local actors social interactions.
The reports of the three studies are preceded by an introductory chapter, and followed by a final chapter in which we provide a conclusive overview of the results of these studies, together with a general discussion, directions for future research, and implications for the educational practice.
Date:1 Oct 2008 → 9 May 2014
Keywords:Local educational policy, Professional development, Secondary education, Frame analysis, Micropolitical perspective, Cultural perspective, Case study, Survey research
Disciplines:Education curriculum, Education systems, General pedagogical and educational sciences, Specialist studies in education, Other pedagogical and educational sciences
Project type:PhD project