Studying the Coordination and Continuous Improvement of Instruction Through Social-Technical Interactions

• In Event: Understanding Educational Improvement Through the Lens of Institutional and Organizational Theory: From Teacher Communities to Teacher Evaluation

Abstract

While instructional coordination is the goal of many US reforms, we know little about how to leverage the inevitable dynamics between formal guidance (e.g. standards, curricular materials) and existing social systems of work that confound reform efforts and often fail to result in coordination. The Common Core State Standards and Response to Intervention are examples of the latest and most ambitious reforms championing instructional coordination. These reforms press hard on schools and teachers to work in ways they never have before. This longitudinal, multiple case study examines the ways in which social-technical dynamics challenge or improve coordination. The findings offer policymakers, researchers, and practitioners finer understandings of reform efforts aimed at improving coordination.

Author

• Lok-Sze Wong, University of Michigan