Integrating Equity-Focused Change Efforts in Higher Education

• In Event: 73.034 - Organizational Leadership for Social Change

Abstract

Public colleges and universities are perennially asked to produce better outcomes for students, to be more innovative in generating revenue, and to be more equitable in terms of access and completion for increasingly diverse students. Structured change efforts, however, are introduced into organizational settings characterized by many existing structures, practices, routines, policies, and disciplinary sub-cultures. Based on a case study of a two-year action research process in a public system of higher education, this paper examines the integration of new tools and processes as factors that re-mediate practices related to equity in student outcomes. Findings illustrate how the development of new social networks across functional areas and new practices within those networks may lead to new organizational routines.

Authors

• Keith Witham, Temple University

• Cheryl Dy Ching, University of Southern California

• Alicia C. Dowd, Penn State University