Tracking and Student Choice: The Perspective of Organizational Routines Theory

• In Event: 52.079 - Tracked in or Tracked Out: How Students and Teachers Make Sense of Curricular Tracking

Abstract

Applying Organizational Routines Theory, this study aims to better understand the relations between high school tracking routine and student choice. Looking for the internal structure of the routine we used multi-case study approaches in four large comprehensive and successful high schools. The findings show that while the routine’s name includes many terms and processes that emphasize the element of students’ choice, the performance leads to systematic tracking, a word that no one uses. We conclude that despite the notion of students’ choice the tracking routine was found to be solid and embedded in the school structure. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Authors

• Talmor Rachel Farchi, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

• Dorit Tubin, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev