A School's Organizational Landscape: Exploring Schoolteachers' and Administrators' Conceptualizations of Community Organizations

• In Event: 68.060 - Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 68.060-9 - Teachers and School Leaders: Realities and Perspectives

Abstract

While policy makers have increasingly promoted school partnerships with community organizations, there isn’t a clear understanding of how school staff members perceive different community stakeholders. This qualitative study explores how school staff members in nine schools across three different urban neighborhoods define community organizations vis-à-vis other external stakeholders. My analysis shows that the types of organizations that staff members understand to be a part of their community varies by school type and whether or not the school enrolls a large proportion of students from the surrounding neighborhood. My findings have practical implications for how schools implement school-community partnership initiatives and extend theory on schools’ organizational fields.

Author

• Andrea Prado Tuma, Northwestern University