56.033 - School Boards in Changing Contexts: An Analysis of Equity and Opportunity in Policy Making Across Missouri

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

School boards continue to serve as the central policymaking body in U.S. education, but relatively little research focuses on board members, especially not those working outside of urban districts. This session brings together three year-long, qualitative case studies of school boards in diverse rural and suburban contexts across Missouri. Collectively, the studies examined: How does local context shape board members’ policymaking? How do board members differentially understand and respond to their communities, as well as the potential inequalities existing within and between their districts? Two discussants, including a K-12 school leader, will connect theory to action, leading participants in a conversation about how to support board members and efforts to develop equal educational opportunity.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 4: Social Contexts of Educational Policy and Politics

Chair

• Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri - Columbia

Papers

• Sensemaking and Discourse in Context: A Critical, Integrated Framework to Study School Board Policy Making - Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri - Columbia

• "Just Feel Seamless About That": Diversity Integration and Progress in a Suburban District of Immigrants - Isabel Cristina Montes, University of Missouri - Columbia; Sujin Kim, University of Missouri

• Where's the Data? Examining the Case of a Rural Town's School Board Decision Making - Laura Gavornik Browning, University of Missouri - Columbia

• The Role of Local Media and Board Member Sensemaking in a Demographically Changing School District - Jinmyung Choi, University of Missouri - Columbia; Jason C McKinney, University of Missouri - Columbia

Discussants

• Erica Owyang Turner, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Rhonda Broussard, The Ochosi Group