Poster #43 - Understanding the Human Side of Continuous Improvement: Collective Defensiveness in Schools Facing Adversity

• In Event: 25.087 - MTCC Poster Session Four
  In Poster Session: 25.087-5 - Division A Graduate Student Poster Session

Abstract

In recent years, school reformers have increasingly turned to the potential for educators to undertake “continuous improvement” through iterative cycles of problem solving. However, proponents tend to overlook the potential for defensiveness to thwart learning. This “human side” of change creates particular challenges in schools that have endured long-term failure and demoralization. Such experiences can generate a climate of collective defensiveness that interferes with even basics of problem solving and group development. The role of defensiveness in continuous improvement has been largely overlooked in scholarship. This conceptual paper addresses this gap by bringing together literature from psychological, organizational, and group-level studies of defensiveness to analyze how defensiveness may manifest when educators embark upon continuous improvement in contexts of adversity.

Author

• Elizabeth Zumpe, University of California - Berkeley