Conceptualizing Power in the Practice of Continuous Improvement

• In Event: Centering Equity and Practice Considerations in Improvement Scholarship

Abstract

Despite its promise and widespread adoption, continuous improvement efforts in education have been under researched as it pertains to the power dynamics and positioning that constitute them. Our paper offers a conceptual framework for examining power and positioning in the practice of improvement by using practice theory. Practice theory centers the mutually constitutive relations between phenomena, such as structure and agency and cognition and action, in order to examine enactment through practices, or situated action. We take this practice theoretical lens to conceptualize power and examine the practices of an improvement facilitator an effort to improve mathematics in one school. We use these cases to highlight how power and positionality come to be lived in the everyday work of improvement.

Authors

• Angel Xiao Bohannon, NORC at the University of Chicago

• Joshua L. Michael, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Carlos Sandoval, WestEd