"What's Best for Kids": Co-Construction of Institutional Facts Through Public Discourse

• In Event: From Critical Race Theory to Innovation Schools: Critical Policy Analyses at Multiple Levels of Governance

Abstract

This critical policy discourse analysis focuses on a single “Town Hall” event that occurred as part of a stakeholder feedback process in Denver Public Schools (DPS). The feedback related to a policy proposal by the recently “flipped” school board to limit the types of autonomy afforded to the district’s innovation schools. The study considers how “institutional facts” are discursively created and aims to discern how different actors are afforded varying levels of legitimacy due to their “institutional status”. Findings show that higher status school leaders were successfully able to create a narrative that positioned teacher’s collective bargaining agreements in opposition to “what’s best for kids”, while delegitimizing a counternarrative from teachers “pushed out” of innovation schools.

Author

• Anna L. Noble, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author