Commitments to Equity as a Resource for Sense-Making in Crisis for After-School Educators and Leaders

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Advancing Organizational Theory in Education: Institutional Logics, Critical Sense-Making, and the Social Organization of Schools (Table 16)

Abstract

While a growing body of scholarship has analyzed what COVID has revealed about educational systems and unearthed suggestions for future work in education, less has examined sensemaking processes in the midst of COVID and how this impacted educators’ actions. In this paper, we take up these questions in the context of a state-level afterschool system, which played a particularly integral role in providing care and resources when schools were closed down. Specifically, we explored the sensemaking processes and actions of afterschool educators and leaders through the lens of sensemaking in crisis; and how commitment, identities, and expectations shaped these processes. We find commitments to equity and identities as care providers as integral resources for sensemaking.

Authors

• Carrie D. Allen, University of North Texas
  Presenting Author

• Sara C. Heredia, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patrik Lundh, SRI International
  Non-Presenting Author