Toward a Critical, Social Justice–Focused Improvement Science (Table 3)

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Seven

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This session seeks to present new directions for improvement science (IS) scholarship and practice to center issues of justice and equity. To do so, this session seeks to interrogate IS, its foundations, and its practices from critical lenses, enabling us to see where IS work falls short of its promise for educational justice. The papers in this session then seek to build off IS and its shortcomings as an approach to educational improvement to generate new tools and frameworks to help scholars and practitioners rearrange relations in IS efforts to engage in justice-focused work. While authors in this session see the potential of IS, we offer critiques to advance IS approaches towards a more humanizing improvement science.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Improvement Science in Education

Chair

• Carlos Sandoval, WestEd

Papers

• Learning to See the System That Shapes Educational Opportunity, Experience, and Equity - Rebecca Colina Neri, Indiana University; Jahneille Cunningham, WestEd

• Cultivating Critical Pragmatists: The Need for Critically Conscious Improvement Scientists - Brandi N. Hinnant-Crawford, Clemson University

• Breaking Down the Manufacturing Analogy in Improvement Science to Construct a Critical, Justice-Centered Improvement - Carlos Sandoval, WestEd

• Process Measures of Educational Justice - Sola Takahashi, WestEd

• Democratizing Inquiry in Improvement Science - Maritza Lozano, California State University - Fullerton

Discussants

• Louis M. Gomez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University