What Can Institutional Analysis Tell Us About School Improvement and Reform?

• In Event: Using Organizational Theory to Examine the Pursuit of Equity and Improvement in Educational Systems

Abstract

Changing ineffective, counterproductive, and sometimes harmful beliefs, practices, and structures in schools is especially difficult because schools are institutions. While many recognize that institutional processes operate in schools, the study of institutions – or institutional analysis – is less common in education research. One reason is numerous concepts employed by researchers in different ways. So, the concepts, their connections and application to school phenomenon are unclear. As a solution, this paper develops an integrative conceptual framework for institutional analysis. The framework is illustrated and applied through a systematic review of 247 empirical articles, from 1989 to 2022, on U.S. school improvement. The review illuminates important themes in how institutional processes play out to maintain or change the institutional status quo in schools.

Authors

• Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell, Harvard University

• Soojung Lee, Harvard University