From Incubation to Emancipation: Institutionalism as a Threat to Sustaining Community-Engaged Innovation in the Academy

• In Event: Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation: Issues and Insights From Teacher Educators

Abstract

Conceptualized within the context of a “skunkworks operation” (Rogers, 2003) – a practice originated in industry wherein an especially enriched environment is intended to assist a small group of individuals to design an innovative idea to address a problem of urgency by escaping routine organizational procedures–this presentation traces the transference of authority of a program of community-engaged teacher preparation from the university to the community. We problematize how innovation in teacher education operates as exception versus by design, juxtaposing the tension between innovation and institutionalism and demonstrating the ways in which institutional convention can be and has been antithetical to sustaining innovation.

This case study documents the decade-long evolution of a mid-sized, midwestern university’s nationally recognized program of community-engaged teacher preparation, specifically examining institutionalism within the academy as a threat to sustaining innovation and how authority for the work of preparing culturally responsive and community sustaining future teachers has been resourcefully repositioned into the hands of community members dedicated to ensuring an equitable and socially just education for their children. The history and evolution of this nationally recognized program of community-engaged teacher preparation is presented, with specific attention to the policies, practices, and organizational oversight within which it has operated (Authors, 2016; 2021).

We then detail the successful transference of program authority from the university to the community, presenting this model as evidence of a new paradigm in the preparation of community teachers (Murrell, 2001). A newly formed community institute, while nevertheless working in partnership with the university, now possesses unilateral authority and autonomy over its operation and has expanded its vision of authentic, community-engaged professional development to both preservice and practicing teachers, along with the university teacher education faculty with whom they work in solidarity.

Systems, by their very nature, operate under principles of self-preservation. Until systems of educator preparation refute innovation as exception and embrace innovation by design, we will continue to see niche programs operating beneath the radar and resisting traditional paradigms to create and advance a more culturally responsive and community sustaining force of future educators (see Authors, 2020; 2018; 2017; 2016; Lee et al., 2013; Lees, 2016; McDonald et al., 2011; Zeichner, 2006; 2010.) As Blank (2014) indicated, the ultimate success of a skunkworks operation is evidenced in its demise; when the demand to address the critical needs of the day does not require retreat, but rather that institutions create a culture of innovation within. The case study presented provides evidence of the academy as an important force for the incubation of novel paradigms, but one which can be, by design, inhospitable to their protection and preservation.

Authors

• Eva M. Zygmunt, Ball State University

• Wilisha Scaife, Ball State University

• Kristin Cipollone, University at Buffalo - SUNY