Examining Power and Practice in Leading Continuous Improvement in Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Power, Equity, and Inequalities in School Organizations (Table 2)

Abstract

Continuous improvement (CI) has become a prominent methodology for improving equity in education. However, we argue that CI requires further interrogation, particularly in its enactment and the ways in which engaging in CI produces power. In this paper, we argue for the need to examine power relations in the context of CI efforts. In doing so, we highlight the promise of examining practices for understanding power in CI. We offer a practice theoretical view of practice and power, before applying that view to a case of a math improvement effort in an urban elementary school. We end with a discussion of what comes to be revealed when examining the practice of improvement.

Authors

• Carlos Sandoval, Clemson University

• Angel Xiao Bohannon, NORC at the University of Chicago