Negotiating Innovation: Legitimacy, Asymmetry, and Disruption in Interorganizational Partnerships

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Structural Approaches to Teacher Retention, Organizational Improvement, and Partnership Formation

Abstract

This study examines the early formation of interorganizational partnerships aimed at launching university-led lab schools under Virginia’s statewide innovation initiative. Using a multiple-case study design, we analyze how these partnerships take shape during the initial planning and design phase. Legitimacy emerged as the perception of an organization’s credibility and capacity to lead, built through expertise, responsiveness, trust, and engagement. Asymmetry reflected uneven but shifting capacities across partners, varying by topic, context, and expertise. Innovation with the partnership emerged as a negotiated and emergent process of challenging assumptions and testing new ideas. These findings illuminate how public education partnerships construct the conditions for change while navigating uncertainty, variation, and interdependence.

Authors

• Jay Paredes Scribner, Old Dominion University

• Karen L. Sanzo, Old Dominion University

• Gary Skeen, Old Dominion University

• Stephen Croffie-Djan, Old Dominion University