Investigating Organizational Learning at a California Community College in a Research Practice Partnership with UCLA

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 4:15 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Learning in Practice: Student Voices, Shared Governance, and Organizational Learning in a Multi-College Research Practice Partnership

Abstract

This presentation offers findings from a qualitative case study examining how one California community college engaged in institutional learning through a faculty-led Research Practice Partnership (RPP). Focusing on the Learning Together Initiative at Glendale Community College, the study investigates how inquiry into racialized student experiences prompted shifts in institutional routines and governance practices. Drawing on sociocultural learning theory (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003), distributed leadership (Spillane, 2006), organizational routines theory (Feldman & Pentland, 2003), and learning organization theory (Senge, 1990), the study analyzes how change became visible in both performative and ostensive aspects of institutional work.
Using interview transcripts and document analysis, the research identifies how exposure to student narratives during structured inquiry sessions led governance teams to rethink planning norms, redistribute leadership, and restructure engagement. These changes reflect not only a surface-level response to equity data but a deeper transformation in how shared governance operates as a mechanism for institutional sense-making and adaptation. The study contributes to the literature on organizational learning by showing how distributed inquiry, when embedded in governance routines, can enable faculty and staff to collectively reframe priorities, reconfigure practices, and build institutional memory around equity.

Author

• Kristine Oliveira, Antelope Valley College