Negotiating Instructional Logics for Continuous Improvement

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating the Road to Improvement: Finding Comfort in an Ever-Changing Landscape

Abstract

Research on continuous improvement in school organizations has focused primarily on the improvement activities and scaling of improvement processes that networks can do after they have constructed a shared theory and culture of improvement. However, little attention has been paid to how a school network might cultivate a shared theory of improvement or the features necessary to engage in productive, collaborative improvement work. This study investigates how one school improvement network, the Shelby County iZone, created opportunities for school and district personnel to surface and negotiate competing logics about how to improve math instruction, laying a foundation on which continuous organizational improvement was possible.

Authors

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University

• Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University

• Diane Massell, Consortium for Policy Research in Education