Challenges and Dilemmas in System-Building for Elementary Science

• In Event: System-Building to Improve Access, Quality, and Equity in Elementary Science

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a provisional framework that identifies challenges and dilemmas in system-building for elementary science instruction across the districts participating in this study. This framework, in turn, guide school-level data collection and analysis in the next phase of the study.

Analytic Framework
Our earlier research on system-building for instructional improvement frames such work as fraught with endemic challenges and dilemmas that complicate forging fundamentally new approaches to organizing and managing instruction amidst legacy conditions that continue to reinforce the status quo (Author, 2014; Author, 2018).

However, this research focused chiefly on ELA and mathematics. While some findings may generalize, differences in reform emphases and legacy conditions suggest the possibility of categorically different challenges and dilemmas in elementary science.

As such, this paper works inductively from initial analyses of district-level system-building efforts to develop a provisional framework identifying science-specific challenges and dilemmas.

Modes of Inquiry
This paper was developed within the embedded, comparative case study design detailed in the symposium overview.

Data/Analysis
This analysis draws from 13 analytic memos (one per district) that are updated with each successive round of data collection. The memos are organized by a) the analytic framework described in the overview and b) codes emerging inductively through our ongoing analysis. Those memos, in turn, draw from the full complement of project data collected to date, including interviews with state and central office leaders, observations of district-level and school-level routines, and state and district documents.

Results
Our analysis suggests the following challenges and dilemmas as integral to the work of central office leaders in system-building to improve elementary science instruction.

● Establishing and sustaining science as a district reform priority amidst continuing policy pressure to improve elementary ELA and mathematics.
● Weak central office capabilities to support district-wide, school-wide improvement in elementary science, thus a dependence on commercial publishers and technical assistance providers for curriculum materials and professional development.
● Developing capabilities for implementation monitoring and continuous improvement amidst first-order needs to establish coherent, district-wide educational infrastructure for elementary science.
● Tradeoffs between establishing district-wide coherence and consistency in elementary science amidst needs and norms emphasizing school-level and classroom-level adaptation.
● Maintaining agenda stability and reform priorities across all content areas in the face of broader social and political turbulence at the national and state level.

Scholarly Significance
This examination of challenges and dilemmas in system-building for elementary science extends the research base on the complexity of system-building for instructional improvement across content areas. It also establishes a provisional framework for examining such challenges and dilemmas as they play out in schools in ways that both parallel and diverge from district central offices.

Authors

• James P. Spillane, Northwestern University

• Emily Seeber, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor