Beyond Qualitative Storytelling: Situating Human Agency and Contextual Sensitivity in Policy Implementation Research to Advance Educational Equity

• In Event: Policy Implementation as a Tool to Achieve Educational Equity in the Community College Context

Abstract

This paper explores the implications for policy implementation of qualitative research conducted during a large-scale, longitudinal mixed methods project that examined developmental education (DE) reform in the Florida College System (FCS). The reform was a sweeping state-level policy change that made DE optional for some categories of state college (formerly community college) students and resulted in improved educational outcomes for Black and Latinx students across the state. The experiences of researchers who led extensive team-based fieldwork at 21 FCS institutions frame a discussion of the ways qualitative methods are uniquely equipped to advance our understanding of human agency and contextual sensitivity in implementation research. Grounded in the realist research tradition, the case of DE reform in Florida represents an ideal laboratory from which to understand how policy implementers (administrators, faculty, academic advisors) are oftentimes key to advancing educational equity through their interactions with underserved, vulnerable, and minoritized student populations. This case highlights the mechanisms of implementation or concrete actions taken by implementers that can lead to improved educational outcomes (Brower, Bertrand Jones, Tandberg, Hu, & Park, 2017). DE reform also illustrates the complexity of understanding how implementation unfolds across varied institutional contexts.

Authors

• Rebecca Brower, Florida State University

• Tamara Bertrand Jones, Florida State University

• Shouping Hu, Florida State University