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ERIC Number: EJ903532
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 15
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0077-5762
EISSN: N/A
A Co-Construction Perspective on Organizational Change and Educational Reform
Mehan, Hugh; Hubbard, Lea; Datnow, Amanda
Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, v109 n1 p98-112 2010
In their earlier work, the authors explained how the co-construction perspective has been heuristic in the study of organizational change and educational reform, often providing more nuanced analyses and findings than "technical-rational" models that dominated the field previously (Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan, 2002). In framing organizational change and educational reform as co-construction, the authors illustrate how a human sciences perspective can inform sociological and policy analyses in education. Focusing on co-construction highlights the ways that policy ends or aims are joint accomplishments of actors who are participants in different social practices, not simply products of policy makers working in isolation from educators. Co-construction foregrounds questions central to human sciences research related to power and authority. Because not all people and perspectives contribute to defining aims of educational policies, it is critical to attend to dynamics of power and authority in the process of co-constructing reforms. This chapter explains and expands on the co-construction perspective using examples from studies the authors have conducted on educational reform. The authors begin by contrasting the technical-rational and co-construction perspectives on school reform. They then describe how their formulation of co-construction takes into account issues of power and authority. They then elaborate on the perspective by presenting different cases of co-construction of reforms by actors at different levels of the educational system.
Teachers College, Columbia University. 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 212-678-3774; Fax: 212-678-6619; e-mail: tcr@tc.edu; Web site: http://nsse-chicago.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A