Emerging democracy in an urban elementary school: a Habermasian framework for examining school governance reculturing in response to systemic reform
Year: 2004
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the micropolitical dynamics \nmanifested in the re-culturing of campus governance in response to systemic \nreform imperatives? The study examined: 1) the recent intensification of \nstandards and stakes associated with the Texas performance accountability \nsystem, 2) managerial responses to these pressures by the central administration \nof a large urban school district, and 3) the renegotiation of work and leadership in \nresponse performance pressures and the district policies by the faculty at a highpoverty, \nmajority Hispanic elementary school. \nThe study combined document analysis and various ethnographic methods \nto understand the interplay between reform pressures, district policies, and \ncampus micropolitics. The analysis of the state performance accountability \nsystem used state reports, press releases, and print media related to the \ndevelopment and intensification of the system. The district level analysis \ncombined press releases, print media, public comments by administrators and \nparticipant observation to study the administrative response to accountability \npressures. The campus-level analysis employed formal and informal interviews \nof teachers with observations of faculty and committee planning meetings to \nunderstand decision-making dynamics and planning processes as carried out by \nthe faculty of one campus. \nThe major findings of the study are three-fold. First, the state-level \nanalysis suggests that the Texas performance monitoring system, a response to a \nstate legitimacy crisis, appears to be informed by a narrow technical logic and \ntherefore seems likely to intensify an existing administrative emphasis on \nefficiency at the expense of other valued outcomes, most notably equity. Second, \nresponses to accountability pressures in the district studied reflect an \nintensification of a traditional management discourse evidenced in a series of \nreforms that dramatically extend administrative control over staffing decisions, \ncampus planning, curriculum development, and instructional delivery. Third, the \ncurrent district policies contrast with recent reforms at the campus studied that \nengaged teachers and administrators in more deliberative governance activities \nfocused on collective and strategic planning. Conflict between the \ncommunicative rationality of the campus-level reforms and the technical \nrationality informing the district’s management discourse are resulting in ongoing \nrenegotiation of work and leadership norms at the campus.
Author: Brendan D. Maxcy
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1632524403