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The Work of Improvement

Item

Title
The Work of Improvement
Alternate name
Chapter 2
Abstract/Description
In this chapter, we summarize key stances and insights from studies of work and workplaces that can inform improvement research in education. First, we make linkages between studies of work and vital features of CER [community-engaged research] such as the building of trust and relationship structures in partnership work. We provide illustrative examples of how research that foregrounds work systems and infrastructures inform the ways in which we can approach CER. Second, we highlight how design methods such as human-centered design, participatory design, and related methodological extensions can help CER practitioners more clearly see the key targets for improvement work from the perspective of community members. Finally, we illuminate how critical and equity-focused lenses help us push beyond assumed values, goals, and work processes to understand when CER projects must radically shift in their approach, or when research itself may not be beneficial for a given community’s needs. These frameworks are vital to help practitioners develop deeper practices of reflexivity, to bound CER work in situations where values and aims are aligned, and to continuously monitor the potential harms one might enact (often unintentionally) without a critical CER practice.
[Quoted from pp. 29-30 of Chapter]
Author/creator
Ahn, June
Van Steenis, Erica
Penuel, William R.
Date
2022
In publication
The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education
Editor
Peurach, Donald J.
Russell, Jennifer Lin
Cohen-Vogel, Lora
Penuel, William R.
Pages
29-46
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Resource type
en Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
en Published Text
Scholarship genre
en Methodological
en Synthesis/Overview
IRE Approach/Concept
Community-Engaged Research
Human-Centered Design
Participatory Design
Social Design Experiment/Social Design-Based Experiment (SDBE)
Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT)
Equity
Infrastructure
Infrastructuring
Design-Based Research
Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR)
Politicized Trust
Featured case/project
Impact
Learning in Places
Chicago City of Learning (CCOL)
Middle-school Mathematics and the Institutional Setting of Teaching (MIST) Project
Open access/full-text available
en No
ISBN
978-1-5381-5234-8
URL
Publisher Webpage
Citation
Ahn, J., Van Steenis, E., & Penuel, W. R. (2022). The Work of Improvement. In D. J. Peurach, J. L. Russell, L. Cohen-Vogel, & W. R. Penuel (Eds.), The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538152348/The-Foundational-Handbook-on-Improvement-Research-in-Education
Item sets
The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education

Linked resources

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Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design Book
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Sustaining Model Systems of Educational Activity: Designing for the Long Haul Book Chapter
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Systems for Instructional Improvement: Creating Coherence from the Classroom to the District Office Book
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Structuration Theory and Information Systems: A Critical Reappraisal Book Chapter

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