Institutional Complexity and Policy Implementation: How Underlying Logics Drive Teacher Interpretations of Reform

Item

Title

Institutional Complexity and Policy Implementation: How Underlying Logics Drive Teacher Interpretations of Reform

Abstract/Description

One critical factor in policy implementation is how teachers interpret policy. Previous research largely overlooks how the broader culture shapes teachers’ interpretations. In the current research, we explore how teachers’ interpretations of instructional reforms are associated with the logics of broad societal institutions. Our longitudinal mixed-methods study of 117 teachers at three urban public schools demonstrates that teachers’ interpretations are rooted in market accountability logics, professional bureaucracy logics, and communal sentiment logics. Teachers’ logics partially depend on their school and community contexts. The most substantive differences in teachers’ logics result from individual attributes, namely, race/ethnicity. One implication is that effective policy implementation depends on formulation and framing that address the multiple and potentially competing logics that motivate teachers’ responses to reform.

Author/creator

Bridwell-Mitchell, E. N.

Sherer, David Gilbert

Date

2017

In publication

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Volume

39

Issue

2

Pages

223-247

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

Keywords

policy implementation

institutional logics

instructional reform

teacher interpretations

Featured case/project

Institutional Logics

Policy Implementation

Sensemaking/Interpretation

Education Reform

Language

en

Open access/full-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0162-3737

DOI

10.3102/0162373716677567

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (SAGE Journals)

Citation

Bridwell-Mitchell, E. N., & Sherer, D. G. (2017). Institutional Complexity and Policy Implementation: How Underlying Logics Drive Teacher Interpretations of Reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(2), 223–247. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716677567

Cited in

Introducing Improvement Research in Education

Abbreviation

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Item sets

IRE Handbook Introduction Citation

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