Technical Ceremonies: Rationalization, Opacity, and the Restructuring of Educational Organizations

Item

Title

Technical Ceremonies: Rationalization, Opacity, and the Restructuring of Educational Organizations

Abstract/Description

After decades of accountability and market-based reforms in education, school systems are now organizing more around improving teaching and learning. Yet these efforts frequently yield unintended, superficial, or even counterproductive changes at the school level. In this article, Maxwell Yurkofsky develops the concept of technical ceremonies as a way of theorizing this emerging pattern of school organizations. Technical ceremonies involve educators changing their practice to align with new reforms in a way that privileges what is visible and measurable as a way of appeasing external stakeholders over more substantive improvements to practice. He argues that technical ceremonies arise as principals navigate a multitude of surface-level demands from the environment and the uncertainties that pervade efforts to transform teaching and learning.

Author/creator

Yurkofsky, Maxwell M.

Date

2020

In publication

Harvard Educational Review

Volume

90

Issue

3

Pages

446-473

Resource type

en Background/Context

Medium

en Print

Background/context type

en Conceptual

Open access/free-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0017-8055

DOI

10.17763/1943-5045-90.3.446

URL

Official Journal Webpage (Harvard Educational Review)

Citation

Yurkofsky, M. M. (2020). Technical Ceremonies: Rationalization, Opacity, and the Restructuring of Educational Organizations. Harvard Educational Review, 90(3), 446–473. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-90.3.446

Cited in

Democratizing Educational Innovation and Improvement: The Policy Contexts of Improvement Research in Education

Abbreviation

Harvard Educational Review

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 10 Citations

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