Micro-Meso Processes of Emerging Organizational Forms: An Investigation into Race-Conscious School Reform
Abstract
Racialized ideologies are deeply ingrained and institutionalized within U.S. K-12 schools contributing to persistent “opportunity gaps” that disadvantage racially marginalized youth. Despite the expansion of race-conscious initiatives across K12 schools, less is known about the organizational conditions and mechanisms that support and sustain their enactment. Drawing on institutional theories, critical epistemologies, and qualitative methods, this three-study dissertation investigates equity-oriented reform across multiple levels of schooling. The first study explores how organizational structures, teacher sense-making, and accountability interact to shape the implementation of a whole-school racial justice program. The second analyzes discourse in school boards to examine how societal-level values shape the legitimacy of Ethnic Studies. The third investigates the district-level infrastructure shaping teachers’ collective Ethnic Studies practice in a critical case district. Together, these studies demonstrate that equity-oriented reform relies on the interaction between both organizational infrastructure and education stakeholders’ normative commitments for their initial adoption and ongoing maintenance.