Institutional Logics in Los Angeles Schools: Do Multiple Models Disrupt the Grammar of Schooling?

Marsh, Julie A.; Allbright, Taylor N.; Bulkley, Katrina; Kennedy, Kate; Dhaliwal, Tasminda K.

doi:10.1086/709516

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“… 16 Although beyond the scope of this article, there are important implications to these decisions around prioritizing large networks. Some have written about concerns regarding national no-excuses charter schools (e.g., Golann, 2015), others have examined the diversity of options and how that fits with the theory of action of PMMs (e.g., Marsh et al, in press). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Process and Politics of Educational Governance Change in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Denver

Marsh

Allbright

Brown

et al. 2020

American Educational Research Journal

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In recent years, some U.S. school districts have shifted away from direct management of schools, toward systems in which some or all schools operate under enhanced autonomy, accountability, and parental choice. Yet dynamics driving these changes are understudied, and there are few comparative studies of system-level governance shifts. To address these gaps, we use extensive qualitative data to analyze change in Los Angeles, Denver, and New Orleans. Drawing on evolutionary theories, we find that external crises, state policy, and new actors triggered change, yet distinct contexts and change processes resulted in markedly different systems. Finally, in all three cities, concerns that emerging systems exacerbated long-standing inequities indicate that governance change is both an organizational and highly contentious political process.

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confidence: 99%

The Process and Politics of Educational Governance Change in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Denver

Marsh

Allbright

Brown

et al. 2020

American Educational Research Journal

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“…Their emphasis was on how educational institutions were fragmented 'into different organisations each taking specific normative orientations' (Mangez et al, 2017: 7). Similar insights have been offered within institutional theory where scholars have pointed to how schooling became an organisational field in a cross-pressure between competing institutional logics such as market, state and community (Glazer et al, 2019;Marsh et al, 2020;Runesdotter, 2011).…”

Section: The Heterophonic School (1990-)mentioning

confidence: 76%

From self-evident norms to contingent couplings: A systems-theoretical analysis of changes in the relationship between schools and the function systems in Denmark

Andersen

Pors

2021

European Educational Research Journal

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Taking a point of departure in the paradoxical fact that the increase in educational knowledge leads to an increase in uncertainty for educational organisations, this article explores how uncertainty and contingency have increasingly become an integral part of school governance. The article draws on Niklas Luhmann’s theory of ‘World Society’ as a functional differentiated society providing a range of different symbolic media for educational organisations. To trace the increase in the complexity of governing, we provide a historical account of the shifting couplings between schools and function systems. We show how the school becomes linked to an increasing number of symbolic media so that education becomes only one out of many other concerns. The article studies the consequences these shifting couplings have for how schools are governed and how they are expected to self-manage their relationship to different function systems. The article adds to existing studies of how education has become more and more differentiated with the argument that this has also led to new forms of couplings between schools and the education system with a number of important implications for the teaching profession.

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“…This is why most attempts to identify a shift in the grammar (but which are actually focusing on the lexical) do not succeed (see e.g. Marsh et al 2020). Whilst it is possible to interpret the pandemic as a call for a common approach to education based on the public good, and as evidence of the concomitant failure of the individualistic market, it is equally important to recognize the widespread desire to get back to normal.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This tends to reduce scholars' engagement with the grammar of schooling to issues of ontology, where any sign of shared features with the extant simply confirms the grammar (see e.g. Marsh et al 2020). Or, conversely, fairly localized practices and/or cultures that contradict the accepted grammar are constructed as a 'new grammar' with all the systemic significance of that metaphor, but with an unsatisfactorily explained mechanism for achieving it (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinking with ‘lexical’ features to reconceptualize the ‘grammar’ of schooling: Shifting the focus from school to society

Courtney

Mann

2020

J Educ Change

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Achieving changes to education practices and structures is a significant issue facing reformers internationally, and researchers have confronted how such changes, and the conditions for these, might be conceptualized. These issues resonate particularly as researchers grapple with imagining a post-COVID-19 landscape where social and educational norms may change. Tyack and Tobin, in their 1994 article 'The "Grammar" of Schooling: Why has it been so hard to change?' argued that several features of the American education system are so persistent as to warrant being understood as the 'grammar' of schooling. In this article, we reconceptualize this 'grammar' by taking seriously Tyack and Tobin's insistence that 'grammar' organises meaning. Starting here, we argue that what they took to be grammatical features are the products and not the producers of meaning. We draw on the cases of the United States and England to argue that four international discourses have performed this meaning-making work: industrialization; welfarism; neoliberalism and neoconservatism. These are the 'grammars' of schooling-and of society. Their discursive products, including age grading and sorting into subjects are, we suggest, 'lexical' features that express the grammar. We use lexical features to explain the multi-directional interplay between discourse and educational feature: the lexical may endure longer than the grammatical, changes to which may be effected and/or legitimated through appealing to a lexical feature. We conclude by outlining key implications for realizing and conceptualizing educational change, including for a post-COVID-19 landscape.

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Institutional Logics in Los Angeles Schools: Do Multiple Models Disrupt the Grammar of Schooling?

Cited by 27 publications

References 40 publications

The Process and Politics of Educational Governance Change in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Denver

The Process and Politics of Educational Governance Change in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Denver

From self-evident norms to contingent couplings: A systems-theoretical analysis of changes in the relationship between schools and the function systems in Denmark

Thinking with ‘lexical’ features to reconceptualize the ‘grammar’ of schooling: Shifting the focus from school to society

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