What Sticks and Why? A MoRe Institutional Framework for Education Research

Abstract

Context For decades, educational leaders and researchers have faced a puzzle: Too often, promising new initiatives are adopted only to be quickly discontinued, while other longstanding practices persist despite efforts to undo them. Purpose We provide a framework for analyzing both change and persistence that we argue can shed new light on what sticks and why. Our MoRe institutional approach focuses analytic attention on self-activating modes of reproduction and their observable outcomes. Doing so allows for engagement with processes of both institutionalization and de-institutionalization. Research Design We make the case for our MoRe institutional framework by synthesizing across theoretical and empirical literature from both within and outside education. We address common treatments of persistence and change, as well as briefly review scholarship on institutional theory, and identify seven modes of reproduction structuring educational outcomes. We illustrate the utility of our approach concretely using the case of high-stakes testing. Synthesizing existing research across multiple levels of analysis, we demonstrate the ways that high-stakes testing is institutionalized via multiple mechanisms at multiple levels, while also analyzing possibilities for its de-institutionalization. Recommendations We conclude with implications for using the framework, focusing on strategies for supporting transformative equity-oriented change. These include processes for analyzing existing educational structures and identifying possible avenues for change, as well as design principles for protecting new practices from churn.

“The Business of Teaching and Learning”: Institutionalizing Equity in Educational Organizations Through Continuous Improvement

“…This mode of reproduction describes the metrics designed to assess progress and outcomes, which function as a mode of reproduction in how they “tend to focus attention and resources narrowly on what is measured and reify the values embedded in those measurements” (Anderson & Colyvas, 2021, p. 12). While the focus on utilizing metrics and data in CI aligns with the elemental properties of the performance logic, my case data indicate that the kinds of metrics that were selected and the way they were used functioned to bolster an equity focus (22 excerpts coded for metrics, equity, and performance).…”

“…To answer the second research question (i.e., what mechanisms allow districts and intermediary organizations to combine the guiding principles of performance and racial justice in using CI? ), I drew on all interview, observation, and document data, analytically coded across the seven modes of reproduction (identified by Anderson & Colyvas, 2021) involved in the institutionalization. I looked for references coded at these modes of reproduction that was also coded at both the performance and racial equity logics.…”

“…A new stream of analysis examines the Modes of Reproduction, or mechanisms, through which institutionalization occurs. Anderson and Colyvas (2021) identify seven modes of reproduction relevant to educational organizations: organizational routines, performance metrics, professional norms, students' identity categories, formal policies, resonant frames, and stable stakeholder interests. These mechanisms function by defining and directing attention and resources toward certain practices, behaviors, and beliefs-resulting in stasis or change to institutions.…”

Authentic Leadership and Human Resource Practice for Competitive Advantage in Private Madrasas in Indonesian Context

“…This process takes place as a sustainable institutionalization process. Anderson and Colyvas (2021) point out that institutionalization occurs because it focuses on analyzing the way of reproduction that supports the standardized structure. This method starts from the leaders to HR practice and finally to competitive advantage.…”

“…However, these changes cannot be carried out radically; they should be incrementally implemented concerning priorities. In the same perspective, Anderson and Colyvas (2021) suggest that reform efforts are often initiated to deal with demands and more transformation efforts are carried out locally in educational institutions. Important changes in the organizational structure aimed to achieve institutional alignment to competitive needs begin with changes in the more strategic role of HR.…”