New Directions in Education Policy Implementation

Owner

Description

A companion to Allan R. Odden's Education Policy Implementation, also published by SUNY Press, this book presents original work by a new generation of scholars contributing to education policy implementation research. The contributors define education policy implementation as the product of the interaction among particular policies, people, and places. Their analyses of previous generations of implementation research reveal that contemporary findings not only build directly on lessons learned from the past, but also seek to deepen past findings. These contemporary researchers also break from the past by seeking a more nuanced, contingent, and rigorous theory-based explication of how implementation unfolds. They argue that researchers and practitioners can help improve education policy implementation by not asking simply what works, but rather focusing their attention on what works, for whom, where, when, and why.

Acknowledgments

1. Complexity and Policy Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities for the Field
Meredith I. Honig

2. Communities of Practice Theory and the Role of Teacher Professional Community in Policy Implementation
Cynthia E. Coburn and Mary Kay Stein

3. Policy Implementation and Cognition: The Role of Human, Social, and Distributed Cognition in Framing Policy Implementation
James P. Spillane, Brian Reiser, and Louis M. Gomez

4. Language Matters: How Characteristics of Language Complicate Policy Implementation
Heather C. Hill

5. Revisiting Policy Implementation as a Political Phenomenon: The Case of Reconstitution Policies
Betty Malen

6. Connections in the Policy Chain: The “Co-construction” of Implementation in Comprehensive School Reform
Amanda Datnow

7. Building Policy from Practice: Implementation as Organizational Learning
Meredith I. Honig

8. Toward a Critical Approach to Education Policy Implementation: Implications for the (Battle)Field
Michael J. Dumas and Jean Anyon

9. An Economic Approach to Education Policy Implementation
Susanna Loeb and Patrick J. McEwan

10. Social Capital and the Problem of Implementation
Mark A. Smylie and Andrea E. Evans

11. Implementation Research in Education: Lessons Learned, Lingering Questions, and New Opportunities
Milbrey W. McLaughlin

Bibliography
Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 13 juillet 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791481431
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

New Directions in Education Policy Implementation

CONFRONTING COMPLEXITY

Edited by Meredith I. Honig

New Directions in Education

Policy Implementation

This page intentionally left blank.

New Directions in Education

Policy Implementation

Confronting Complexity

Meredith I. Honig

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production by Michael Haggett Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

New directions in education policy implementation : confronting complexity / [edited by] Meredith I. Honig. p. cm. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6819-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-914-6820-8 (pbk. : alk. ppaer) 1. School improvement programs—United States 2. Educational change—United States. 3. Educational Leadership—United States. I. Honig, Meredith I., 1971–

LB2822.82.N48 2006 379.15´0973—dc22

ISBN–13: 978-0-7914-6819-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN–13: 978-0-7914-6820-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 2005024130

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Some, I am sure, find the world of political pressures, ambiguity, and messiness untenable and believe that it is time for intellectuals to retreat to their ivory towers. . . . I do not believe that most of us would accept that pathway. However, I do believe that these changes [in policy research and practice] require us to reflect on the developments and become more self-conscious about the way we operate within a changing world. Historians have developed a subfield called historiography to reflect on the development of the history field. We need something of that sort—an analysis of our analyses. We should expand our scholarship to include an examination of our own work.

—Radin, 1997

This page intentionally left blank.

Acknowledgments

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Contents

Complexity and Policy Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities for the Field Meredith I. Honig Communities of Practice Theory and the Role of Teacher Professional Community in Policy Implementation Cynthia E. Coburn and Mary Kay Stein Policy Implementation and Cognition: The Role of Human, Social, and Distributed Cognition in Framing Policy Implementation James P. Spillane, Brian J. Reiser, and Louis M. Gomez Language Matters: How Characteristics of Language Complicate Policy Implementation Heather C. Hill Revisiting Policy Implementation as a Political Phenomenon: The Case of Reconstitution Policies Betty Malen Connections in the Policy Chain: The “Co-construction” of Implementation in Comprehensive School Reform Amanda Datnow Building Policy from Practice: Implementation as Organizational Learning Meredith I. Honig

vii

ix

1

25

47

65

83

105

125

viii

8.

9.

10.

11.

C ONTENTS

Toward a Critical Approach to Education Policy Implementation: Implications for the (Battle)Field Michael J. Dumas and Jean Anyon

An Economic Approach to Education Policy Implementation Susanna Loeb and Patrick J. McEwan

Social Capital and the Problem of Implementation Mark A. Smylie and Andrea E. Evans

Implementation Research in Education: Lessons Learned, Lingering Questions and New Opportunities Milbrey W. McLaughlin

Bibliography

Contributors

Author Index

Subject Index

149

169

187

209

229 271 277 285

Acknowledgments

I am fortunate to have had the assistance of many people while developing this volume. First, thank you to the authors, many of whom cheerfully worked through multiple drafts of their own work to help enhance the coherence of the overall project. Promises of anonymity prevent me from thanking them individually, but many close colleagues, acquaintances, and strangers spent considerable time providing formative reviews of these chapters; the thorough- ness of those reviews and the care with which they were written surely strengthened this work. Allan Odden’s 1991 book on education policy imple- mentation provided the inspiration for this volume. Lisa Chesnel and others at SUNY Press have been a pleasure to work with on this volume from start to finish. Betty Malen offered helpful comments on various versions of my own chapters and consistently calls my attention to the persistent, pesky nuances of politics and public life. Milbrey McLaughlin believed in and encouraged this project from the beginning. Our many conversations about policy implementation over a decade have been among my most important and valued professional experi- ences; for those and other things I am truly grateful.

ix