E N Bridwell-Mitchell
Biographic Data
| ID | 254154 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E N Bridwell-Mitchell |
| GIVEN NAMES | E N |
| FAMILY NAME | Bridwell-Mitchell |
| SIGNATURE | BRIDWELL-MITCHELL E N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7531-4229 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
What Can Institutional Analysis Tell Us About School Improvement Reforms
Changing ineffective, counterproductive, and sometimes harmful beliefs, practices, and structures in schools is especially difficult because schools are not merely organizations but also institutions. While many recognize that institutional processes operate in schools, the study of institutions in education research often employs numerous concepts in disparate ways and connections to important outcomes can be unclear. This paper develops an inte…
Defying Logic? Exploring the Multiple Network Pathways for Principals’ Institutional Logics
Purpose: The increasing complexity of principals’ roles, including focusing both on learning outcomes and equity issues, requires having the flexibility to view novel problems through multiple lenses. In this article, we draw on institutional theory and social network research to understand the factors enabling and constraining the cognitive repertoire principals draw on when solving problems. Methods: The data come from a field simulation of how…
The Social Structure of School Resource Disparities: How Social Capital and Interorganizational Relationships Matter for Educational Equity
One potentially underestimated aspect of resource inequity in U.S. public schools is access to social capital in external organizational environments. This research examines partnerships among 211 New York City high schools and 918 partner organizations from 2001 to 2005 as sources of external school social capital providing resources that can strengthen organizational capacity to improve educational opportunities and outcomes. The findings, base…
Between What Is and What Is Possible: Theorizing the Role of Institutional Interstitiality in State-Led School Turnaround
State-led school turnaround in the United States has raised important questions about state efficacy and capacity for school improvement and institutional change. State intervention conventionally relies on compliance-driven coercive pressure drawing on the regulative underpinnings of institutions. State technical assistance for turnaround is an opportunity to examine how microlevel interactions between state- and site-level staff draw on the nor…
Lesson Plans: The Institutional Demands of Becoming a Teacher
Institutional Complexity and Policy Implementation: How Underlying Logics Drive Teacher Interpretations of Reform
One critical factor in policy implementation is how teachers interpret policy. Previous research largely overlooks how the broader culture shapes teachers’ interpretations. In the current research, we explore how teachers’ interpretations of instructional reforms are associated with the logics of broad societal institutions. Our longitudinal mixed-methods study of 117 teachers at three urban public schools demonstrates that teachers’ interpretati…
Them That’s Got: How Tie Formation in Partnership Networks Gives High Schools Differential Access to Social Capital
School partnerships are important sources of school social capital. Schools may have unequal access to social capital due to the pattern of relationships in the school-partner network. Using data on school resource needs, sociometric measures, and a set of multilevel logit models, the results of a study of 211 New York City public high schools and 1,098 partner organizations from 1999 to 2005 suggest that high schools have unequal access to partn…
The Ties That Bind: How Social Capital Is Forged and Forfeited in Teacher Communities
The effects of social capital on school improvement make it important to understand how teachers forge, maintain, or forfeit collegial relationships. Two common explanations focused on formal organizational features and individual characteristics do not address how social capital accrues from informal dynamics of teachers’ interactions in communities. Our longitudinal study of teacher networks in four urban public schools finds that teachers in l…
Theorizing Teacher Agency and Reform: How Institutionalized Instructional Practices Change and Persist
One reason reform does not dramatically change public schools is because instructional practices are highly institutionalized. This article advances a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools. Based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform, I assert that three mechanisms drive a particular form of teacher agency. Whether these three mechan…
The Rationalizing Logics of Public School Reform: How Cultural Institutions Matter for Classroom Instruction
The research herein uses a mixed methods approach to examine how organizational phenomena at the macro level of analysis translate into phenomena at the micro level. Specifically, the research attempts to explain how cultural institutions may translate into individual attitudes and actions, such as public school teachers’ decisions about using instructional practices prescribed by reform. The findings suggest that public school teachers rationali…
Theorizing Teacher Agency and Reform: How Institutionalized Instructional Practices Change and Persist
One reason reform does not dramatically change public schools is because instructional practices are highly institutionalized. This article advances a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools. Based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform, I assert that three mechanisms drive a particular form of teacher agency. Whether these three mechan…
The Rationalizing Logics of Public School Reform: How Cultural Institutions Matter for Classroom Instruction
The research herein uses a mixed methods approach to examine how organizational phenomena at the macro level of analysis translate into phenomena at the micro level. Specifically, the research attempts to explain how cultural institutions may translate into individual attitudes and actions, such as public school teachers’ decisions about using instructional practices prescribed by reform. The findings suggest that public school teachers rationali…
The Ties That Bind: How Social Capital Is Forged and Forfeited in Teacher Communities
The effects of social capital on school improvement make it important to understand how teachers forge, maintain, or forfeit collegial relationships. Two common explanations focused on formal organizational features and individual characteristics do not address how social capital accrues from informal dynamics of teachers’ interactions in communities. Our longitudinal study of teacher networks in four urban public schools finds that teachers in l…
Them That’s Got: How Tie Formation in Partnership Networks Gives High Schools Differential Access to Social Capital
School partnerships are important sources of school social capital. Schools may have unequal access to social capital due to the pattern of relationships in the school-partner network. Using data on school resource needs, sociometric measures, and a set of multilevel logit models, the results of a study of 211 New York City public high schools and 1,098 partner organizations from 1999 to 2005 suggest that high schools have unequal access to partn…
Lesson Plans: The Institutional Demands of Becoming a Teacher
The Social Structure of School Resource Disparities: How Social Capital and Interorganizational Relationships Matter for Educational Equity
One potentially underestimated aspect of resource inequity in U.S. public schools is access to social capital in external organizational environments. This research examines partnerships among 211 New York City high schools and 918 partner organizations from 2001 to 2005 as sources of external school social capital providing resources that can strengthen organizational capacity to improve educational opportunities and outcomes. The findings, base…
Between What Is and What Is Possible: Theorizing the Role of Institutional Interstitiality in State-Led School Turnaround
State-led school turnaround in the United States has raised important questions about state efficacy and capacity for school improvement and institutional change. State intervention conventionally relies on compliance-driven coercive pressure drawing on the regulative underpinnings of institutions. State technical assistance for turnaround is an opportunity to examine how microlevel interactions between state- and site-level staff draw on the nor…
The Rationalizing Logics of Public School Reform: How Cultural Institutions Matter for Classroom Instruction
The research herein uses a mixed methods approach to examine how organizational phenomena at the macro level of analysis translate into phenomena at the micro level. Specifically, the research attempts to explain how cultural institutions may translate into individual attitudes and actions, such as public school teachers’ decisions about using instructional practices prescribed by reform. The findings suggest that public school teachers rationali…
Theorizing Teacher Agency and Reform: How Institutionalized Instructional Practices Change and Persist
One reason reform does not dramatically change public schools is because instructional practices are highly institutionalized. This article advances a theory for how teacher agency can both change and maintain institutionalized instructional practices in schools. Based on findings from one U.S. urban public school undergoing state-mandated reform, I assert that three mechanisms drive a particular form of teacher agency. Whether these three mechan…
The Ties That Bind: How Social Capital Is Forged and Forfeited in Teacher Communities
The effects of social capital on school improvement make it important to understand how teachers forge, maintain, or forfeit collegial relationships. Two common explanations focused on formal organizational features and individual characteristics do not address how social capital accrues from informal dynamics of teachers’ interactions in communities. Our longitudinal study of teacher networks in four urban public schools finds that teachers in l…
Institutional Complexity and Policy Implementation: How Underlying Logics Drive Teacher Interpretations of Reform
One critical factor in policy implementation is how teachers interpret policy. Previous research largely overlooks how the broader culture shapes teachers’ interpretations. In the current research, we explore how teachers’ interpretations of instructional reforms are associated with the logics of broad societal institutions. Our longitudinal mixed-methods study of 117 teachers at three urban public schools demonstrates that teachers’ interpretati…
Them That’s Got: How Tie Formation in Partnership Networks Gives High Schools Differential Access to Social Capital
School partnerships are important sources of school social capital. Schools may have unequal access to social capital due to the pattern of relationships in the school-partner network. Using data on school resource needs, sociometric measures, and a set of multilevel logit models, the results of a study of 211 New York City public high schools and 1,098 partner organizations from 1999 to 2005 suggest that high schools have unequal access to partn…
Lesson Plans: The Institutional Demands of Becoming a Teacher
Between What Is and What Is Possible: Theorizing the Role of Institutional Interstitiality in State-Led School Turnaround
State-led school turnaround in the United States has raised important questions about state efficacy and capacity for school improvement and institutional change. State intervention conventionally relies on compliance-driven coercive pressure drawing on the regulative underpinnings of institutions. State technical assistance for turnaround is an opportunity to examine how microlevel interactions between state- and site-level staff draw on the nor…
Defying Logic? Exploring the Multiple Network Pathways for Principals’ Institutional Logics
Purpose: The increasing complexity of principals’ roles, including focusing both on learning outcomes and equity issues, requires having the flexibility to view novel problems through multiple lenses. In this article, we draw on institutional theory and social network research to understand the factors enabling and constraining the cognitive repertoire principals draw on when solving problems. Methods: The data come from a field simulation of how…
The Social Structure of School Resource Disparities: How Social Capital and Interorganizational Relationships Matter for Educational Equity
One potentially underestimated aspect of resource inequity in U.S. public schools is access to social capital in external organizational environments. This research examines partnerships among 211 New York City high schools and 918 partner organizations from 2001 to 2005 as sources of external school social capital providing resources that can strengthen organizational capacity to improve educational opportunities and outcomes. The findings, base…
What Can Institutional Analysis Tell Us About School Improvement Reforms
Changing ineffective, counterproductive, and sometimes harmful beliefs, practices, and structures in schools is especially difficult because schools are not merely organizations but also institutions. While many recognize that institutional processes operate in schools, the study of institutions in education research often employs numerous concepts in disparate ways and connections to important outcomes can be unclear. This paper develops an inte…
Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (6 works) · Educational Assessment and Improvement (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · School Choice and Performance (5 works) · Mathematics education (4 works) · Parental Involvement in Education (4 works) · Social science (4 works)