District Central Offices as Learning Organizations
How Sociocultural and Organizational Learning Theories Elaborate District Central Office Administrators' Participation in Teaching and Learning Improvement Efforts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11367100 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Meredith I Honig (0000-0001-6607-1539, University of Washington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 114 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 627-664 |
| Publication date | 2008-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0195-6744 • E-ISSN: 1549-6511 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/589317 |
| OpenAlex | W2112176766 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 40 |
| References cited | 71 |
School district central office administrators face unprecedented demands to become key supporters of efforts to improve teaching and learning districtwide. Some suggest that these demands mean that central offices, especially in midsized and large districts, should become learning organizations but provide few guides for how central offices might operate as learning organizations. This article presents a conceptual framework that draws on organizational and sociocultural learning theories to elaborate what might be involved if central offices operated as learning organizations. Specific work practices that this conceptual framework highlights include central office administrators’ participation in new school assistance relationships and their ongoing use of evidence from assistance relationships and other sources to inform central office policies and practices. Sense making and managing paradoxes are fundamental to these processes. I highlight these activities with empirical illustrations from research and experience, discuss conditions that help/hinder these activities, and suggest directions for district research and practice
Economics · Knowledge management · Learning organization · Management · Organizational learning · Organizational theory · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Work (physics · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Engineering · School Choice and Performance · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
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Equity Island
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Framework for Implementing Improvement Science in a School District to Support Institutionalized Improvement
Does the sharing of leadership increase the coherence of a school's instructional framework
The Evolution of Coaching as a Policy Instrument
Exploring the communities of learning policy in New Zealand using social network analysis
Is Role Change Enough? District Organizational Supports for Principal Supervision
The Rise of the School District Chief Equity Officer
The “Missing Middle” of Education Service Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Necessary but Not Sufficient
Explorando al Interior
Adaptive Assistance for Learning Improvement Efforts
Finding Testable Causal Mechanisms to Address Critical Public Management Issues
The quest for sustained data use
Mapping a strong school culture and linking it to sustainable school improvement
Exploring the relationship between school-level teacher qualifications and teachers' perceptions of school-based professional learning community practices
Organizational learning and extra effort
Understanding the competing logics of district education office work
From compliance to collaboration
Beyond Boundary Spanning
How Can Organizational and Sociocultural Learning Theories Shed Light on District Instructional Reform
The Practice of Data Use
Learning to Support Improvement—Next Steps for Research on District Practice
Mind the Gaps
District Reform and the Learning Sciences
Principal Leadership for School, Family, and Community Partnerships
Sociocultural Theory as a Lens to Understand Organizational Learning
The Study of Bureaucracy in Urban Education
Education Research-Practice Partnerships
Coach Professional Development in the Urban Emergent Context
Reinventing the Role of the University Researcher
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The Implications of Intersectionality on Southeast Asian Female Students’ Educational Outcomes in the United States
The Ebb and Flow of Social Network Ties Between District Leaders Under High-Stakes Accountability
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Organizational Learning in Schools under Sanction
Sensemaking in organizations
Research in Organizational Behavior
Order Without Design
Mind in Society
The myopia of learning
Street-Level Bureaucracy Revisited
Complexity, Accountability, and School Improvement
Cognition and Policy Implementation
Organizational Routines as a Source of Continuous Change
Situating learning in communities of practice.
Street-Level Bureaucrats and Institutional Innovation
Network Centrality, Power, and Innovation Involvement
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Bridging Epistemologies
Central Problems in the Management of Innovation
Organizational Learning
Introductory Essay—Improvisation as a Mindset for Organizational Analysis
The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields
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Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning
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Eliminating Ableism in Education
The Working Life of a Waitress
Development through participation in sociocultural activity
Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners
Districtwide Instructional Reform
Appropriating Tools for Teaching English
Managers Managing
Poor School Funding, Child Poverty, and Mathematics Achievement
Is October Brown Chinese? A Cultural Modeling Activity System for Underachieving Students
State Policy and the Non-Monolithic Nature of the Local School District
Policy Recommendations for Multi-Actor Implementation
The Uncertainty of the Past
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Cognitive and Situated Learning Perspectives in Theory and Practice
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Institutionalized Organizations
| Unique citing works | 40 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,22 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 40 |