“We Have to Have a Village We Can Come Home To”: Exploring a Community of Micro Disruptors and Their Role in Advancing Equitable School District Change

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Degree type
EdD
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Education
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Equity
Professional learning
Social networks
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01/01/2024
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MacDonald, Megan, Collyer
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Abstract

While school districts have increasingly emphasized educational equity in their stated values, the traditional tools and strategies that educational leaders have used to disrupt inequities in schools have often been ineffective. One novel approach for confronting educational inequity is the Micro Disruptions Equity Pathway (MDEP), hosted within a large urban school district in the northeast US, which aims to equip school leaders with the tools to engage in “micro disruption” of school-level inequities through professional development sessions and collaboration with other leaders. This qualitative case study examines the MDEP program to yield insight about what individual school leaders’ efforts to confront the impact of systemic inequities in their schools look like, and how the program and their relationships within it influence leaders’ learning and change efforts in this context. The study is structured around three research questions that investigate the impact of the MDEP on participants, the strategies they use to foster change, and the role of professional relationships in shaping their experiences, shaped by critical pragmatist assumptions and principles of action research. Informed by frameworks from critical whiteness studies, networked improvement, and race-critical theories for interpreting organizations, this study analyzes how participating school leaders conceptualize and engage in the practice of “micro disruption” of inequities. This approach emphasizes local and practitioner knowledge for fostering school-level and systemic improvements. It also highlights aspects of the organizational context and social network among participants to consider the barriers that leaders confront in their equity work and the benefits they derive from collaborating with others in the program. The study’s findings shed light on both the successes and challenges of the MDEP, offering valuable insights into equity-oriented professional development for school leaders and suggesting implications for future iterations of the program and similar initiatives in other districts, as well as for further research about the practice of micro disruption and the impact of social networks on leader’s learning.

Advisor
Nakkula, Michael, J
Date of degree
2024
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