Paradigm Shifts in Large-Scale Educational Change: Uncovering the Oregon Education Investment Board's Theory of Change-In-Action

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Paradigm Shifts in Large-Scale Educational Change: Uncovering the Oregon Education Investment Board's Theory of Change-In-Action Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 2-4-2020 Paradigm Shifts in Large-Scale Educational Change: Uncovering the Oregon Education Investment Board's Theory of Change-in-Action Johanna Kathryn Blackford Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, and the Educational Leadership Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Blackford, Johanna Kathryn, "Paradigm Shifts in Large-Scale Educational Change: Uncovering the Oregon Education Investment Board's Theory of Change-in-Action" (2020). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5420. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.7293 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Paradigm Shifts in Large-Scale Educational Change: Uncovering the Oregon Education Investment Board’s Theory of Change-in-Action by Johanna Kathryn Blackford A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership: Curriculum and Instruction Dissertation Committee: Samuel Henry, Chair Patrick Burk Dannelle D. Stevens Marcus Ingle Matthew Carlson Portland State University 2020 © 2020 Johanna Kathryn Blackford i Abstract Education system leaders and policymakers around the globe expend vast amounts of resources on educational reform efforts and despite positive intentions, most attempts to affect educational change fail to realize large-scale, sustainable, positive outcomes—yet some have. While it is widely acknowledged that no two systems’ educational change journeys are the same, what is becoming clear is that there is significant similarity among the thinking or paradigms underpinning theories of change- in-action guiding positive large-scale system-wide reform. This research highlights four change paradigms and suggests that a collective learning paradigm guided by systems thinking represents the paradigm shift associated with successful large-scale change. With pragmatic aims, this study employs single, holistic case study methods to uncover the theory of change-in-action of the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB)—a governor-appointed board operating between 2011 and 2015 tasked with coordinating a seamless system of public education within the U.S. state. Analysis and synthesis of the OEIB’s collective actions reveal that “education as workforce development” was the primary aim of the reform, with an “outcome focused nexus” as the primary driver guiding the theory of change-in-action. Comparison with change paradigms, including those guiding the best systems in the world, highlight that the OEIB maintained the U.S. paradigmatic neoliberalist status quo for standardized market driven educational change despite espoused aims and efforts to do otherwise. This research highlights the relative invisibility and persistence of change paradigms as a critical source of replication of ii errors of the past. Development and use of change paradigm ideal types may help liberate those working within an educational system by unlocking the door to new ways of conceiving common dilemmas and identifying new policies and connected strategies that arise from a collective learning systems thinking paradigm known to be more successful. iii Acknowledgements To my entire committee: Thank you for sticking with me. I truly value the diversity of knowledge and experience you collectively bring. Thank you to my chair, Dr. Henry. Your connection with the educational and political world in the state of Oregon, along with your willingness to allow me to experiment, to study beyond the coursework, and to go out on a limB, has opened many doors and has been a gift I will forever be grateful for. Dr. Burk, thank you for the many enjoyable and intellectually stimulating conversations. What a treat to have someone with so much experience to be able to discuss and debate the past, present, and future of our field within the state, nation, and globe. Dr. Stevens, thank you for always being in the back of my mind whenever I started prioritizing work in the field over the completion of this paper. I consistently hear whispers to “Be a productive writer and get the work you started- finished!” Dr. Ingle, I appreciate both your curiosity and naturally systems-oriented mindset. You are the only person I have ever met whose bookshelf is filled with as many systems thinking authors as my own. Dr. Carlson, thank you for making time to support this process as graduate office representative. Your work in the field of health care has me constantly thinking of the cross-sector application of change paradigms. I would also like to offer appreciative acknowledgements to many others who have kept me going along the way: Dr. Noordhoof and Dr. Lingley for your friendship and more over the past decade; Dr. Cooper and our amazing writing community who have made this work fun again. Lucy Baker of the Oregon Advocacy Commission and Former Dean Hitz for access to real-world system-wide change policy and practice in- iv action; numerous non-profits whose members entrusted me to lead and support change efforts; and finally to all of my family, friends, and colleagues who’ve engaged with me in this work along the way. v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Preface ................................................................................................................................ ix Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Background of the Problem ............................................................................................ 4 Statement of the Research Problem, Purpose, and Educational Significance .............. 12 Key Terms and Concepts .............................................................................................. 15 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 21 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 21 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 22 Review of the Research Literature ................................................................................ 28 Review of Methodological Literature ........................................................................... 53 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 3: Methods ........................................................................................................... 60 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 60 Case Study Design ........................................................................................................ 61 Data Collection, Analysis, and Synthesis ..................................................................... 72 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 76 Chapter 4: Results ............................................................................................................. 77 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 77 Analysis......................................................................................................................... 80 Synthesis ..................................................................................................................... 147 Interpretation of Findings: Question 1 ........................................................................ 184 Interpretation of Findings: Question 2 ........................................................................ 186 Limitations of the Study .............................................................................................. 191 vi Chapter 5: Discussion ..................................................................................................... 193 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 193 Summary of Findings .................................................................................................. 195 Situated in the Larger Context ...................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Thomas Kuhn on Paradigms
    Vol. 29, No. 7, July 2020, pp. 1650–1657 DOI 10.1111/poms.13188 ISSN 1059-1478|EISSN 1937-5956|20|2907|1650 © 2020 Production and Operations Management Society Thomas Kuhn on Paradigms Gopesh Anand Department of Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 469 Wohlers Hall, 1206 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA, [email protected] Eric C. Larson Department of Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 8 Wohlers Hall, 1206 S. Sixth, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA, [email protected] Joseph T. Mahoney* Department of Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 140C Wohlers Hall, 1206 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA, [email protected] his study provides key arguments and contributions of Kuhn (1970) concerning paradigms, paradigm shifts, and sci- T entific revolutions. We provide interpretations of Kuhn’s (1970) key ideas and concepts, especially as they relate to business management research. We conclude by considering the practical implications of paradigms and paradigm shifts for contemporary business management researchers and suggest that ethical rules of conversation are at least as critical for the health of a scientific community as methodological rules (e.g., the rules of logical positivism) derived from the phi- losophy of science. Key words: Paradigms; paradigm shifts; scientific revolutions; normal science History: Received: February 2019; Accepted: March 2020 by Kalyan Singhal, after 3 revisions. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions the rich descriptions of the process of advancing this theory. SSR showed that science primarily advances Thomas S.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF Download Starting with Science Strategies for Introducing Young Children to Inquiry 1St Edition Ebook
    STARTING WITH SCIENCE STRATEGIES FOR INTRODUCING YOUNG CHILDREN TO INQUIRY 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Marcia Talhelm Edson | 9781571108074 | | | | | Starting with Science Strategies for Introducing Young Children to Inquiry 1st edition PDF Book The presentation of the material is as good as the material utilizing star trek analogies, ancient wisdom and literature and so much more. Using Multivariate Statistics. Michael Gramling examines the impact of policy on practice in early childhood education. Part of a series on. Schauble and colleagues , for example, found that fifth grade students designed better experiments after instruction about the purpose of experimentation. For example, some suggest that learning about NoS enables children to understand the tentative and developmental NoS and science as a human activity, which makes science more interesting for children to learn Abd-El-Khalick a ; Driver et al. Research on teaching and learning of nature of science. The authors begin with theory in a cultural context as a foundation. What makes professional development effective? Frequently, the term NoS is utilised when considering matters about science. This book is a documentary account of a young intern who worked in the Reggio system in Italy and how she brought this pedagogy home to her school in St. Taking Science to School answers such questions as:. The content of the inquiries in science in the professional development programme was based on the different strands of the primary science curriculum, namely Living Things, Energy and Forces, Materials and Environmental Awareness and Care DES Exit interview. Begin to address the necessity of understanding other usually peer positions before they can discuss or comment on those positions.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolving Paradigms of Communication Research
    International Journal of Communication 7 (2013), Feature 230–238 1932–8036/2013FEA0002 Evolving Paradigms of Communication Research KLAUS BRUHN JENSEN University of Copenhagen W. RUSSELL NEUMAN University of Michigan The MIT historian of science Thomas S. Kuhn famously introduced the notions of paradigm, paradigm shift, and revolutionary science in his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970/1962), focusing primarily on the early histories of chemistry and astronomy. Those ideas and the parallel notion of puzzle- solving normal science have become frequently and influentially used in both the social sciences and humanistic scholarship, including the interdisciplinary field of communication research (Bennett & Iyengar, 2010; Dervin et al., 1989; Katz, 1992; Gitlin, 1978; Rosengren, 1985; Wang, 2011). What follows is a continuation and extension of a special section of The International Journal of Communication on the topic, “Communication Research as a Discipline.” Reflecting on the future of the field, the present special section joins contributions from a collection of key European scholars around a focus on three interrelated questions: 1. Is it useful and appropriate to characterize the diverse practices of communication research as reflecting an underlying paradigm or paradigms which represent the common concerns of a community of scholars? 2. To the extent that the notion of paradigms is a legacy of past communication research, is this legacy subject to pressures to change as a result of the significant transformations in the media technologies of the digital age? 3. Similarly, are past paradigms subject to pressures to change as a result of new historical conditions, public practices of communication, and normative concerns? Our tentative responses to all three questions are in the positive.
    [Show full text]
  • Paradigm Shift Damien Besancenot, Habib Dogguy
    Paradigm Shift Damien Besancenot, Habib Dogguy To cite this version: Damien Besancenot, Habib Dogguy. Paradigm Shift. 2011. halshs-00590527v3 HAL Id: halshs-00590527 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00590527v3 Preprint submitted on 3 Jul 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Paradigm Shift Damien Besancenot, Universit´eParis 13 and CEPN Habib Dogguy, Universit´eParis 13 and CEPN June 10, 2011 Abstract This paper analyses the consequences of young researchers' scientific choice on the dynamics of sciences. We develop a simple two state mean field game model to analyze the competition between two paradigms based on Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions. At the beginning of their ca- reer, young researchers choose the paradigm in which they want to work according to social and personal motivations. Despite the possibility of multiple equilibria the model exhibits at least one stable solution in which both paradigms always coexist. The occurrence of shocks on the param- eters may induce the shift from one dominant paradigm to the other. During this shift, researchers' choice is proved to have a great impact on the evolution of sciences. Keywords : Paradigm shift, Scientific choice, Research dynamics, Mean field game.
    [Show full text]
  • TOWARD a SYSTEMIC THEORY of SYMBOLIC ACTION by PATRICK
    TOWARD A SYSTEMIC THEORY OF SYMBOLIC ACTION By PATRICK MICHAEL McKERCHER B.A., San Diego State University, 1981 M.A., San Diego State University, 1984 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA March, 1993 Patrick Michael McKercher, 1993 ________ ___________________________ In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced Library shall make it degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the agree that permission for extensive freely available for reference and study. I further copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. (Signature) Department of AflJL The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date DE6 (2/88) ABSTRACT Though Kenneth Burke has often been dismissed as a brilliant but idiosyncratic thinker, this dissertation will argue that he is actually a precocious systems theorist. The systemic and systematic aspects of Burke’s work will be demonstrated by comparing it to the General Systems Theory (GST) of biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Though beginning from very different starting points, Bertalanffy and Burke develop similar aims, methods, and come to remarkably similar conclusions about the nature and function of language. The systemic nature of Burke’s language philosophy will also become evident through an analysis of the Burkean corpus.
    [Show full text]
  • Making a Paradigm Shift the Bamako 2008 Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health | PAGE 12
    Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) sponsored by UNICEF/UNDP/World B a n k / W H O Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) sponsored by UNICEF/UNDP/World B a n k / W H O No. 82 - M a r c h 2 0 0 9 Making a paradigm shift The Bamako 2008 Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health | PAGE 12 Also in this issue 29 • Empowerment SAC • ANDI Task Force PAGE 30 • Chagas disease protocol 4 Research briefs 19 • ASTMH and rectal artesunate 7 TDR briefly 32 • DEEP on ineffective diagnostics Liberia diary: 24 HAT research in Uganda • Biosafety courses launched ‘greening’ in Mali M eet IN G S clinical trials in 33 • Sudan adopts HMM strategy 27 • Stewardship SAC a remote site • Environment, agriculture and 34 Publications infectious diseases 36 Grants Letter from the editor Powering sustainable research page n TDR we speak a great deal about Solar power generation capacity not only would as- 9 using the research that we do in sure the sustainability of the infrastructure invest- countries not only for a particular drug ment in Bolahun for other trials for neglected tropi- trial or project, but also to build more cal diseases, but it could potentially power existing “sustainable” research and health services facilities of a nearby health centre, and also Bolahun capacity in poorly resourced locales. High School. Now, a drug trial of moxidectin, a potential drug The high school, founded by monks in 1925 and a for the eradication of onchocerciasis in Africa, to be focus of Peace Corps volunteer activity in the 1960s conducted in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of and 1970s, has an interesting history.
    [Show full text]
  • Theoretical Approach to the Interaction Between the Meta-System Schemas of the Artificial (Built) Environment and Nature
    Theoretical Approach to the Interaction Between the Meta-system Schemas of the Artificial (Built) Environment and Nature José L. Fernández-Solís, Ph. D. Kent D. Palmer, Ph. D. Timothy Ferris, Ph. D. Texas A&M University, 3137 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-3137 USA P.O. Box 1632, CA 92867 USA University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Blvd., Mawson Lakes, 5095 AU Emails: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Abstract: This is an exploration of how the artificial environment links with the natural environment and requires a conceptual construct that bridges these two environments. Palmer’s General Schema Theory, a highly theoretical work, elaborated on in a dissertation by Fernández-Solís (2006), provides a theory of schemas and a theory of the schema of meta-systems which will be useful for interpreting the relationship between the artificial and natural environment. The concept of meta-system is used first to generate and then to validate the concept of meta-industry. This paper argues that the building construction industry (which produces the built or artificial environment) that is categorized as an ‘industry’ by academia, actually acts as a meta-industry. Meta-industry is a concept that encapsulates an ‘industry of industries,’ which implies that the artificial and the natural environment interact at the meta-level. Climate change is construed as the reaction of the natural to the artificial environment at the meta- level. The approach to this pre-paradigmatic work uses the tools of philosophical and critical thinking, rationality and logic. General Schemas thinking at the meta- systemic level is presented as a new approach towards the formation of a novel paradigm of the artificial environment.
    [Show full text]
  • How Accurately Does Thomas Kuhn's Model of Paradigm Change
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by RERO DOC Digital Library Scientometrics (2010) 84:441–464 DOI 10.1007/s11192-009-0107-x How accurately does Thomas Kuhn’s model of paradigm change describe the transition from the static view of the universe to the big bang theory in cosmology? A historical reconstruction and citation analysis Werner Marx • Lutz Bornmann Received: 12 August 2009 / Published online: 7 November 2009 Ó Akade´miai Kiado´, Budapest, Hungary 2009 Abstract Up to the 1960s the prevalent view of science was that it was a step-by-step undertaking in slow, piecemeal progression towards truth. Thomas Kuhn argued against this view and claimed that science always follows this pattern: after a phase of ‘‘normal’’ science, a scientific ‘‘revolution’’ occurs. Taking as a case study the transition from the static view of the universe to the Big Bang theory in cosmology, we appraised Kuhn’s theoretical approach by conducting a historical reconstruction and a citation analysis. As the results show, the transition in cosmology can be linked to many different persons, publications, and points in time. The findings indicate that there was not one (short term) scientific revolution in cosmology but instead a paradigm shift that progressed as a slow, piecemeal process. Keywords Thomas Kuhn Á Paradigm Á Historical reconstruction Á Cosmology Á Bibliometrics Á Citation analysis Introduction Up into the 1960s the prevalent view of science was that it was an incremental endeavor in a slow, piecemeal process ‘‘marching ever truthwards’’ (Marris et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Paradigms in Science and Society
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01136-6 - The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi Excerpt More information Introduction: paradigms in science and society Questions about the origin, nature, and meaning of life are as old as humanity itself. Indeed, they lie at the very roots of philosophy and religion. The earliest school of Greek philosophy, known as the Milesian school, made no distinction between animate and inanimate, nor between spirit and matter. Later on, the Greeks called those early philosophers “hylozoists,” or “those who think that matter is alive.” The ancient Chinese philosophers believed that the ultimate reality, which underlies and unifies the multiple phenomena we observe, is intrinsically dynamic. They called it Tao – the way, or process, of the universe. For the Taoist sages all things, whether animate or inanimate, were embedded in the continuous flow and change of the Tao. The belief that everything in the universe is imbued with life has also been characteristic of indigenous spiritual traditions throughout the ages. In monotheistic religions, by contrast, the origin of life is associated with a divine creator. In this book, we shall approach the age-old questions of the origin and nature of life from the perspective of modern science. We shall see that even within that much narrower context the distinction between living and nonliving matter is often problematic and somewhat arbitrary. Nevertheless, modern science has shown that the vast majority of living organisms exhibit fundamental characteristics that are strikingly different from those of nonliving matter. To fully appreciate both the achievements and limitations of the new scientific con- ception of life – the subject of this book – it will be useful first to clarify the nature and limitations of science itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Science Wars 1St Edition Kindle
    SCIENCE WARS 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Anthony Walsh | 9781351491860 | | | | | Science Wars 1st edition PDF Book Accessed 15 may Sort: Best Match. Fabulous First Editions from the s. Facebook Twitter. TomS HA. The losers are left in the dust. Why does this all mean? Judges Guild. If the initial print run - known as the 'first printing' or 'first impression'- sells out and the publisher decides to produce a subsequent printing with the same typeset, books from that second print run can be described as a first edition, second printing. They took place principally in the United States in the s in the academic and mainstream press. Social conditions and attitudes affect how strongly one attempts to resist falsification for the core of a program, but the program has an objective status based on its relative explanatory power. The authors insist that the "science critics" misunderstood the theoretical approaches they criticized, given their "caricature, misreading, and condescension, [rather] than argument". Action Films. The antidemocratic right often accuses the new science studies of relativism, but it is wrong about just what it is to which the new science studies "relativizes" sciences. History of football. For "educated classes" whose own status depends on the same appeals to objectivity, rationality, expertise, and progressiveness on which science's legitimacy depends, science discourses can be mobilized to encourage people to think in politically seductive ways about any and all social issues. This publisher chose not to include the year that it was printed. Any number can play. Good Times. Star Wars. Wild Card. Booksellers will often describe these later first editions as a 'first edition thus' or just 'first thus'.
    [Show full text]
  • Rationality and Scientific Method: Paradigm Shift in an Age of Collapse
    Rationality and Scientific Method: Paradigm Shift in an Age of Collapse JOHN MCMURTRY Department of Philosophy University of Guelph ABSTRACT: This paper explains what has long been missing across domains and levels of analysis: (1) the life-blind inner logic regulating contemporary paradigms of “rationality” and “scientific method”; (2) the reasons why these regulators of thought select for unforeseen consequences of ecological, social and economic collapse; and (3) the principle of life-ground consistency which corrects this systemic incoherence of thought regime. KEYWORDS: academy, collapse, collective choice, full coherence principle, game theory, life and money sequences of value, mechanism, global market, rationality, scientific method, truth The Nature of the Global Crisis The potentially fatal global crisis we face is that humanity’s many-faced global industrial regime has led to interconnected and spasmic collapses of the world’s life support systems - the air quality, the soil mantles, fresh and ocean waters, species diversity, and stable climate cycles (McMurtry in Miller and Westra, 2002). At the same time, a rising half of the world is destitute, public sectors and services are privatized for profit while a global culture of violence entertainment, waste and military spending escalates. What is not understood at the deep- structural level is that accepted rational and scientific principles have systematically selected towards all of these phenomena. The Self-Maximizing Principle of Rationality At the unexamined core of received models of rational choice is an axiomatic principle which symbolic notation and jargon conceal. It is taken for granted as a formal given. Neoclassical economics, contractarian and decision theory assume it as a first principle, while Marxist critique assumes it as the regulating form of class struggle.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Qualitative Research
    PART ONE Introduction to Qualitative Research CHAPTER 1 The Nature of Qualitative Research: Development and Perspectives This chapter is an attempt to trace the background of qualitative research, its development and its main features. It also focuses on some epistemological and methodological issues. The aim is to put the more pragmatic and practical sec- tions in the book into a theoretical and methodological context. Qualitative research is a form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world in which they live. In the words of Atkinson et al. 2001: 7) it is an `umbrella term', and a number of different approaches exist within the wider framework of this type of research. Most of these have the same aim: to understand the social reality of individuals, groups and cultures. Researchers use qualitative approaches to explore the behaviour, perspectives, feelings and experiences of people and what lies at the core of their lives. Specifically, ethnographers focus on culture and customs, grounded theorists investigate social processes and interaction, while phenom- enologists consider the meanings of experience and describe the life world. Qualitative methodology is also useful in the exploration of change or conflict. The basis of qualitative research lies in the interpretive approach to social reality and in the description of the lived experience of human beings. Qualitative and quantitative approaches: underlying philosophies Social reality can be approached in different ways, and researchers will have to select between varieties of research approaches. While often making a choice on practical grounds, they must also understand the philosophical ideas on which it is based.
    [Show full text]