Guacamole

This post actually has *nothing* to do with guacamole....except to say that, holy guacamole!, my orals exam is in less than three days. Three. Interesting. Hmm.

Not sure what else to say--other than I'm reviewing what I've reviewed. Am hearing my voice in my head, talking through this and that about implementation and institutional theory and reading instruction galore!! I've created summaries, matrices, diagrams, and timelines. And on top of it all, I've reflected on how and why I ended up in grad school and where could I end up in the future. Believe it or not, I'm still breathing & finding time to run and cook & crack up about ridiculous topics with J. Aww.

Bring it on!!!

A couple things

First, I wanted to announce the mini-milestone of completing my mock orals in research group. It was an adventure, for sure! At moments, I impressed myself, and, other moments were downright rocky.

Second, I've moved along to my *second* notebook. This one has an array of multicolored squares on the cover. I'm finding the tan, green, and pink squares quite inspiring :)

Third, this afternoon--after reviewing a heap of implementation readings--I realized that I really, really want to think and talk about the relationship between implementation and coupling theory. I feel that could strengthen my points about implementation. And I feel relatively confident when I talk about coupling. So, a few things to think about....Implementation always involves coordinating two elements (district policy and instruction or teacher certification and student achievement) but those two elements maintain their identity, so they are loosely coupled.

In a sense, the implementation chain that Mazmanian & Sabatier refer to are a series of couplings. And the SLB framework discusses how Street-level bureaucrats, such as teachers or police officers, are wedged between a rock (official policy) and a hard place (dealing with clients). They're coupling policy to practice left-and-right. Finally, the cognitive approach is concerned with the processes by which actors come to understand policy, so the coupling of a policy's embedded ideas with an actor. The coupling of RF policy to a principal or to a 3rd teacher might be different than the coupling of RF policy to a 1st grade teacher.

Oops! I guess that was more than just a couple things ;)

Ticker

I made a countdown ticker for my exam date. Being aware of the precious time remaining helps me prioritize what I need to do and want to do before the date, so I can show what I know. I am aware that I need to do some more reading, take some more notes, create brief summaries of pieces, practice talking about my areas with peers, meet with my professors again, and polish my paragraphs and prospectus! On top of all that, I will juggle other school, work, and life responsibilities :) I feel strongly that panicking will not help, and I think that having *some* fear is a good motivator. I also realize that I might need to ask for help and be a bit flexible---about school and home stuff. November might be a good month to eat pb& j sandwiches :P

Waking up

For the past month or so, I've been waking up in the morning with relatively delicious thoughts about my areas of specialization. There's nothing like waking up to an idea about policy implementation or institutional theory ;)

I've been trying to think more about change because implementation is about changing, while institutional theory studies stability and change.

• what changes and what doesn't? what conditions promoted or hindered that change?
• why does change happen?
• what are sources of change? People? Places?
• where does change happen?
• who causes/blocks change?

I'm noticing that implementation follows an organization's responses to a policy that asks it to change. Much of the implementation literature is trying to explain the variability in responses to policy. Why do organizations and actors respond differently when encountering and engaging with the same policy? In a way, the policy is a recipe, but different chefs concoct entirely different dishes.

I'm very interested in the ways that neo-institutionalism looks outward--to the environment--and also inward--to the cognitive mechanisms affecting actors to account for change. The environment is a source of logics, rules, beliefs, and resources, including professional associations. Yes, policy might originate in the environment, but neo-institutionalists ask us to consider the cognitive mechanisms shaping actors' interpretation of policy. If policy is interpret, it may be framed. Those frames are resources influencing organizational actions, including its implementation processes.

Bigger picture

What accounts for variation in how policy penetrates schools and classrooms to change reading instruction and improve educational outcomes in underserved communities?

• Why are schools resistant to change?
• What accounts for the stability and change in schooling and instruction and educational outcomes for poor and minority children/youth? What's happening in urban schools, and why?
• How are teachers affected by waves of instructional reform?
• How are classrooms affected by policies governing the content and pedagogy of reading instruction?
• How does reading research deal with policy and its implementation? How does reading research treat schools as organizations, teachers as workers, and the institutional elements of schooling?

Three areas, three themes

I'd like to share some of the studying process on my blog, as well as vent about the anxiety that grad studentdom engenders :O

The big three are starting to feel a bit more real to me, and I have some confidence that, by the date of the exam, my areas of specialization will feel like a pair of broken-in shoes. But I worry that I won't get to say what I really, really want to say about my 3 areas. I'd like the exam to be a time that I present some of my understandings and findings about the states of these academic fields. Below, I take a stab at a few things I'd like to say about each area.

Policy implementation

1) There are many ways to study the path from policy to practice, and it is possible to treat this path as the translation of broad ideas into concrete, discrete organizational and individual practices and behaviors

2) There are many reasons why it is hard to improve schooling--structure of schools, nature of teachers' work, relationship between federal, state, district, and individual school, what school leaders and teachers know and are motivated to do, ambiguity within policies

3) Policies contain information and ideas about structuring schools, teachers' work, and students' learning. Schools, as organizations, and people must interact with, make sense of, experiment with, and learn from policies.

Neo-institutional theory

1) There are many ways to explain stability and change--at the field and organizational level

2) The coupling of the broader environment, including policy, to the technical, core features of schools has multiple consequences--for practice, policy, and research. The contrast between loose and tight coupling of organizational structures and activities is a false dichotomy. It is possible for organizations to be simultaneously loose and tight; the organization can be loose in one place and tight in another.

3) People can act as institutional entrepreneurs who shape the nature & characteristics of institutions. People can engage in framing to manipulate and present logics in particular ways to fellow members of an organization.

Reading Instruction

1) Core reading programs are nothing new--they go all the way back to the 1800s in one room schoolhouses

2) The reading achievement gap is a critical issue

3) Different elements of literacy instruction are treated differently by policy, research, and practice. Who pays attention to phonics versus writing or spelling vs. comprehension?

I have a date!

My orals exam will be on December 1st! Yes, it took a little juggling, a lot of sweating, and enough emails to cause carpal tunnel syndrome, but I'm not complaining :) I know that the exam is a tremendous milestone, and right now I feel excited AND nervous. It seems that there are many uncertainties about the exam---who will ask what types of questions? how much will I be interrupted? how much will I talk about my own research agenda?

All I can say is that two years ago, I was just diving into stats and memoing about the studying the implementation of core reading programs. A year ago, I was collecting data on a coach's framing. A month ago, I was completing my conceptual position paper. So now is my time to read and study and think---all towards learning more and sharing what I know with my orals committee on December 1st!