Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness

Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan === Culturally responsive practice (CRP) by educators is an essential tool to serve increasingly diverse public-school populations. This study examines the sensemaking and sensegiving that district central office administrators undertake regarding what it means for edu...

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Main Author: Anderson, Daniel S.
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Boston College 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108820
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spelling ndltd-BOSTON-oai-dlib.bc.edu-bc-ir_1088202020-09-12T05:01:16Z Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness Anderson, Daniel S. Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan Text thesis 2020 Boston College English electronic application/pdf Culturally responsive practice (CRP) by educators is an essential tool to serve increasingly diverse public-school populations. This study examines the sensemaking and sensegiving that district central office administrators undertake regarding what it means for educators to be culturally responsive practitioners. This dissertation used a case study of a mid-sized urban district which has not yet undertaken systematic effort on CRP to explore three research questions: (1) How do district administrators understand what it means for educators to be culturally responsive practitioners? (2) How do district administrators seek to influence the cultural responsiveness of educators? (3) What does evidence suggest about the efficacy of these efforts to influence the cultural responsiveness of educators? Data included interviews with seven district administrators and nineteen teachers, a survey of 33 educators in the district, and a review of internal district documents. Findings included that administrators had limited understanding of CRP, though they believe it to be important. They connected CRP to methodologies and practices in which they were more fluent. Sensegiving by district administrators was more effective at conveying the importance of CRP than its meaning or how to implement it. Absent a shared definition of CRP, but with heavy signaling of its importance, educators developed varying conceptions through their sensemaking. This case study suggests several implications for research, policy, and practice, including for the study of sensemaking in multi-layered organizations grappling with multiple changes and for implementation by school districts of CRP, as well as barriers to such implementation. culturally responsive practice culturally responsive teaching education leadership school district administration sensegiving sensemaking Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2020. Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108820
collection NDLTD
language English
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic culturally responsive practice
culturally responsive teaching
education leadership
school district administration
sensegiving
sensemaking
spellingShingle culturally responsive practice
culturally responsive teaching
education leadership
school district administration
sensegiving
sensemaking
Anderson, Daniel S.
Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness
description Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan === Culturally responsive practice (CRP) by educators is an essential tool to serve increasingly diverse public-school populations. This study examines the sensemaking and sensegiving that district central office administrators undertake regarding what it means for educators to be culturally responsive practitioners. This dissertation used a case study of a mid-sized urban district which has not yet undertaken systematic effort on CRP to explore three research questions: (1) How do district administrators understand what it means for educators to be culturally responsive practitioners? (2) How do district administrators seek to influence the cultural responsiveness of educators? (3) What does evidence suggest about the efficacy of these efforts to influence the cultural responsiveness of educators? Data included interviews with seven district administrators and nineteen teachers, a survey of 33 educators in the district, and a review of internal district documents. Findings included that administrators had limited understanding of CRP, though they believe it to be important. They connected CRP to methodologies and practices in which they were more fluent. Sensegiving by district administrators was more effective at conveying the importance of CRP than its meaning or how to implement it. Absent a shared definition of CRP, but with heavy signaling of its importance, educators developed varying conceptions through their sensemaking. This case study suggests several implications for research, policy, and practice, including for the study of sensemaking in multi-layered organizations grappling with multiple changes and for implementation by school districts of CRP, as well as barriers to such implementation. === Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2020. === Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. === Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.
author Anderson, Daniel S.
author_facet Anderson, Daniel S.
author_sort Anderson, Daniel S.
title Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness
title_short Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness
title_full Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness
title_fullStr Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practice in a District: Central Office Administrators' Sensemaking and Sensegiving of Cultural Responsiveness
title_sort enhancing culturally responsive practice in a district: central office administrators' sensemaking and sensegiving of cultural responsiveness
publisher Boston College
publishDate 2020
url http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108820
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