Animating the Logics Perspective to Understand Dilemmas of Reform: A review of the pre-K to 12 education and social sector literature

Abstract

The institutional logics perspective provides lenses to analyze and interpret the deep-seated conceptualizations, or logics, structuring a field, the work of actors in a field, and the complexities of change. Leveraging how theory transcends academic disciplines, this article discusses insights gleaned from systematic analysis of 31 empirical studies from the pre-K-12 education field and social sector. To guide future scholarship, this article describes patterns in methodologies for investigating educational reform as a type of institutional change. This theoretical review attends to the ramifications of multiple, competing logics and highlights the mechanisms by which logics bridge macro-level forces and micro-level actions so that researchers and practitioners can better understand reform within the pre-K-12 education field. Taken together, we illustrate the explanatory power of the logics perspective to reveal how diverse actors within the pre-K-12 education field activate the ideas, rules, and resources of education reform. We also provide guidance for scholars applying logics to answer pressing questions about the complex dynamics and long-standing dilemmas of reform.

Surfacing Principals’ Beliefs About Instruction for Students With Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis

“…Rather, three distinct logics regarding the purpose of special education guided their concept of "high quality": (a) counteracting low expectations with challenging content, (b) accessing the general education curriculum, and (c) providing targeted, specialized instruction that meets students with disabilities' individualized needs. Our findings repeat a familiar refrain (Qi et al, 2018;Woulfin et al, 2022), underscoring how emphasizing practice without attending to how beliefs muddy or clarify school leaders' concept of quality could result in variable and harmful leadership.…”

The Winds of Changes: How Research Alliances Respond to and Manage Shifting Field-Level Logics

“…A field typically includes multiple logics that inform and legitimize its practices, give cultural meaning to its work, and set the terms of competition and change (Thornton et al, 2012). The education field, vast as it is, can be understood as including public agencies (e.g., state education agencies, districts, schools), non-profit organizations (e.g., charter organizations, teacher unions, professional associations, philanthropies), and private sector firms (e.g., textbook publishers, assessment firms; Rowan, 2006;Woulfin et al, 2022). Like societal logics, the relative dominance of particular field-level logics can rise and fall over time.…”

“…No field exemplifies institutional complexity more than U.S. K-12 education, with its combination of fragmentation and pluralism (Meyer et al, 1987;Rowan, 2006). Recent research has documented the ways that multiple and conflicting field-level logics shape the work of U.S. districts and schools (Bridwell-Mitchell & Sherer, 2017;Glazer et al, 2019;Marsh et al, 2020;Rigby, 2014;Woulfin et al, 2022;Woulfin & Weiner, 2019). Research alliances thus would appear particularly vulnerable to the competing demands, values, and expectations of multiple field-level logics.…”

“…To accomplish this, we engaged in an iterative process that alternated between deductive and inductive methods. We began by familiarizing ourselves with prior work describing the central societal-level logics that operate in Western societies; of these logics, we focused particularly on the logics of the market, profession, and community, as these logics have been found by prior work to be especially salient in U.S. education (Glazer et al, 2019;Marsh et al, 2020;Woulfin et al, 2022). With these three logics as a beginning framework, we revisited our initial analytic memos that synthesized the central findings from each research site.…”

How State Educational Agency Coordinators Navigate Logics of Local Control in Standards Implementation

“…Over time, scholars have expanded their analysis from societal logics—largescale institutional orders like markets and the state—to field-specific logics, or smaller-scale sets of ideas and beliefs that shape individual sensemaking and action within organizations (Woulfin et al, 2022). For example, Thornton and Ocasio (1999) identified an “editorial logic” at work in higher education publishing that they contrasted with the traditional logic of markets.…”