Social Movement Organizing and Equity-Focused Educational Change: Shifting the Zone of Mediation

Renée, Michelle; Welner, Kevin G.; Oakes, Jeannie

doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_9

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Both were intended not only to represent the concerns of nonelites in communities around the state, but also to mobilize support of middle-class adults to the cause of improving equity in schools. At the same time, these frames broke open the 'closing the achievement gap' frame beyond its narrow confines in ways that would enable community members and politicians to appeal to broader notions of equity (including the allocation of resources to schools) and in ways that No Child Left Behind did not [Renée, Welner, & Oakes, 2009]. It would also allow for counterframes to scarcity, merit, and deficit to emerge as legitimate within public debate.…”

Section: Framing Access To Powerful Learning Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re)Framing Educational Possibility: Attending to Power and Equity in Shaping Access to and within Learning Opportunities

Hand

Penuel

Gutiérrez³

2012

Human Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Accounts of how culture constitutes the learning activities we accomplish with others are flourishing. These accounts illustrate how participants draw upon, adapt, and contest historically situated social practices, tools, and relations to accomplish their learning goals [Vygotsky: Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978]. Yet, they often lack attention to the ways that these social features reify and are reified by broader power structures and hierarchies. One way that power plays out in everyday social interaction is through the stories, narratives and ideologies that serve as resources for interpreting and organizing ongoing activity. Individuals become attuned to, coordinate and mobilize around these broader narratives through the frames they engage in moments of interaction. We offer frame analysis as a means of investigating both access to learning environments and opportunities to learn within them. To situate learning opportunities within and across different components of multilevel systems, a distinction is proposed between framing within a classroom or learning environment and framing access to educational processes and institutions. This paper recommends that researchers analyze, and design for, framing that disrupts predominant power structures and expands the possibilities for learning within more equitable social practices.

show abstract

Section: Framing Access To Powerful Learning Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Re)Framing Educational Possibility: Attending to Power and Equity in Shaping Access to and within Learning Opportunities

Hand

Penuel

Gutiérrez³

2012

Human Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…School districts thus mediate the external normative and political forces that shape interactions within local contexts and among individuals (i.e., classrooms, teachers, and students; Renee, Welner, & Oakes, 2010), and these forces define the boundaries within which school districts construct policy (Oakes et al, 2005). If a policy falls within the zone's boundaries, then it will likely proceed uncontested; if it falls outside these boundaries, it will likely be challenged (Welner, 2001).…”

Section: Zones Of Mediationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Shifting the Zone of Mediation in a Suburban New Immigrant Destination: Community Boundary Spanners and School District Policymaking

Brezicha

Hopkins

2016

Peabody Journal of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…This mediation zone, Oakes et al write, "sets the parameters of policy, behavior, beliefs, and actions" in schools and districts (p. 288; see also Welner, 2001). Proposals for change or reforms that fall outside this zone are likely to be protested by local community groups or educators (Boyd, 1976;Oakes et al, 2005;Renee, Welner, & Oakes, 2010). 2 According to Oakes et al (2005), forces shaping the "zone of mediation"the range of potential decisions considered feasible by district-level actorsinclude legislative and judicial decisions, community and business groups, parents, and educators themselves.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suburban School Districts and Demographic Change

Holme

Diem

Welton

2013

Educational Administration Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose: Suburban school districts have undergone significant demographic shifts over the past several decades. The research literature to date, however, has yet to explore how suburban district leaders are responding to such changes, or examine the factors that shape response. In this article, we apply a "zone of mediation" framework to examine how the leaders of one large and rapidly changing suburban school district in Texas responded to its changing student population. In our analysis, we consider the technical, normative, and political dimensions of this district's response to demographic shifts. Research Methods/Approach: We conducted an indepth qualitative case study of a large and rapidly changing district in the San Antonio Metropolitan area, which we named "Southern Independent School District." Our data included interviews with 28 district-level and community actors and interviews with 26 educators across three "focus"

show abstract

Social Movement Organizing and Equity-Focused Educational Change: Shifting the Zone of Mediation

Cited by 22 publications

References 10 publications

(Re)Framing Educational Possibility: Attending to Power and Equity in Shaping Access to and within Learning Opportunities

(Re)Framing Educational Possibility: Attending to Power and Equity in Shaping Access to and within Learning Opportunities

Shifting the Zone of Mediation in a Suburban New Immigrant Destination: Community Boundary Spanners and School District Policymaking

Suburban School Districts and Demographic Change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About