Educational Change Initiatives: Misalignments Between Changemakers and Their Institutions

Abstract

This Work-in-Progress Research paper presents preliminary findings from a larger study on how and why individuals engage in educational change initiatives within institutional and multi-institutional settings. In this paper, we quantitatively explore the learning beliefs, professional identities, and educational values of individuals involved in change efforts, and we examine how these beliefs, identities, and values align or misalign with those of their colleagues or institutions. Our pilot data reveal significant differences between participants’ self-evaluation and institutional evaluation of beliefs, identities, and values around education. For example, educators rate their own conceptions of learning as more student-centered, and their educational goals as broader, than what they perceive among colleagues at their institution. Within faculty groups from the same school, we see examples of both strong alignment and strong misalignment in educational beliefs, values, and identities. While our investigation is ongoing, we believe this research has the potential to help changemakers develop greater awareness of their own points-of-view, and to more effectively converse with potential collaborators about specific areas of alignment and misalignment that could affect change processes and outcomes.