“The Business of Teaching and Learning”: Institutionalizing Equity in Educational Organizations Through Continuous Improvement

Abstract

The continuous improvement (CI) approach to systems change has rapidly spread across education policy circles in recent years and has been hailed as a promising means to achieve educational equity and social justice. CI’s highly routinized, scientific process for improving efficiency and productivity is a somewhat unexpected means to pursue equity. To understand this puzzle, I examine the use of CI to promote equity through two qualitative, multilevel case studies. I draw on institutional theory to understand how CI has integrated logics of racial equity and performance, and how local actors have improvised novel approaches. This analysis illuminates the complex institutional dynamics at play with CI implementation and identifies the challenges and promise of using CI to promote educational equity.