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Partnering in Equity Work:

Dynamics in Partnership Efforts to Advance Equity in Schools

April 14, 2024

John Diamond, Daniella Molle,

April Peters-Hawkins, Wehmah Jones,

Emily Handsman, Emily Nott, Mark White, Yeonsoo Choi, Jordan Mosby, CJ Greer

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Outline

Introduction

Research Questions

Theoretical Framework

Preliminary Findings

Discussion/Conclusion

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8 large urban districts

District Partnership Teams

District

University

State

Wallace Foundation

TA Providers

Community

University Mentors

Research Context

“Building comprehensive and aligned principal pathways, across seven domains of activity, can produce a cadre of school leaders equipped to improve school and student outcomes”

Equity-

Centered Principal Pipeline Initiative

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How do organizational and interpersonal factors impact this partnership work?

Research Questions

How do districts and their university partners navigate the design and implementation of new, equity-centered leader pathways?

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Data Source	Frequency/Type
meeting notes	monthly team meetings Day at the Wallace Foundation (reporting meeting) virtual and in-person convenings
initiative deliverables	grant application, workplans, logic model, interim reports definitions of equity and equity-centered leaders
interviews with university and state partners	Summer/Fall 2022
member reflections	Fall 2022

Data Collection and Analysis

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Theoretical framework

Inhabited Institutionalism

Hallett, T., Hawbaker, A. The case for an inhabited institutionalism in organizational research: interaction, coupling, and change reconsidered. Theor Soc 50, 1–32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09412-2

Institutional expectations

Social interactions

Organizations

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Theoretical framework

Inhabited Institutionalism

Hallett, T., Hawbaker, A. The case for an inhabited institutionalism in organizational research: interaction, coupling, and change reconsidered. Theor Soc 50, 1–32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09412-2

Districts

Universities

State

Community Orgs

Wallace

Interactions among People within and between

partner orgs.

Equity

Institutional expectations

Social Interactions

Organizations

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When working together to actualize equity-centered leadership, several factors arise

Vision for the partnership

Inter- and intra- organizational dynamics

Definitions of equity

Relationships

The purpose of the Wallace ECPI is ultimately to create more equitable schools - to put the myth of equity into practice. But the process of trying to actualize equity, this institutional myth, can be tricky. So, when we look at how the partnerships form, we’re seeing them grapple with this process, and several different factors arise. So today, we’re going to discuss these different factors - our preliminary ideas about the barriers and gateways to productive partnership. First, partners have both divergent and complementary visions for the partnership/reasons they chose to participate in the first place, second, partners have both similar and different understandings of what equity means in their specific contexts, third, they have to deal with complex organizational dynamics, both within and between their organizations. Finally, they deal with both challenging and affirming relational factors. These factors all come together to determine how the partnerships look - differently, of course, across the eight different partnerships, which have their own unique contexts and histories, but with similar themes. So now we’re going to share some data for each of these factors.

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Vision for the Partnership

Shared commitments to making a difference for students & strengthening relationships

“We work together to make sure that the university is producing equity-centered leaders… to make sure that they're prepared to lead their schools in an equity-focused and social-justice focused way, and so just wanting to make sure we're doing our part, to make sure that we're producing the quality and caliber of students when they leave our program, that they can go out and lead schools and be successful”

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Vision for the Partnership

Differing ideas about the balance of power between partners

“I'm not sure we're collaborating as deeply as we probably should, close collaboration means co-labor. And, you know, there's been a few things like the equity-center disposition were created for us, not with us. Definition of equity was created for us, not with us. The [Diversity] Office of the district did that work. And didn't say, hey, what do you think? What do you, you know, what do you believe about these types of things?”

At the same time, tensions sometimes arose between the district and the university partners because the partners had ample opportunities to provide feedback but few opportunities to co-construct using their research expertise. For example, one partner shared the following, [read quote]

Another source of tension, which is not illustrated here was that the role of the university partners was limited to preparing leaders and did not leave room for engaging in research or bringing researcher expertise. (If you need an illustrative quote for this last claim, here it is, from Towson/Baltimore partner: And the ways in which we as university partners are being engaged in the work is I was going to say almost exclusively, is exclusively in our role as a provider of pre service leadership development. We are not being engaged as researchers, scholars or thought partners in this grant, and it feels very much as if we're not being considered as a university, but rather a provider of a program. And I that's this swirling around with me for several months, and I don't quite know what to do with that wondering, but it's it's an uncomfortable position to be in. Feels like a missed opportunity.) → EMILY: I don’t think we have time for this so I tried to add a gesture toward researcher expertise in the narrative above.

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Clear definition of equity as a foundation for the partnership work

Definitions of Equity

“And I think it was all in the way the superintendent laid it out. And I think that we're here for the students, and we're here to make sure they're successful. And here's our achievement gap. And [the superintendent] broke it down by race, by boy, girl, etc. And I think when people start seeing that, and realizing that that's your common cause, I think they're more apt to get on board and I think they have done a really good job of doing that.”

Next, in addition to both complementary and divergent ideas about what the partnership should look like, partners had both similar and different understandings of what equity should mean in their context. Despite the fact that equity is a common, shared goal across educational organizations, what equity actually means to these organizations depends on history and context. Districts, universities, and the individuals within them have differing histories and experiences both personally and organizationally with equity work. This sometimes leads to different ideas about which groups should be the focus for equity efforts.

A clear definition of equity in a district enabled leaders to commit to it, and this commitment created important support for and momentum behind the partnership. The district’s definition in these cases has served as a foundation for the way that the university partner approaches equity. For example, one partner explained, [read quote]. Here, the district’s clear definition of equity allowed all the partners to be on the same page.

e.g., “We've been working with the district so the district has been defining equity and we've sort of launched off that and what we are looking at student outcomes.” (same partner as in the quote above)

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Understandings of equity are context specific: organizations and individuals have differing histories with the work

Definitions of Equity

“So we are quite aware of and familiar with the district’s equity definition. And we don't disagree with it in any way. But I think our departments is perhaps a little bit broader, in that they're specifically named outcomes by race. And I would say we are interested in in equity in additional areas, both individually and in their intersectionalities. So that's, that's one thing. That's on the table as we talk to the district.”

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All organizations have different needs and can be siloed, with unclear organizational roles and bureaucratic barriers to progress

Organizational dynamics

Some organizations have worked together in various capacities before: this history impacts the partnership

“So the equity needs are vast in [our state]. One of the big things that we have insisted upon, and this is, this is also a big thing that I try and work on, which is, I think it is unfortunate sometimes that our principal, both development and administrative development, is siloed.”

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All organizations have different needs and can be siloed, with unclear organizational roles and bureaucratic barriers to progress

Organizational dynamics

Some organizations have worked together in various capacities before: this history impacts the partnership

“You're right, if you're hearing a kind of undercurrent of tension between [university] and the district, some of the historical reasons are- this is a predominantly white institution that is not in the city.”

“We had to capitalize on our personal relationships to move it in that direction… And I wanted to go with someone who I knew would say yes, and who I knew would partner with us.”

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Districts leaders invested in building relationships of trust

Relationships

“I think for me, every time we meet as a partnership team, there's just a large amount of trust with that team, everybody's kind of working towards the same goal. Which, you know, as I'm sure you and I both know, that can be difficult [when] working with multiple entities and stakeholders.”

Finally, relationships and ongoing relational work between the partners arose in the data as an important factor influencing the partnerships. As we know, all relationships are imbued with structural power dynamics, across race, gender, SES, etc. While these relationships take place across organizations, these same power dynamics remain. We have also seen that in some partnership teams, dedicated relational work can begin to address historical tensions between organizations, forging more meaningful partnerships. District leaders prioritized establishing relationships of trust among all partners. These relationships were instrumental in supporting and sustaining the partnership. In some cases, district leaders even helped navigate tensions among partners. For example, one partner shared, [read quote]

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Relationships

Dedicated relational work can impact historical tensions and create more meaningful partnerships

“I think, for us, having relationships with a lot of the students [in MA programs], and a lot of the district folks who are at the district level and at the campus level, have been strengths that the district has, that we have built, and we're able to sustain.”

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Conclusion

The actualization of “equity” is complicated by the multiple organizations, expectations, & relationships at play in a partnership

Shared commitment to equity,

strong district equity vision, &

dedicated relational work can help partners work through this complexity

These are all still preliminary findings, and we’re open to feedback on them - there are also other themes we’ve found that we didn’t have time to share today! Overall, though, we demonstrate that the process of actualizing equity is complicated by the multiple organizations and relationships at play within these partnerships - from visions of how the partnership should look, to definitions of equity, organizational dynamics, and relationship-building. ADditionally, we have some preliminary evidence that deep, dedicated relational work can help strengthen partnerships as they work through this complexity.

We hope this work can inform both practitioners engaged in partnerships and those studying partnerships, by highlighting the complex dynamics involved in partnership development.

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CALL for Equity Centered Leadership

www.call-ecl.org

call-ecl@wcer.wisc.edu

Research Team Authors

John Diamond

Daniella Molle

April Peters-Hawkins

Wehmah Jones

Emily Handsman

Emily Nott

Mark White

Yeonsoo Choi

Jordan Mosby

CJ Greer

Presenters

Emily Handsman: emily_handsman@brown.edu

April Peters-Hawkins: apetersh@central.uh.edu

Emily Nott: elnott@wisc.edu

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Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning/Equity-Centered Leadership. Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning/Equity-Centered Leadership. https://call-ecl.wceruw.org/

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References