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The fourth industrial superintendent: transforming public school systems beyond 21st-century mindsets
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The fourth industrial superintendent: transforming public school systems beyond 21st-century mindsets
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Content
The Fourth Industrial Superintendent: Transforming Public School Systems Beyond 21st
Century Mindsets
by
Marie Gingerrai Martin
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
December 2022
© Copyright by Marie Gingerrai Martin 2022
All Rights Reserved
The Committee for Marie Gingerrai Martin certifies the approval of this Dissertation
Cathy Krop
Briana Hinga
David Cash, Committee Chair
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2022
iv
Abstract
With the advancement of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, and other
disruptive technologies indicative of the fourth industrial revolution, are reshaping the current
workforce. Literature points to the need to realign American K–12 education to fit the
organizational workforce of the future. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) practices is how other
nations are currently training their citizens for the next industrial revolution. The United States
continuously struggles to educate students from historically marginalized communities in an
equitable way as studies have shown how schools that cater to a diverse population of students
are not using IBL practices which will essentially allow all students access into the future
workforce. The conceptual framework used within this study is based on one of a handful of
technological historians that research how technology impacts historically marginalized
communities. This study focuses on the innovation portion of how a superintendent created and
spread his shared vision throughout his school district. Appreciative inquiry was used to help
guide participants through a reflective practice as they discussed how they imagined, produced,
employed, the shared vision of shifting pedagogical practices from a factorized model of
education toward equitable IBL practices of learning focused on real-world projects. Findings
show a pattern that follows the conceptual framework as the superintendent and district leaders
have created their own system wrapped around IBL strategies and iterative processes of
continual growth.
Keywords: fourth industrial revolution, K–12 superintendents, appreciative inquiry,
organizational leadership
v
De d icat ion
To my daughter, I look forward to who you will be in this world. If anything, I hope that you are
a producer, not a consumer of technology. I hope that you are willing to take risks and learn from
any mistakes. I hope that you are happy in whatever type of endeavors you pursue. Thank you
for your understanding and sharing me with this work.
To my husband, thank you for being a rock and having a vision for our family. Thank you for
your all your support as we continue to affect student lives, let it be known that we did it together
as a team.
To my mother and father, thank you for listening to my wild ideas and lifting me up on your
shoulders. I understand that I am not only my ancestor’s wildest dreams, I am also your wildest
dreams. When I speak, I speak your wisdom that you instilled in me. Thank you.
To all my in-laws, thank you for being with us through the good and bad times. You have always
been walking with me step by step. I thank you for raising two wonderful awesome men and
pouring into them even when you had nothing to give. It is such an honor to be your daughter-in-
law.
To my cat, thank you for staying up with me every night as I studied and wrote papers.
vi
Acknowledgements
To my committee, Dr. Cash, Dr. Krop, and Dr. Hinga, I appreciate all your knowledge
and wisdom throughout the program. Thank you for giving strength as a leader and teaching me
that I am a leader no matter where I am in an organization or in life.
To Dr. Brent-Sanco, Dr. Leslie Lockhart, and the Unity Professional Network. I am so
thankful for always being in your presence. I have learned so much from participating as a board
member and will continue to bring my best as a contributor and be a listener capturing
everyone’s wisdom.
To my cohort, God destined us to be together as we all supported each other throughout
this program, I look forward to more collaborations with you for life.
Author’s Note
Marie G Martin Ed.D.
I have no conflicts of interests to disclose
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
email: drmariemartinusc@gmail.com
vii
Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................x
Chapter One: Introduction ...............................................................................................................1
Background ..........................................................................................................................3
Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................................10
Purpose of Study ................................................................................................................11
Research Questions ............................................................................................................11
Significance of Study .........................................................................................................12
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study .......................................................................12
Definition of Terms............................................................................................................13
Organization of the Study ..................................................................................................15
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature .........................................................................................16
Technology and Fourth Industrial Work............................................................................18
Education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution ...................................................................27
United States of Industrialized Schools .............................................................................36
Shared Vision .....................................................................................................................55
Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................................62
Chapter Three: Methodology .........................................................................................................66
Purpose of Study ................................................................................................................67
Selection of Population ......................................................................................................68
Design Summary ................................................................................................................70
Data Collection ..................................................................................................................71
viii
Data Analysis .....................................................................................................................73
Validity and Reliability ......................................................................................................74
Summary ............................................................................................................................75
Chapter Four: Findings ..................................................................................................................77
Participants .........................................................................................................................78
Purpose of Study ................................................................................................................79
Coding of Data ...................................................................................................................80
Findings..............................................................................................................................80
Summary ..........................................................................................................................123
Chapter Five: Discussion .............................................................................................................124
Findings............................................................................................................................125
Recommendation .............................................................................................................129
Limitations .......................................................................................................................136
Implications for Practice ..................................................................................................137
Future Research ...............................................................................................................139
Conclusions ......................................................................................................................141
References ....................................................................................................................................142
ix
List of Tables
Table 1: Progression of Education 1.0–4.0 7
Table 2: Changes in Energy Flows Through Extended Evolution 19
Table 3: Technological Acceleration Chart for the 21st Century 23
Table 4: Market Capitalization and Total Employees for Top Firms, 1962 and 2017 26
Table 5: Three Digital Divides 29
Table 6: Can Technology End Poverty? 30
Table 7: Summary of Some Early Scientific and Engineering Discoveries of Ancient Africa
[10-14] 40
Table 8: The Logic of Slavery: Debt, Technology, and Pain in American Literature 45
Table 9: The Alignment of the School System With the Second Industrial Revolution 51
Table 10: Characteristics of Sustainable Second-Order Educational Change 61
Table 11: Innovation USD Student Demographics 69
Table 12: Interview Participants 79
Table 13: Observed Lived Experiences That Impact Superintendent’s Moral Purpose 83
Table 14: Observed Lived Experiences From Efficient IBL Used With Students of Various
Demographics 85
Table 15: Creating a High Performing Co-collaborating School Community 89
Table 16: Steps to Creating a Learning Organization Focused on Equitable Education 94
Table 17: Producing and Resourcing Initiatives From the Middle 99
Table 18: Moral Purpose to Planning 104
x
List of Figures
Figure 1: Education 4.0 Competencies 5
Figure 2: Energy Source Transitions Between Industrial Revolutions 21
Figure 3: Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process to Creating Change 57
Figure 4: Coherence Framework 58
Figure 5: Conceptual Framework: Construct of Technology As It Impacts Marginalized
Communities 65
Figure 6: Research Question 1 Findings 81
Figure 7: Findings for Research Question 2 103
Figure 8: Problem of Practice Cycle 119
Figure 9: Shared Vision Framework for the Fourth Industrial Superintendent 131
1
Chapter One: Introduction
For the past couple of decades, public school systems have attempted to integrate a 21st-
century model of learning in the classroom. The 4Cs model of communication (critical thinking,
communication, collaboration, and creativity) has been studied throughout the education field
(Fullan et al., 2018). Mehta and Fine (2019) conducted a 6-year ethnographic study on various
high schools throughout the United States in which they followed children to each of their
classes for many weeks in search of inquiry-based learning (IBL). Findings were that most
private and affluent schools implement IBL, and schools that catered to a more diverse
population were not implementing IBL core classes like reading, math, social studies, and
science. One reason is that these schools still follow the rigid standards of a school system based
on the Second Industrial Revolution, during which researchers considered the mechanicalizing of
the school system (Darling-Hammond, 2014; Dintersmith, 2018). Darling-Hammond (2014)
discussed how deeply the Second Industrial Revolution model of education is still intertwined in
the U.S. school system, stating that “today’s schools were designed when the goal of education
was not to educate all students well but to batch process a great many efficiently, selecting and
supporting only a few for ‘thinking work’” (p. 237).
The Future of Jobs Report (World Economic Forum, 2018) describes the rapid change in
the workforce that will occur between 2018 and 2022 because human total task hours will
decrease from 71% to 58%, and machine task hours will increase from 29% to 42%. The latest
report released in December of 2020 described the job market as having an uncertain future for
the time being due to COVID-19, yet the pace of technology is expected to remain unstoppable
and has accelerated in some job sectors (World Economic Forum, 2020). The report also
projected 85 million jobs worldwide being displaced due to the division of labor between
2
humans and machines and highlights how employers see a rise in jobs that need workers with
skills in critical thinking, self-management, and the ability to solve problems. The urgency of
schools and districts to adopt this teaching style is imperative to align the type of education
system that will parallel the future workforce.
One recurring theme in research as it pertains to the 21st-century superintendent is the
specific need for school districts to have a vision for technology and IBL (Anderson & Dexter,
2005; Houston, 2001; International Society for Technology Education, 2009; Martinez, 2017;
Richardson et al., 2015; National Policy Board for Educational Administration, 2015; Sterrett &
Richardson, 2019). At the turn of the century, Houston (2001), a former superintendent, stressed
the important mind shift a well-rounded superintendent of the 21st century needed to have. He
believed that the reform efforts of the past were “built on a mechanistic world view that stresses
fixing the parts to create a better whole” (p. 431). Instead, he envisioned creating a system based
on a human ecological enterprise to champion students, calling upon 21st-century
superintendents to focus on the “organic and holistic qualities of learning and to structure
learning that speaks to the hearts and minds of learners” (p. 431). The qualities needed for this
new type of system were wrapped around the crucial Cs: connection, communication,
collaboration, community building, child advocacy, and curricular choices. The catalyst for
change in school districts begins with the vision and then the transfer of this vision to others
(Houston, 2001; Howard et al., 2019; Liou & Daly, 2019). This study examined how the
imagination of a superintendent transfers and spreads throughout a district to make second-order
changes toward IBL enhanced by technology.
3
Background
Intersection of Technology and Education in the United States
With the growth in artificial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, biotechnology, and
robotics, humans are about to experience a shift in the workforce, which researchers call the
Fourth Industrial Revolution (Bongomin et al., 2020; Bruun & Duka, 2018; Ford, 2013). Many
technology futurists discuss a singularity shift, which is when AI technology performs tasks or
reasoning processes typically associated with human intelligence and learning capabilities
(Bruun & Duka, 2018; Cass, 2012). Although technology futurists debate over the utopian nature
or technological employment devastation of such a singularity, various countries are currently
consolidating efforts to reskill and upskill their national citizens by aligning their national
education curricula with content and skills focusing on science and technology that will prepare
their learners for the future workforce (Aziz Hussin, 2018; Hariharasudan, 2018; Kusmawan et
al., 2020; Naterer, 2019).
The United States has also implemented a curriculum for the 21st century called the
Common Core States Standards Initiative (CCSSI) to set uniform national academic standards
for math and English language arts from Kindergarten through Grade 12 and focuses on using
content from the framework to develop future competency skills called the 4Cs: critical thinking,
communication, collaboration, and creativity (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2020;
Jochim & Lavery, 2015; Lee, 2020; Naterer, 2019). Naterer (2019) specifically named non-
replaceable skills (e.g., creativity, problem-solving, drawing conclusions, critical thinking,
teamwork, interpersonal skills, leadership, and entrepreneurship as resiliency skills) to equip
students with proper skills that are not susceptible to automation. Unfortunately, the United
States has an intersectionality in the attainment of education with the placement of accountability
4
in the school system. Patel (2016) discussed that students are at a societal disadvantage due to
“flimsy theories of learning that conflate learning and pedagogy for test score production” (p.
400). Schools have been clinging to standardized testing, for which teachers are now expected to
teach a curriculum aligned to testing accountability. All the while, IBL is a type of constructivist
learning framework that has been proven to increase resiliency skills but has not been proven to
boost test scores on standardized tests in the core subjects of reading and math (Kingston, 2018;
Mehta & Fine, 2019).
Alternatively, even though technology is the key to the future workforce, school districts
have always been hesitant to invest in technology beyond basic connectivity, not only due to
budget restrictions but also due to the lack of evidence that increased access to technology leads
to increased student achievement on standardized testing (Belew, 2018; Lynch, 2018; Pittman &
Gaines, 2015; Reid, 2014; Ritchel, 2011). Hattie (2008) synthesized metadata that measured the
effects of specific teaching strategies and classroom infrastructure’s impact on student
achievement. He specifically discussed technology to engage instruction, but without strong
teaching strategies, technology does not have any effect on student achievement. Thus, he
stressed the importance of schools concentrating on professional developments that prioritize
teaching strategies above implementing technology since student achievement was affected by
the competence of the teacher’s pedagogical skill, not the technology. Thus, the lack of efficacy
research, educators’ technological knowledge, and budget contributed to school boards’ lack of
approval regarding expanding advanced technologies (Belew, 2018).
World View of Industry 4.0 and Education
Countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have coined the
term “Education 4.0,” which is defined as the aligning pedagogy for industrial revolution 4.0
5
(Aziz Hussin, 2018; bin Ismail & Haniff, 2020). Figure 1 is a list of Education 4.0 competencies
that instructors need to begin to incorporate to develop pupil skills for the next industrial
revolution.
Figure 1
Education 4.0 Competencies
6
Many of these competencies are skills that can immediately be addressed in schools at
this time. Table 1 shows the progression of the U.S. school system in terms of alignment with the
various industrial revolutions. An Education 1.0 model of learning would be a static education
with the teacher teaching at the front of the room while the students sit in rows listening and
regurgitating information. The Education 2.0 model, which is what many schools are accustomed
to currently, is a system where the teacher has many activities for students, and internet
connectivity is implemented in a controlled environment. However, students are still expected to
consume learning and technology to ultimately regurgitate the information onto a test. Freire
(1970) called this the banking model of education. A 3.0 model of education is considered a
deeper learning inquiry-based model of learning, where teachers and learners co-construct
knowledge, are digitally competent, and produce knowledge and content. Lastly, according to
Mizan bin Ismail and Haniff (2020), the Education 4.0 model is where the learners are deeply
engaged in being experts in their interest, consuming content as needed, consistently using
technology to analyze concepts, and working in tandem with technology as a vehicle of learning
in collaborative teams to think creatively and critically about issues and problems in their field of
study. Essentially, the learning will follow the student in a more synchronized fashion. The
Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015–2025 aims to ensure that Malaysia’s education system aligns
with the global trends of this new revolution so its citizens may be prepared for the future
workforce.
7
Table 1
Progression of Education 1.0–4.0
Education revolution Methods Technology
Education 1.0 Dictation Not allowed during the education
process
Instructivism
Direct transfer of
information
Education 2.0 Progressivism Limited access
Begins to open to internet
access
Education 3.0 Knowledge producing Full access for knowledge
Co-constructivism Construction and transmission
Education 4.0 Innovation producing Always changing
Replacing classrooms Learners as major source technology
evolution
Although many schools have adopted IBL models, IBL, which includes project-based
learning (PBL), is still an Education 3.0 model. Many 4.0 competencies will not be realized until
the school systems incorporate artificial technology to monitor and adapt curriculum per pupil
(Kusmawan, 2020). Many of these competencies are part of the World Economic Forum’s eight
characteristics, as its report agreeably called the acquisition of skills education 4.0 (World
Economic Forum, 2020).
Inquiry-Based Learning
Various models of IBL have been implemented in many schools and have been linked to
deeper levels of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration, but have not been
proven to boost test scores on standardized tests in the core subjects of reading and math
(Kingston, 2018; Mehta & Fine, 2019). Inquiry-based learning is a framework where students
engage in large, sustained projects connected to real-world topics that give them agency to create
8
sustainable solutions to a problem. Students work collaboratively in groups to research,
recommend solutions, create prototypes of their solutions, and present their solutions to an
audience. Teachers are guides and co-learners in the process as they scaffold content, give
direction, introduce the community into the classroom by having mentors, and create space for
feedback and reflection for students. Unfortunately, according to PBLWorks, IBL has been
proven to increase critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, but it has not
been substantiated as a pedagogical practice that improves test scores (Kingston, 2018). Thus,
according to Mehta and Fine (2019), schools and districts that adopt this new type of learning
system often conflict with the current 2.0 system of accountability and standardized testing.
Key findings from the World Economic Forum’s (2020) report were eight characteristics
to define learning in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: global citizenship skills, innovation and
creativity skills, technology skills, interpersonal skills, personalized and self-paced learning,
accessible and inclusive learning, and lifelong student-driven learning. Various countries are
consolidating efforts to reskill and upskill their citizens by aligning their national education
curricula with content and skills that will prepare learners for the future workforce (Aziz Hussin,
2018; Hariharasudan, 2018; Kusmawan, 2020; Naterer, 2019). Zhou et al. (2020) discussed the
historical aspect of how China’s Ministry of Education emphasized developing a preliminary
plan for E-education as early as 1978. In 2018, China’s Ministry of Education began to
modernize information by incorporating big data and AI, calling their plan the “Action Plan for
Educational Informatization 2.0” (Zhou et al., 2020, p. 507). This new plan demanded
infrastructure upgrades, broadband networks for each school, high-quality resources for every
class, and an online learning space for everyone, including tutoring. Therefore, when China had
to implement a social distancing protocol, the infrastructure was already in place. Due to
9
education being a localized public service, the U.S. Department of Education does not have a
national education technology plan. Therefore, in a crisis like national school closures due to a
pandemic, individual localities must adapt without national guidance.
District of the Future
In 2019, a small suburban school district outside Los Angeles began its first year of
integrating IBL and technology for students. According to local news reports not cited here for
confidentiality, parents from historically marginalized communities felt the district treated their
students differently, citing institutionalized racism and unintended bias. Although the district is
one of the top districts in California, with accountability measures in reading and math 39%
above California averages, the achievement gap was apparent in test schools and in how students
experienced school daily. With California’s proficiency level marked at 800, White and Asian
proficiency scores were 907 and 941, whereas Black and Latinx scores were 697 and 728,
respectively.
In 2016, an equity review was conducted on the district, which led to a new equity in
action plan that the district has been focused on implementing. The same year, the community
chose a new superintendent with a strong background in creating coalitions around cultural
proficiency and building systems of cohesion. One local news source cited the school board
president saying that the new superintendent would move their students towards the future.
Inquiry-based learning with constructivist instruction had already been implemented at one
school in the district, but in 2016 a new article published information about the school being on
the state list of low-performing schools.
By 2017, the school board was presented with a proposal recommending expanding the
constructivist IBL elementary school model as an option for secondary students and considering
10
full district implementation by the 2019–2020 school year (Carreras, 2018). Why did the new
superintendent decide to expand on an unproven program? When reviewing the school’s
accountability report card from 2018, the achievement gap is still there, and they only test 50%
of the students. What is different about this school? This study intended to understand the
superintendent’s vision for his district. Through interviews with the superintendent, district
leaders, principals, and parent focus groups, this case study examined the creation of the vision
and how the vision transferred to district leaders and principals. Using a cycle proposed by
technology historian Sinclair (1998), I observed how parents experienced this vision from an
end-user standpoint.
Statement of the Problem
Students moving into a new pedological framework is now critical as the world is
preparing citizens for the future workforce during the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Several
intersections directly affect access to the future workforce among marginalized communities.
Mehta and Fine (2019) discussed how schools that serve diverse populations are not receiving
the deeper learning experiences needed to move toward a 3.0 model of education. Transitioning
to virtual learning this year has placed a spotlight on marginalized communities as it pertains to
the vast digital divide in urban communities of color and rural America. The separation of
technology from Black Americans began at the beginning of the first industrial revolution
through processes, policies, and master narratives of insufficient intelligence as it pertains to
operating new technologies. With each industrial revolution, new technologies have created
either more work, dangerous work, or technological unemployment for Black people. In creating
access for students to have sufficient skills in the future workforce, much research points to
problem-posing, IBL learning. Due to a standardized 2.0 model of education held accountable to
11
state testing that measures surface knowledge over deep learning, schools and districts have a
difficult time implementing new inquiry-learning models. Thus, without access to the correct
pedagogical framework, the utopian idea that all Americans will acquire a higher level of leisure
and freedom from work during this next industrial revolution should cause skepticism for all due
to an analysis of technological history. To ensure access to the new Fourth Industrial Revolution,
there must be a clear pathway for school districts to move pedagogy from a 2.0 framework
toward a 3.0 framework and be ready to change into the 4.0 framework as newer technologies
become available.
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study was to provide insight into how a superintendent creates,
transfers, and spreads a shared vision throughout a district to create second-order changes. By
studying the process of conceptualizing, producing, and employing a new shared vision within a
school district, the research can center around the output of such a change in how the end-users
are experiencing the district’s direction. Through the lens of critical race theory, this research
will also analyze the impact of IBL on Innovative USD’s BIPOC community. Interviews will be
conducted with district leaders, principals, and parents to gain insight into the progression of this
systemic change and its impact on perceived student achievement. These interviews provided a
better understanding of how a vision for the unknown impacts the classroom.
Research Questions
The following questions will guide this study:
1. How did this superintendent imagine, plan, and spread his vision for the future to
other leaders within the district?
12
2. How did those leaders experience the vision, imagine the vision through planning,
and transfer the vision throughout the district?
Significance of Study
This research sought to provide insights into the significant factors a district leader might
encounter as they shift a school system’s pedagogy. The study presents a potential
implementation model from a 2.0 to a 4.0 organizational framework as it pertains to moving
pedagogy to future andragogy practices. As a framework, the study will use Sinclair’s (1998)
concept of technology as experienced by historically disadvantaged families in the communities
this district serves. Within this concept, a new technology (product or process) is the constructed
value and impact in four phases: imagined phase, produced phase, employed phase, and
experienced phase. This study will consider the pedagogical framework of IBL as a new process
being implemented in a school system to examine the four phases adopted by Innovation Unified
School District (Innovation USD, a pseudonym) in relation to its end-users. This study evaluated
the successes and challenges of the planning process, communication, and implementation of the
shared vision. The information will be valuable for other leaders who would like to move their
districts into the fourth industrial style system.
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study
This study names institutional racism as a driving force in technology and constructivist
learning due to the school system’s factorization. This school system has significantly high
concentrations of students of color, where its student population is 50% non-White. The
limitation of this study is the lack of information on the impact of learning as perceived by
families from historically disenfranchised communities. This lack must be addressed as findings
13
from this study will be used for school systems that cater to an even larger population of
minoritized students and families in the future.
Definition of Terms
Artificial intelligence (AI): a type of computerized software programmed to perform tasks
that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision
making, translation between languages, and more. (Dictionary.com)
Automation: The use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or
other production process, which usually ends up replacing human labor (DMerriam-
Webster.com, 2022).
Big History: Seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and
humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods (Bighistory.com,
2022).
Constructivism: The theory that says learners construct knowledge rather than just
passively take in information (Mehta & Fine, 2019).
Critical race theory: A socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to
oppress and exploit people of color. Critical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions
in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social,
economic, and political inequalities between Whites and non-Whites, especially African
Americans (Britannica.com, 2022)
Economic Singularity: The point in which humans are massively unemployed due to the
imbalanced rise in automation brought on by the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine
learning capabilities (Chace, 2016).
14
Education 4.0: The adoption of new pedagogy in education that compliments the skills
needed to compete within an industrial revolution 4.0 workforce . (Joshi, 2022).
Industrial Revolution: The rapid change in an economy marked by the general
introduction and adoption of new power-driven machinery and new technological methods that
create a more automated workforce (Merriam-Webster, 2022).
Inquiry-based learning: A teaching approach that emphasizes students’ questions, ideas,
and observation, thus moving toward a comprehension of content rather than fact memorization
(Study.com, 2022)
Luddite: A person who opposes new technology or ways of working. (Dictionary.com,
2022)
Machine learning: The use and development of computer systems that can learn and
adapt without following explicit instructions by using algorithms and statistical models to
analyze and draw inferences from patterns of data. (Merriam-Webster, 2022)
Project-based learning (PBL): A type of inquiry-learning model in which students gain
knowledge and skills by working for an extended period to investigate and respond to an
authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge (PBLWorks, 2022).
School stakeholder: Anyone who is invested in the welfare and success of a school and
its students, including administrators, teachers, staff members, students, parents, families,
community members, local business leaders, and elected officials such as school board members
and city officials (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2014)
Singularity: A point at which a function takes an infinite value, especially in space-time
when matter is infinitely dense, as at the center of a black hole.
15
Technological Singularity: A point in time in which AI and machine learning has
surpassed human intellect in such a way to where it will change human history forever
(Shanahan, 2015).
Technological Unemployment: Unemployment due to technological progress (Economics
Help, 2022)
Technology: A new system, product, or process that changes the way humans work.
(Sinclair, 1998)
End-user: The person who uses a particular product (dictionary.com, 2022). In this study,
will be defined as one who is using the new type of pedagogy to disseminate a new style of
learning, the learner (student), and the families that support student learning.
Organization of the Study
This dissertation is organized into five chapters. Chapter One provides an overview of the
study, introduces background information to present the root causes of inequities among
marginalized communities, and includes the terms used in this study. Chapter Two presents a
literature review that uses critical race theory (CRT) as a lens to uncover the roots of inequities
in the school system, an overview of fourth industrial work and globalization, the
industrialization of the school system, the transfer of shared vision, and Innovation USD.
Chapter Three will describe the methodology selected for this study, including samples and
population selection, interview questions, and the procedures for data collection and analysis.
Chapter Four will report the research findings. Chapter Five will include a summary of findings,
implications for practice, recommendations, and conclusions. References and appendices are
included at the conclusion of this study.
16
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature
The United States had many industrial revolutions beginning with the mechanization of
water and steam in 1760, mass production using electricity leading to the first assembly line in
1900, then automation using digital electronics and information technologies in 1960
(Atanasoski & Vora, 2019; Bongomin et al., 2020; Bruun & Duka, 2018; Chace, 2016; Fiorelli,
2018; Joshi & Klein, 2018; Kurzweil, 2005; Metz, 2020; Perisic, 2018; Prisecaru, 2017; Wilson
et al., 2017). During the various industrial revolutions, technology advancements shifted
workloads away from human labor toward that which most historians call horsepower and
machine automation (Armstrong, 2012; Bent, 1938; Mumford, 1932). In these various
revolutions have been workers who fought against the profitable mechanization of work, led by a
fictional British weaver named Ned Ludd (Simon, 2018). In 1779, Ludd supposedly “took a
hammer to two stocking frames in a textile factory, smashing to bits the simple machinery which
threatened his livelihood” (Simon, 2018). The story took hold across Britain as those who joined
the Luddite Movement consisted of workers threatening capital interests by destroying machines
of the Industrial Revolution. A contemporary Luddite is considered a person or group of workers
actively fighting against the advancement of technology in their field. Simon (2018) suggested a
good example of this type of worker would be the coal workers, given their refusal to reskill into
green technology. According to Big History scholars, humans at no point will stop the
progression of technology due to the current evolutionary trajectory as technology continues to
evolve (Chace, 2016; Kurzweil, 2005; LePoire, 2021).
The purpose of this literature review is to properly frame the worldview of my research
and ground this study firmly into my conceptual framework. Kotter (2012) stated that the first
step in organizational change is to create urgency within the organization. To better understand
17
the urgency of our time, the first portion of the literature review frames human history in terms
of technological advancement, evaluates the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of anticipated
skills needed to gain access to the future workforce, conducts a global overview of how various
countries are preparing their citizens for future work, and implications for other nations to
consider as they follow suit.
The second portion of the literature review racializes the process of the industrialized
school system to better understand the deep seeded mindset of leaders and teachers involved in
the change process towards equity as it relates to correctly implementing pedological IBL
methods. The use of CRT (Crenshaw, 1998) was used to examine the history of extracting and
separating technology from enslaved Africans, embedding false narratives around contributions
made by enslaved Africans to technology, and then systematically using the education systems to
enclose immigrants and students of color into an industrialized workforce caste system still in
effect today. According to Mehta and Fine’s (2019) ethnography, schools that served more
diverse students engaged in more rigid, coercive, direct instruction type of teaching, whereas
schools that catered to mostly White affluent students used teaching practices that were more
aligned with IBL practices. Curriculum standardization, systems and processes in the school
system, and accountability instruments created organizational constructs throughout factorized
education to create enclosures for historically marginalized students. The research will also show
that even with CCSI, the United States is still not properly aligned with the current movement
toward future work due to the pedological practices of teachers rooted in an education 2.0
framework which originally was aligned to the second industrial revolution (Darling-Hammond,
2015; Dintersmith, 2018; Mehta & Fine, 2019; Wagner & Dintersmith, 2018).
18
The third portion of the literature review will examine studies on how shared vision
transfers within organizations, evaluate research on the successes and challenges tech-savvy
superintendents have in managing change processes in their districts, and how businesses are
using agile processes to better tailor their products to customer needs. The conceptual framework
encompasses all elements discussed throughout the literature review to help guide the research
design and findings.
Technology and Fourth Industrial Work
Speed of Technology
In the transition into the next industrial revolution, which is “the fusion of virtual,
physical, digital, and biological sphere” (Bongomin et al., 2020, p. 2), most people outside of the
technological field are not aware of how quickly technology is moving presently (Chace, 2016;
Kurzweil, 2005; LePoire, 2015, 2021). Scholars of Big History review data trends of the earth
from Big Bang to current trajectories by reviewing biological evolution, ecosystems, and social
systems to develop and predict future scenarios. Table 2 reviews the changing evolution through
energy change (technological advancements) in relation to transition years (LePoire, 2015).
These transition years encompass each energy advancement from the beginning of evolution or
time. According to the table, humans arrived around five million years ago and began social
organization with the intent to hunt and gather. Each evolutionary change that has taken place
based on energy transition has happened within half the time or less in history.
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Table 2
Changes in Energy Flows Through Extended Evolution
Transition
(years ago)
Description Energy change
15 billion Gravitational Gravitational energy causes clumping and nuclear
energy causes energy to be release and element
formation.
5 billion Planet/life Life first gathers energy through chemicals or thermal
gradients. Later, the light from the sun is captured
and turned into chemical energy.
1.5 billion Complex cells Simple prokaryotes form symbiotic relationships to
form a larger and more organized eukaryote cell.
500 million Cambrian Oxygen levels reach a concentration so that
multicellular organisms can be supported. The man
body types and survival strategies lead to rapid
evolution.
150 million Mammals Animals move to land after plants. The larger
temperature variations lead to a way to regulate
temperature to ensure ability to be active throughout
the day and seasons.
50 million Primates A generalist strategy using various food sources
including fruits leads to greater energy to the brain.
15 million Hominids Further generalist strategies and social organization
again leads to greater energy use by the brain.
5 million Humans Humans adapt to a changing climate by leaving the
forest for the savannah along with the capability for
walking to expand the range of natural resources.
1.5 million Speech Further social organization leads to an expanded food
sources including scavenging.
500,000 Fire Fire improves the energy availability from food.
150,000 Ecoadaptation Humans move out into other ecosystems expanding the
range of energy resources.
50,000 Modern humans The benefits of specialization and social organization
are realized during the ice age.
15,000 Agriculture Domestication of plants and animals leads to a more
intense and reliable use of the land.
5,000 Civilization Organization at a city level allows risk reduction and
order with increasing population.
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Transition
(years ago)
Description Energy change
1,500 Commercial
revolution
Financial and mechanical technological techniques are
applied and improved in a sustaining growth
organization.
500 Science/
exploration
Exploration of lands and ideas leads to expanded
energy resources.
150 Industrial Fossil fuel allows large amounts of resources to be
used along with increasing specialization.
50 Information Control through systems and computers allows greater
efficiency in the use of energy and handling of
pollution.
Note. From “Interpreting ‘big history’ as complex adaptive system dynamics with nested logistic
transitions in energy flow and organization, by D. LePoire, 2015, Emergence, 17(1).
(https://doi.org/10.emerg/10.17357.dbe7c8d6fae7f082c4f33c5b35df8287)
Figure 2 correlates the energy transitions with political dominance, technological
advancements, industrial revolutions, and the energy disbursement by intensity per person in the
leading nation during that time (LePoire, 2015). According to LePoire (2015), “human societies
have undergone transitions toward more complex forms,” from agricultural societies to the
current knowledge-based economy (p. 4). Implications from studying Big History forecasts
situations either near utopia to near dystopia, citing
issues of great concern during this period include (a) the energy transition problem of
moving from an unsustainable fossil fuel-based economy to something else; (b) the
widespread nature of the problems currently being discussed in terms of global warming,
global trade, global terrorism, and global knowledge transfer, and (c) the possible
opportunities and risks of new technologies such as genetics, nanotechnology, and
artificially intelligent computers and robots. (LePoire, 2015, p. 9)
21
Current research from LePoire (2021) concerns the global responses to the acceleration of
technology, calling for governments to better prepare for the next evolution in technology by
considering various forms of sustainability.
Figure 2
Energy Source Transitions Between Industrial Revolutions
Note. From “Interpreting ‘big history’ as complex adaptive system dynamics with nested logistic
transitions in energy flow and organization, by D. LePoire, 2015, Emergence, 17(1).
(https://doi.org/10.emerg/10.17357.dbe7c8d6fae7f082c4f33c5b35df8287)
22
Bongomin et al. (2020) discussed that “thirty-five new disruptive technologies will
exponentially digitally transform all areas of industrial processes and production in the world”
(p. 3). The two main technologies that will drive change are AI and machine learning. Leading
future technologist Kurzweil (2005) quantified the speed of technology by reviewing all of
human history as it relates to technology, beginning with the first human tools. His law of
accelerating returns discusses a doubling that has been happening from the beginning of human
existence. We are now at the point where our technology will merge with the human mind,
which he calls a technological singularity. Table 3 shows how quickly students in this generation
will experience technological change. The left side of the chart delineates the actual human years
of this century. The right side of the chart quantifies, in years, the technological advancements
that will occur. The study of how fast technology is moving was first discovered through
Moore’s Law (Chace, 2016; Kurzweil, 2005). A computer scientist noticed that the number of
transistor pinheads on a microchip doubled every 2 years and that the cost of making computers
was cut in half. Using Moore’s law of doubling and his own law of acceleration, Kurzweil
(2005) predicted a point of technology merging with humans resulting in a technological
singularity by 2032.
23
Table 3
Technological Acceleration Chart for the 21st Century
Current years 21st century Years of technological growth
experienced during the timespan
2000–2025 100 years advancement
2026–2050 200 years advancement
2051–2075 300 years advancement
2076–2100 400 years advancement
Note. From The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by R. Kurzweil, 2005,
Viking.
The impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the evolution process of technology
development (Grinin et al., 2021; World Economic Forum, 2020). A key finding from the most
recent Future Jobs Report from the World Economic Forum (2020) states, “The pace of
technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas.”
Transitioning the world of business to online solutions increased the adoption of technology and
created a need for more rapid development of technology. Grinin et al. (2021) described global
trends of the 21st century in relation to political, economic, and technological advancements. The
authors also confirmed that the speed of technology during COVID accelerated various global
systems, as the prediction is that technological adoption increased due to a need for change, so
the interconnectedness of globalization further advanced through the worldwide technological
shift (Grinin et al., 2021). The denial of the speed of technological advancement in the United
States, especially in the education system, will have disastrous consequences if not continuously
and critically reviewed by leadership from all sectors.
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Work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
As technology is creating the next evolution of humankind, it will also fundamentally
change the way humans work. Ray Kurzweil, a prominent technology futurist, predicts that the
world should not worry about an economic singularity because the jobs will be replenished
(Cass, 2012). A global study in 2017 explained the types of jobs AI will create in the future in
three categories: AI trainers, explainers, and sustainers (Wilson et al., 2017). There is already a
large sector of AI trainers being exploited in under-industrialized countries, such as India (Metz,
2020). Researchers who study the effects of a possible economic singularity are highly
concerned with the growing inequities and even exploitation of those who are already
marginalized in various countries (Atanasoski & Vora, 2019; Bongomin et al., 2020; Chace,
2016; Chelliah, 2017; Fiorelli, 2018; West, 2018). Atanasoski and Vora (2019) explained the
Amazon Mechanical Turk Internet Marketplace (AMT) as a crowdsourcing software platform
where employers post human-intelligence tasks (HITs), paying on average 3 cents per click, with
the intention of training their AI intelligence systems. Since employers break the HITs into small
tasks, large companies have acquired a global workforce of turks, bringing into question their
users’ racial dynamics and subjecthood, which is called the techno-liberal surrogate effect.
A more utopian idea of future work believes that AI will bring about such a rush of
productivity that humans will no longer need to work, increasing leisure time to pursue living
creativity (Bruun & Duka, 2018). Many theorists are now working with governments to propose
an unconditional universal basic income (UUBI), providing stability to every individual
irrespective of their position in society. This money would generate from corporations and
businesses as a premium of doing business and an increase in property taxes. Bruun and Duka
(2018) also compared UUBI as a shield to protect individuals against the negative aspects of
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technological development but placed the development of skills as the sword that would allow
countries to compete. One suggestion is to create an online portal that offers courses to develop
relevant skills to help the current working generation transition their talents as AI disrupts their
intended professions. The theorists also called for the restructuring of education to better prepare
future generations, specifically focusing on skills rather than subjects, with an emphasis on a
programming curriculum.
The fear of technological unemployment’s impact on marginalized communities needs to
be examined, as historically, the capitalistic nature of our country has always left these
communities behind during periods of advancement. Van der Berg (2008) highlighted that one
reason for relative poverty in many countries is the social constraints of marginalized
populations due to not having proper connections to obtain higher-paying jobs even with a strong
education. Foster (2016) noted that the primary reasoning behind the capitalist hijacking of
education, which happened through George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act and Obama’s
Race to the Top reforms, was to benefit corporations, creating “a labor force of cheerful robots”
(p. 42). Therefore, the breakthrough of artificial technology matched with robotic automatization
will create a continuously learning employee who can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
without sick leave, medical coverage, or retirement benefits (Bruun & Duka, 2018).
In Demand Skills
Literature confirms that unemployment during each industrial revolution has always been
a constant, mostly in the blue-collar sectors or even small departments within organizations
(Chelliah, 2017; Ford, 2013). The difference between past revolutions and the Fourth Industrial
Revolution is how technology causes enough technological unemployment to dismantle
complete industries and careers while simultaneously creating what Cox (2020) described as a
26
new-collar workforce. Other researchers of technological unemployment usually study past
trends from other industrial revolutions to predict this revolution (Chace, 2016; Fiorelli, 2018;
West, 2018). Table 4 compares the largest companies in the United States in 1962 and 2017,
which shows the decline in workers and how the automation of redundant jobs affected the
workforce (West, 2018). According to the table, companies in 2017 were not only more
profitable than those from 1962, but they also only employed one-fifth of the workers, a fallout
from technological unemployment and globalization.
Table 4
Market Capitalization and Total Employees for Top Firms, 1962 and 2017
Largest companies Market cap (in $ billions) Total employees
1962
AT&T
General Motors
20
12
564,000
605,000
2017
Apple
Google/Alphabet
Microsoft
Facebook
Oracle
Cisco
Priceline
Qualcomm
800
679
540
44
186
157
92
85
116,000
73,992
114,000
18,770
136,000
73,390
20,000
30,500
Note. From The future of work: Robots, AI, and automation by D. M. West, 2018, Brookings
Institution Press. Copyright 2018 by The Brookings Institution.
27
There is a constant mantra in fourth industrial workforce literature that stresses the
importance of acquiring skills over more formal educational credentials (Cox, 2020; Chelliah,
2017; Fiorelli, 2018; Ford, 2013; West, 2018; Wilson et al., 2017). van Laar et al. (2017, 2019,
2020, 2022) have done extensive literature reviews and empirical research on 21st-century work
skills needed for the future workforce. After screening 1592 articles for which 75 articles were
chosen to evaluate seven core skills (technical, information management, communication,
collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving) and five contextual skills (ethical
awareness, cultural awareness, flexibility, self-direction, and lifelong learning; van Laar et al.,
2017). Furthermore, researchers studied the determinants of 21st-century skills, finding that
personality and psychological determinants were significant in research on creativity, critical
thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills (van Laar et al., 2020). The latest research
centers on the skills in the current and rapidly changing workforce by reviewing “how 21st-
century digital skills are currently understood, deployed, and developed to inform policies within
organizations” (van Laar, 2022, p. 204). The main findings from this study emphasize how most
employees are unaware of the digital skills needed for the 21st century. Even though
organizations offer opportunities to upskill, current employees would need to self-identify their
skill needs to take advantage of the training their employers offer. The implications for the
current workforce should also be better understood in higher education and the K–12 education
systems.
Education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The Digital Divide
Research surrounding the digital divide mostly begins with the invention of the computer
in the ‘60s and focuses on the rise of the third industrial revolution, ushering in the digital age
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(Chace, 2016; Kurzweil, 2005). Digital divide research began by introducing the digital divide as
a variance between the haves and have-nots (Atanasoski & Vora, 2019; van Dijk, 2019), but
more recently, more digital divide research is reviewing “the social split between people in a
divided society” (Van Dijk, 2019, p. 123). Studies conducted in the Netherlands found that
although 98% of the population had at-home internet access, there were still various barriers
among the population, impacting the skills and outcomes internet access should have in a
thriving technological society (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2015, 2019). Table 5 provides context
on how the Netherlands and other countries need to grapple with the tension of having three
digital divides and the indicators of how those divides create continual inequities in their
societies.
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Table 5
Three Digital Divides
Divide level Finding Indicators
First digital
divide
Relates to the purchase or access
to digital devices, hardware,
software, and internet
High percentage of population
impacted by the lack of
device and internet
connectivity
Second digital
divide
Relates to the various devices
used (i.e., peripherals, and the
ongoing expenses associated
with maintaining the hardware,
software, subscriptions, and
consumables)
High percentage of the
population lack the type of
skills and uses of the devices
and connectivity
Third digital
divide
Relates to having an instructor
teaching an individual how to
use the technology in a way that
will benefit the individual’s life
High percentage of population
lacks the outcomes achieved
by having digital connectivity
Note. Synthesized from “The first-level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access
to inequalities in material access” by A. J. van Deursen, & J. A. Van Dijk, 2019, New Media &
Society, 21(2), 354–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818797082
The importance of technology usage was emphasized in another study where the
researcher studied internet café telecenters in India to understand whether access to technology
could end poverty (Toyama, 2010). The study found that “technology is only a magnifier of
human intent and capacity” and widens the wealth gap (p. 120). Table 6 gives context around the
finding and the reasoning and then aligns the information with the digital divide study. In the
study, success in creating equity using technology occurs through the intent, motivation, and
pedagogical practices of the teacher.
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Table 6
Can Technology End Poverty?
Finding Reason Divide level
Differential access Technology must be fully sponsored to purchase,
operate, maintain, and upgrade as needed.
Second digital
divide
Lack of education,
social skills,
and social
connections
remain
If placed in a competition between someone with
more access and social capital, a poor person is still
at a disadvantage due to lack of education, lack of
social ties, self-confidence in device/software, and
technological organizational skills.
First digital divide
Differential
motivation
The impact of how moderate to high-income
individuals use their technology (i.e., upskilling and
production mindset) is different than how poor
people use their technology (i.e., gaming and
consumption of technology).
Third digital divide
Lack of
motivation from
trainer
The impact of technology on poor people depends on
the motivation of the person and positive or
negative intentions of the people training them.
Third digital divide
Note. Synthesized from “Can Technology End Poverty?” by K. Toyama, 2010, Boston Review,
3(4), 119–127.
Hattie ’s Impact on Education
Hattie’s (2012) extensive meta-analysis strengthens the claim that teachers are the most
important factor, as their teaching strategies have the largest effect on student achievement. In
the same study, Hattie showed that technology has zero effect on student achievement. As
Hattie’s work moved throughout the education world globally, noted as the most comprehensive
research on school effectiveness, school boards in the United States specifically opted not to
adequately invest in technology, hardware and software upgrades, and teacher professional
31
development on technology, citing Hattie’s section on technology effectiveness in student
achievement (Belew, 2018; Lynch, 2018). The research does say that technology has zero effect
on student achievement, but with the correct instructional methods, technology can accelerate
student achievement outcomes (Hattie, 2012). One must also name that only quantitative data
were collected and analyzed for Hattie’s study, which begs the question of what student
achievement really is.
Hattie’s (2012) analysis was noted as outcomes-based in nature, but outcomes in most
studies are measured through standardized testing. Many peer-reviewed articles also question
student achievement via what instruments are used to measure it (Bergeron & Rivard, 2017;
Kraft, 2020; Simpson, 2019). Overall, all literature on opportunities of the Fourth Industrial
Revolution workforce specifically cites the importance of lifelong education, emphasizing
problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration as cornerstone
skills for successful transition and future longevity (Atanasoski & Vora, 2019; Bongomin et al.,
2020; Bruun & Duka, 2018; Chace, 2016; Fiorelli, 2018; Joshi & Klein, 2018; Kurzweil, 2005;
Mehta & Fine, 2019; Metz, 2020; Perisic, 2018; Prisecaru, 2017; Wilson et al., 2017).
Global Overview
To correctly frame where the American school system currently lies in the spectrum of
preparing students for future work, many scholars, economists, and educational policymakers
continually turn to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
forum which is a collaboration of 37 countries developing policy standards on all economic
growth (Davis et al., 2020; Jarvis et al., 2020; Schleicher, 2019). The Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA) provides an international benchmark for how well industrialized
countries train their students in literacy, math, and science (Davis et al., 2020). The United States
32
has consistently sat at 23rd in literacy, math, and science since the 1980s (Jarvis et al., 2020). A
couple of countries that consistently dominate the PISA test are Finland and South Korea (Davis
et al., 2020; Jarvis et al., 2020). Davis et al. (2020) highlighted Finland, which most recently
began Phenomenal Based learning last year, and its national school system. At their schools,
students get much play time, no homework, and no testing. Also, children go to school in their
community because there are no private schools. Lastly, teachers are paid well. South Korea has
advanced quickly over the last 50 years, starting with a 60% literacy rate and now being one of
the top education systems in the world. Students go to school from 8 in the morning until 11 at
night because they go from regular school to tutoring. They have a high school test that
determines their employment future. South Korea has been trying to change its education system
due to the high suicide rate among teenagers due to the pressure of school.
Research points to various national school systems trying to match the type of education
their citizens receive to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Most European countries have moved
away from standardized testing and toward IBL, growth portfolios with co-created success
criteria, goal orientation, and feedback loops at all levels. Many have moved away from grading
because as we move into the next revolution, education is going to be decentralized, and students
will need to be very agile as the job market is going to shift constantly. As technologies grow
stronger, there will not be as much need for large workforces, and students will need to be
specialized in their learning endeavors. Malaysia, for example, named its educational system
Education 4.0 and mostly concentrates on technology outcomes.
China just released its Informatization 2.0 for education, focusing on teaching technology
(i.e., cybersecurity, blockchain, fintech, machine learning, and biotech) starting in kindergarten.
When the recent COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools, China was ready with the national
33
slogan, “School’s Out, But Class On” (Zhou et al., 2020). By March of 2020, China’s Ministry
of Education coordinated a curriculum on fighting epidemics to focus on epidemic prevention
knowledge, life education, public safety education, and mental health education. Coordinating
online learning with students’ actual needs helped to prevent normal teaching methods,
shortened time in class, and strengthened study guidance. The country created air resources for
local and national learning hubs using networked cloud platforms. It also provided a backbone
for teachers to network on coordinating course recording sessions, resource provisions, online
teaching guidance, and online home-school communication to help families with online
guidance, questions, and communication. Additional protocols for uniform implementation of
online learning were not requiring families to print out lessons (causing financial burdens on
families), not recording lessons to reduce burdens on teachers, and not requiring students to
“clock in” to upload videos daily.
A lesson learned from Akgül amd Ayer’s (2020) study on the Ministry of Education of
Turkey is that school systems must first move their educational systems from an Education 2.0
model of learning to a 3.0 model prior to moving to Education 4.0 (Akgül & Ayer, 2020; Hattie,
2012). The recommendation for school systems to move from a 2.0 system of learning is that
they “must have roadmaps in place to develop infrastructures, technology and human capital
with information technologies to partake in the benefits that Industry 4.0 has to offer” (Akgül &
Ayer, 2020, p. 164). According to the study, these are the challenges Turkey struggles with when
moving toward an Education 4.0 framework:
1. Education policies should develop educational programs suitable for the change in
information technologies.
34
2. Due to fast changes in technologies, children through adults partake in continuous
learning activities.
3. Education should move away from basic memorization and based on researching
subjects and events more in-depth.
4. Problem-based learning and increased levels of participation in problem-solving
activities when there are not enough persons to solve the problems on-site.
5. Educational environments should be prepared for individuals to evaluate, think freely,
discuss and investigate the problems they face.
6. Multidimensional mind development should be targeted, not just verbal and
numerical communication.
These findings correlate with various studies on technological 1:1 implementation
research providing evidence of having a strong pedological output prior to technology
enhancements to facilitate deeper learning experiences (Bednar et al., 1992; Demir & Onal,
2021; Fullan et al., 2018; Hattie, 2012; Pittman & Gaines, 2015; Reid, 2014). This section gives
a global outlook as to how other nations are working toward adapting their national education
systems toward embedding skills for future industrial revolutions.
United States of Common Core
In 2009, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State
School Officers launched the CCSSI to set uniform national academic standards for math and
English language arts from Kindergarten through Grade 12 (Common Core State Standards
Initiative, 2020; Jochim & Lavery, 2015; Lee, 2020). Due to states having local control over
education policies, minimum academic achievement standards varied. Therefore, the federal
government created an opt-in education policy to move states toward a common national set of
35
standards. What triggered this level of participation from corporations began with the release of
A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), which showed how
Americans were falling behind in the world academically, launching the school reform
movements tied solely to high stakes testing (Milner & Lomotey, 2014).
Throughout the years, from the emergence of state standards to President Clinton’s Goals
2000 bill to the linking of Title 1 funding to the adoption of state standards and the rise of high-
stakes testing through the No Child Left Behind Act, educator voices were intentionally locked
out of the development of education reform policies (Cross, 2004; Shober, 2016). Foster (2016)
discussed how the CCSSI was nothing more than a corporate take-over of the education system
because the NGA and the quasi-governmental CCSO were guided by business entities and
standardized testing lobbyists who wanted to cripple the unions by tying teacher longevity to
high-stakes testing.
In August 2009, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
wrote an open letter against the state adoption of CCSSI and created a commission that evaluated
the CCSSI (ASCD, 2020). By March 2010, the ASCD commission approved the standards
policy position and, by May 2010, became endorsing partner. In March 2011, the ASCD
received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support educators’
understanding and implementation of CCSSI. Other grants, such as from the Leona M. and Harry
B. Hemsley Charitable Trust, gave the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union an $11
million contract to build an online warehouse of instructional tools to support standards
implementation (Jochim & Lavery, 2015). By 2013, AFT leaders cited how quickly CCSSI
rolled out and how it needed a course correction in its legislation due to how closely the new
national standards were tried to high-stakes testing and causing harm to educator evaluations.
36
With high stakes testing being the determination of student achievement, designation of school
performance and closure, and now teacher/administrator evaluations attached to the CCSSI, the
harm to educators is, in turn, causing harm to students through educator teaching methods. The
lack of placing money into correctly training educators on the teaching methods of the CCSSI
thwarts the goal of efficiency.
According to a National Public Radio report, as schools closed in March 2020, school
districts in the United States rushed to get technology and internet access to move families
toward online education (Kamenetz, 2020). Teachers were asked to use Google Classroom to
post digital lessons and worksheets for students to continue their education. Unfortunately,
online learning is not as simple as placing students online to learn. Several studies attribute
negative online learning experiences to the lack of understanding of how to operate devices
(Escueta et al., 2017; Okwumabua et al., 2011). News agencies reported that as of April 10,
2020, only 59% of all high school students participated in studies online, with reasoning
correlating with known research on digital 1:1 implementation research and how families adapt
to online learning environments (Kamenetz, 2020). These reports again beg the question of
where Black people are in this utopian future world of technological prosperity where everyone
is supposed to have more leisure, thus giving humans more time for creativity. This has never
happened in the past, and as evidenced by COVID-19, we can see which students are not
prepared to live in this utopian future.
United States of Industrialized Schools
Due to the lack of technological historians that specifically research and document
incidences of racialized injustice (de la Peña, 2010), this research used a CRT lens as an
appropriate methodology for examining how technology impacts race in the school system
37
(Crenshaw, 1989). In this case study, students of historically marginalized communities have
been impacted by the intersectionality of technology and race, advanced by the social constructs
built upon false narratives of ancestry, enclosed by laws and policies meant to enclose enslaved
Africans prior to and before Emancipation, through the industrialization of schools to help
“civilize” immigrant populations, and lastly through the enclosures of testing and accountability.
Just as future theorists understand past trends in society to predict the future trajectories of
society, researchers must take a step back and review how historically marginalized communities
have been devalued in Western society during past industrial revolutions, work, and education.
Although the technology industry tries to distance itself from race issues altogether, de la Peña
(2010) placed a call to action for more historians to “regard race as inextricably linked to the
history of technology in the United States” (p. 921). This literature review will connect teachers’
mindsets as they instruct students of color. As stated before, it is the mindset of all educators,
along with policies, that will shift our education system toward IBL practices to give all students
access to future work opportunities.
Mechanicalization of Humans
The literature highlighting the reasons behind today’s industrialized school system does
not begin with the alignment of the Second Industrial Revolution for Black students as originally
thought (Darling-Hammond, 2015; Dintersmith, 2018; Wagner & Dintersmith, 2015). The
literature confirms that the Black experience with technology begins from antiquity and the
beginning of the human experience, extracted during colonization in the Americas and then
separated through the systems and laws placed to keep Black people as second-class citizens
during each industrial revolution (Armstrong, 2012; Carney, 1996; Ekolu, 2017; Lewis &
Mumford, 1934; Sinclair, 1998; Trotter, 2000). The importance of researching this portion of
38
history using a CRT lens is to connect the deep-seated social constructs that have burdened
students of color in the educational system to the eugenic testing culture of the United States and
the deficit narrative of an achievement gap.
The Extraction and Separation of Technology
Technology continually absolves itself from its connection to slavery through the false
narrative of the distance between technology and marginalized communities that lack access to
technological devices, services, and digital skills. When discussing the overall progress of
humans with technology, Big History scholar, LePoire (2015) posited,
Once societies were freed from depending on slave labor as in ancient civilizations, there
was more motivation to explore mechanical and energy extraction to help reduce physical
efforts, leading the West to utilize water, wind, and wood along with mechanical
machines. (p. 10)
The transfer of labor from slave labor to mechanical labor has been acknowledged in the
literature as the beginning of the first industrial revolution, which began in Britain, but the first
industrial revolution in the United States began in 1794 with the invention of Eli Whitney’s
Cotton Gin (Armstrong, 2012; Bongomin et al., 2020; Chace, 2016; Fiorelli, 2018; Joshi &
Klein, 2018; Trotter, 2000). More importantly in the entanglement of technology and slavery is
the importance of the social construct of human servitude, the importance of extracting
technology from African slaves in the United States to build a new nation (Trotter, 2000), and
the separation of technology from enslaved people through systems and laws, which set the stage
for notions of Black student achievement as inferior.
Technology, invention, and design are intertwined with African civilization through
binary code, geometrical mathematics, and calculus from the beginning of human history
39
(Eglash, 1999; Ekolu, 2017). Eglash (1999) uncovered various geometric patterns while flying
over African cities and found high levels of geometric calculus organization called fractals. After
extensive research, he found that African fractals are indicative of only African civilizations, that
infinity leads to iterative practices of design that are intrinsically embedded in African
production and social design, and that there is evidence that sources for European fractals were
of African origin. Eglash also discussed the dismissal of African fractals in architecture due to a
Western perspective placed over African accomplishments citing the praise for the city structure
of Timbuktu due to the use of westernized Cartesian grid style layout, Yoruba cities of equal
stature were dismissed as giant villages and considered primitive due to the lack of Cartesian
design which also helped solidify colonial proof of primitivism in the Western world. The
primitivism of western knowledge in complex mathematics and ways of knowing, reducing the
complexity of iterative design down to Western linear perspectives as a way to justify White
supremacy practices against Africans, needs to be more robustly researched and called out in
technological history. Ekolu (2017) specifically calls for more research on how ancient African
technological advancements, scientific advancements, and engineering practices need to be
integrated into African STEM curricula as it is currently based on European standards, citing,
“Cognitive abilities of Black Africans have been questioned, sometimes through unsubstantiated
eugenic theories and scientific methods” (p. 3). Table 7 underscores the various scientific and
engineering discoveries from the African diaspora, some even prior to the pyramids of Giza,
impacting various fields of design and technological expertise (Ekolu, 2017).
40
Table 7
Summary of Some Early Scientific and Engineering Discoveries of Ancient Africa (10–14)
Discipline
and
scholarship
Discovery Location Dating Reported by
Materials
engineering
and
technology
Production of
carbon steel
Tanzania,
Uganda,
and
Rwanda
1500–
2000
years
ago
1978: Prof. Peter
Schmidt,
professor of
engineering,
and Donald
Avery, Brown
University
Astronomy A stone calendar
based on rising of
certain stars and
constellations
Kenya, edge
of Lake
Turkana
300 BC 1978: Dr. B. M.
Lynch and
Prof. L. H.
Robbins.
Michigan State
University,
USA
Astronomy in
ancient Egypt
divided a year into
12 parts and
produced a yearly
calendar of 325¼
days.
Egypt 3000 BC
Dogon of Mali have
had precise
knowledge of the
invisible Sirius B
star for hundreds
of years.
Mali, about
200 miles
from Univ.
of
Timbuktu
500–700
years ago
Mathematics The earliest
recorded use of
algebra was
among the
Egyptians.
Egypt
A numerical
counting system
named Ishongo
had developed a
lunar calendar
system.
Zaire (now
Democratic
Republic of
Congo)
20000
years
ago,
1960: Dr. de
Heinzelin.
Universities of
Ghent and
41
Discipline
and
scholarship
Discovery Location Dating Reported by
Brussels,
Belgium
Yoruba of Nigeria
has a complex
number system of
counting of base
20.
Nigeria Native
Architecture
and mega
engineering
projects
The 80 Egyptian
pyramids present
an astounding
marvel of any
engineering
project in human
history.
Egypt 2560 BC Great pyramid of
Giza
Monomotapa, a
large stone
complex found 17
miles south of
Zimbabwe’s city
of Nyanda, an
empire of Shona
people, existed for
300 years.
Great
Zimbabwe
800 years
old
Navigation
and
overseas
travel
Mali and Songhay
empires had reed-
built boats used to
sail across the
Atlantic to South
America and
China.
West Africa 13
th
century
Agricultural
science
Barley cultivation Pre-Egyptian
age, Nile
banks
18000
years
ago
1979: Prof. Fred
Wendorf,
Southern
Methodist
University,
USA
Cattle domestication Kenya
highlands
15000
years
ago
1980: Dr. Charles
Nelson,
University of
42
Discipline
and
scholarship
Discovery Location Dating Reported by
Massachusetts,
USA
Medicine African traditional
medicines,
including early
uses of
antiseptics,
vaccination,
anesthetics, and
surgery, among
many others
Mali, Nigeria,
Liberia,
Kenya
Caesarean operation
natively
conducted by
Banyoro of
Uganda
Uganda Native Dr. Charles
Finch,
Morehouse
School of
Medicine,
USA. Reported
in 1879 by Dr.
Felkin [13]
Scholarship University of
Timbuktu in Mali
is considered one
of the world’s first
universities.
Founded in 980
AD, it had about
25000 students in
the 12th
century.
Mali 980AD
Note. From On modern technology diffusion and ancient science in Africa by S. Ekolu, 2017,
European Alliance for Innovation. http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/eai.20-6-2017.2270658
African civilizations have extensively contributed to mankind’s advancement by
advancing scholarship, scientific knowledge, mathematical knowledge, technology, and design.
One notable advancement correlated in literature is the superior design of the African smelting
process, which produced higher-quality steel, but transportation issues of wood, charcoal, and
43
iron made the European lower-quality iron more economically competitive (Austen & Headrick,
1983).
Colonization brings a new depth of knowledge to this study as it relates to the connection
of slavery in the extraction of technology, as enslaved Africans brought a wealth of technological
knowledge to the United States that even led to the first American industrial revolution
(Armstrong, 2012; Carney, 1996; Trotter, 2000). From an African perspective, it was not until
the industrial revolution that “there was little or no technology transfer among past civilizations”
(Ekolu, 2017, p. 461); thus, the advancement of indigenous scientific knowledge disappeared
once the civilization was conquered. Research suggests the importance of extracting
technological expertise embedded in the agricultural technologies of the United States (Carney,
1996; de la Peña, 2010; Sinclair, 1998; Trotter, 2000). Carney (1996) specifically compared the
rice cultivation process in West Ghana to the rice regions in South Carolina and Georgia, for
which “abolition doomed the rice plantation system by liberating some 125,000 slaves who grew
rice along nearly 100,000 acres of coastal plain,” creating a lucrative plantation economy (p. 5).
According to research, the 550 planters long held a narrative that Africans were merely unskilled
labor, which was debunked in the 1970s by scholars who found that enslaved Africans were
highly skilled in rice planting, which contributed to agronomic expertise, techniques developed
for soil and water management, and land management. Carney (1996) found that the West
African system of rice cultivation, independent of the Asian system, had various innovations,
which the research attributes to European integrated systems, but the research had no proof that
compared European ditch systems, for example, to specifically make a solid correlation with
European water management and land management systems. Further,
44
the technical changes marking the evolution of the colonial rice economy illuminate three
issues that bear on comparative studies of technology and culture: first, the need in cross-
cultural analysis to examine the technical components of production as part of integrated
systems of knowledge and not merely as isolated elements; second, the extent to which
superior social status coincides with a superiority in knowledge; and third, the
relationship between technical expertise, patterns of labor utilization, and technological
change. (Carney, 1996, p. 22)
The need for research on integrated systems of knowledge in the United States during
colonialism is highly important for examining how African fractal technology (Eglash, 2005) of
iteration and design have been implemented through the inventions and designs of the enslaved
African American workforce.
The planter population in the South advanced stories on the cultivation of the prosperous
rice economy during colonialism as narratives of ingenuity, grit, and technological dominance,
declaring that enslaved Africans did no contribute anything but the unskilled labor to create the
American Dream (Carney, 1996; Sinclair, 1998). According to Trotter (2000), false narratives
around the technological advancements in colonial history displaced enslaved Africans’
technological expertise in favor of American ingenuity. The invention that transformed
American society and gave the country access to the First Industrial Revolution, Eli Whitney’s
cotton gin, was actually an invention of a slave on a plantation where Whitney worked (Du Bois,
1924). Where Whitney thought that the invention would assist in ending slavery (Armstrong,
2012), the cotton gin soon catapulted the United States onto the national scene as a global
powerhouse, extending slavery for another century.
45
In addition to the false narratives that erased enslaved Africans as key partners in
American technological ingenuity, literature also confirms a belief that slaves were simply
machines and extensions of the master’s body, explaining the logic behind Western
interpretations of slave labor and industrialized labor overall (Armstrong, 2012; Sinclair, 1998).
Armstrong (2012) wrote a detailed analysis of written literary works to help clarify the logic of
slavery. The driving question derived from psychoanalyst Hann Sach’s paper, which attempted
to explain “why Greeks and Romans had math and science but no real mechanical culture.”
Slavery and the logic of the “machine within the machine” was the concluded reasoning behind
why civilizations, including the American South, did not advance in mechanical technology until
the first industrial revolution. Table 8 is an outline of the in-depth descriptions from literature
throughout history that correlates with this logic.
Table 8
The Logic of Slavery: Debt, Technology, and Pain in American Literature
Era Literature Slaves as machines
Antiquity Aristotle A slave is a slave naturally and a master is a master.
The slave actions are an extension of the master’s
will and the slave doesn’t have an independent
existence. Thus, the slave is in a sense a part of his
master, a living but separate part of his body.
Slaves belong to the world of repetitive labor and
consumption instead of production and making. As
an extension of the master confirming the master’s
power and locates that power close to his body in
the household where a freestanding machine might
arise as potential independence of the slave,
undermining their status as an instrument.
Technology
philosophers P.M.
Argued that only the abandonment of slavery does the
stimulus of labor become intense.
46
Era Literature Slaves as machines
Schuhl, Andre
Aymard, Marc
Chapiro
Laborers, instead of capitalists, create inventions to
lower their workload.
Labor substitution is essential to technological
interventions.
First industrial
Revolution
Geral Piel Slavery is the underpinning of high civilization until
most recent times. Slavery was abolished only when
the biological energy of man was displaced by
mechanical energy in the industrial revolution and
became immoral when it became technologically
obsolete.
Machines and inventions’ primary purpose was to
achieve a mechanical way of life to have power
over other men.
Though nominally designed to further the means of
existence, the machine served the industrialist, the
inventor, and all the cooperating classes as an end.
Lewis Mumford Stressed in 1934, “Before inventors created engines to
take the place of men, the leaders of man had drilled
and regimented multitudes of human beings: they
had discovered how to reduce men to machines. The
slaves and peasants who hauled the stones for
pyramids … the slaves working in the Roman
galley… these were all machine phenomena.”
Armstrong,
referring to
abolitionist
literature and pro-
slavery literature at
the time.
Abolitionists, along with inventors, were bent on
replacing slave labor with machines to grant
freedom to slaves.
Where pro-slavery writers rebutted the argument
pointing out the mechanization in the North and UK
produced system of subordination labeled
“industrial slavery,” but the South provided life-
long care.”
Governor of
Massachusetts
1837
British steam power was equivalent to 1 million
workers.
Frederick W.
Taylor
Described how an educated ape as the best factory
worker in the system.
47
Era Literature Slaves as machines
Second
Industrial
Revolution
Senator Vardaman A negro may become an obedient effective piece of
machinery.
Marx Depicts humans as instruments
W.E.B. du Bois,
Talented Tenth
Rejected the equation of worker and machine
Attacked the relation as “uncanny and retrogressive”
in its mechanization of the subject.
Ultimately leaves in place the operative relationship
informing the slavery-technology complex, siding
with mastery (accomplishments of the college-
educated) and seeing slavery and the tool bound
together.
Booker T
Washington,
industrialized
negro
We are the machine within the machine.
Internalized the logic of the tool
Washington refuses the master-slave, intellect-tool
dynamics of slavery which involved a strategic
down-valuing of academic study.
Mary King
Sherman, president
of the Federation
of Women’s Clubs
in 1926
Housewives must come up from slavery.
Slave power
versus
horsepower,
rise of
production
instruments
Silas Bent, major
technology
historian
He questioned if Americans were on a higher plane
than Greece standing on the backs of Helots, Rome
standing on the backs of captured military, or
southern planters standing on the backs of Black
slaves.
Book Slaves by the Billion predicts that future
generations will “attain once again the ideal ancient
Greece civilization with the difference that it will be
shared by many instead of the few, because it will
be borne by mechanism, not human slaves.”
48
Era Literature Slaves as machines
Women will not be released from servitude as they
will need to direct the household: “The leisure and
culture of the plantation was confined mostly to the
males.”
Robot rebellion represents the final extension of
autonomy of the technological which he fears = the
uncanny substitution which becomes total, freed
from human will, but marred by the status of being
an extension of the human.
The constant measurement between horsepower,
slave-power, and machine-power measuring units.
Measuring in units, he created an equation: A
mechanical horsepower costing $20–$50 per year
equated to 10–15 human slaves.
The billion horsepower in automobiles = 10–15 billion
slaves many times more people on the planet.
Note. From The logic of slavery: Debt, technology, and pain in American literature (Vol. 163)
by T. Armstrong, 2012, Cambridge University Press.
(https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139177252)
In the table is the recurring theme of past industrial revolutions connecting a pattern of
servitude in the form of a machine. This thought process embedded in Western culture gives a
possible mental authority over the ownership of intellectual property in the United States. Trotter
(2000) again posited that there was a separation of technology from enslaved Africans
throughout the rise of the industrial revolutions, and the result is manifested in the present digital
divide in society today. The invention and success of the cotton gin gave rise to the demand for
raw cotton, placing more displacement measures among the Black population, an increase in
49
more Black enslaved labor, and more emphasis on the labor power versus technological
knowledge of Black labor (Sinclair, 1998; Trotter, 2000). Subsequently, various policies and
laws systematically separated enslaved Blacks from the invention process:
Federal, state, and local authorities also enacted policies aimed to reinforce the separation
of blacks from technical expertise. Following Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1832, southern
states and localities outlawed the teaching of blacks to read, write, and cipher. Since the
U.S. Patent Act of 1836 required inventors to submit models showing the precise
construction, design, and specifications of their innovations, literacy restrictions denied
African Americans significant channels to technological knowledge as well as patents for
their inventions. Moreover, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of
1857, the federal government ruled that bondsmen were not citizens of the republic and
therefore could not receive patents for their inventions. (Trotter, 2000, p. 20)
The literature subsequently suggests the separation of technology continued throughout
each industrial revolution after enslavement, the formerly enslaved population of workers were
not fully accepted into the workforce, but instead, with each technological advancement, the
formerly enslaved were given more work to keep up with production, the most dangerous work,
or no work (Sinclair, 1998; Trotter, 2000). To correlate this research with Marxist theory, Pierce
(2015) described how capitalism divided the working-class population into four competing
categories: the floating (disposable), the latent (peasants), the stagnant (most exploited), and the
lumpenproletariat (criminals), called the Marx’s surplus population.
Factorization of American School Systems
Literature suggests an alignment of the American education system with the Second
Industrial Revolution (Darling-Hammond, 2015; Dintersmith, 2018; Edson, 1978; Tyack,
50
Wagner & Dintersmith, 2015). Standardized education began with the Common School
Movement (Tyack, 1974) in the 1800s, followed by The National Education Association’s
Committee of Ten in 1893, chaired by Harvard University’s president Charles W. Eliot, which
created standardized learning for each educational discipline (Edson, 1978; Wagner &
Dintersmith, 2016). According to Edson (1978),
Between 1890 and 1920 new high schools opened on the average of over one per day, a
467% increase for the 30-year period. Likewise, nationwide student enrollments
increased by 812% compared to a population increase during the same period of only
68%.
Concurrently, there was an outcry from scholars and the public to begin aligning student
standardization with vocational education due to changes in the nature of work (Dintersmith,
2018; Edson, 1978; Wagner & Dintersmith, 2015), so high schools had vocational and scholarly
tracks supervised by various college elites who created the standards for graduation and entry
into college. According to Edson (1978), architects of high schools did not want to maintain two
types of high schools with different administrators. Thus, high schools hired more administrators
and career counselors to track students toward vocation or college. According to Wagner and
Dintersmith’s (2015) review of each subject from The Committee of Ten’s standards, the
students on the vocational track were to work in the factories of the Second Industrial
Revolution, making the United States an educational and economic leader worldwide.
51
Table 9
The Alignment of the School System With the Second Industrial Revolution
Actors Factorization instrument Industrial alignment
Second Industrial Revolution Agencies separated the insane
into asylums, the poor into
almshouses, and the
criminal into prisons.
The young were taken from
the rest of society for a
portion of their lives and
separated into schools.
Reformers created
institutions to bring order
into deviant persons’
lives.
Students were expected to
learn order, regularity,
industry, and temperance
and obey and respect their
superiors under a central
administration.
Followed the exact schedule
and military routine.
Schools were to counteract
or compensate for
indulgent or neglectful
families.
Herbert Gutman “Precision, accuracy, implicit
obedience to the head or
directive power, are
necessary for the safety of
others and for the
production of any positive
results.”
The urban “school performs
this so well,” he
remarked, “that it reminds
some people unpleasantly
of a machine.”
“[The student] was properly
socialized to the new modes
of production, attuned to
hierarchy, affective
neutrality, role-specific
demands, extrinsic
incentives for
achievement.”
“Educators argued that the
educated worker made a
better employee, it did not
simply mean that he could
read directions or was less
likely to drink whisky or
go out on strike.”
Boston School Committee
1889 and Connecticut Board
of Education
Justifying the use of corporal
punishment in schools in
immigrant wards
Due to the increase in
immigration, the school
system sought to control
52
Actors Factorization instrument Industrial alignment
Herbert Spencer The specialization of function Considered “the
characteristic product of
modern civilization”
Note. From The one best system: A history of American urban education (Vol. 95) by D. B.
Tyack, 1974. Harvard University Press. Copyright 1974 by Harvard University Press.
Accountability
Current education research focused on the achievement gap, and the lack of 21st-century
skills on students’ future work prospects centers around the standardization of testing, high-
stakes test reforms, and the impact these reforms have on students’ ability to learn according to
their interests. This review seeks to explore the possibility that the achievement gap, though
existent, is not as it seems. Part of the reason American education cannot provide students with
the desired skills is that the system is focused on perpetuating and enforcing the current social
caste system more than it is focused on educating our children. The systematic oppression and
socialization of marginalized communities in schools can be seen in the use and misuse of high-
stakes testing.
Myrdal (1944) identified and explained the social caste system in detail. Samad (2009)
explored this research to identify that the American education system is an extension of the
social caste system. Samad argued that the racial privilege afforded to White people and
deprivilege cast upon Black people have allowed educational disparities to continue. Such
disparities in the United States social arena are perpetuated through limiting educational
opportunities and, in extreme cases, an outright denial of education for Black children (Bush &
Bush, 2018; Spring, 2016).
53
The term “high-stakes” is used to describe tests that have a direct impact on a person’s
life opportunities (Moses & Nanna, 2007). High-stakes testing can be traced as far back as the
1920s and the development of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) by United States
psychologists, including eugenicist Carl Brigham (Au, 2013). High-stakes tests like the SAT
often result in a chain of educational and social events that determine a student’s social position
(Moses & Nanna, 2007). With No Child Left Behind legislation, President George W. Bush’s
2002 reiteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, high-stakes testing moved into
the K–12 arena (Cross, 2004). Additionally, President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative
continued the push for testing as the accountability measure to determine funding, even for the
United States’ most marginalized schools (Au, 2013). Our testing system is ingrained in society,
and parents will need to be major partners in societal change and advocate for this better system
of education.
Considering high-stakes testing as a post-colonial apparatus in the school system, school
reformers have essentially established policies among communities of color that confirm the
colonial status quo (Heilig et al., 2013). To counter the pedagogy that accompanies the schooling
of students in marginalized communities, Freire (2000) suggested the problem-posing
framework, which allows students to bring their cultural competencies, worldviews, and a wealth
of knowledge into the classroom. There is still an element of hegemonic power that controls the
actual deep learning outcome because it is anchored in the popular goal of increasing
standardized test performance (Condliffe et al., 2015; Kingston, 2018).
Kingston (2018) produced a comprehensive literature review evaluating PBL empirical
articles spanning over 30 years to consider if PBL practices had improved student test scores.
The study found that most studies point to PBL being promising due to the high increase in
54
problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking (Condliffe et al., 2015), but found “PBL effect
on standardized testing to be unsubstantiated” (Kingston, 2018, p. 2). Honoring the power of
problem-posing learning releases teachers from the “banking system of learning” (Freire, 2000,
p. 72) and creates a co-learning relationship between students and teachers. There is no way to
measure deeper levels of learning (Dintersmith, 2018; Wagner & Dintersmith, 2016); thus, we
must focus on linking projects’ success criteria to the impact on community through student self-
agency.
School leaders and instructional teams play a pivotal role in creating equitable learning
environments and authentic learning experiences for our students. Accountability should not rest
in standardized scores or curriculum practices (Heilig et al., 2013). Embracing the tenets of
community-based accountability to disrupt the colonial paradigm in urban schooling experiences
is imperative to empower historically marginalized communities to exercise their democratic
power, set new ways of defining student achievement, and become agents of change in their
schools, communities, and world (Heilig et al., 2013). Transforming how teachers instruct and
define achievement while tailoring instructional practices to engage children in meaningful
learning, preparing them to be lifelong learners, and shifting understanding and practices to an
evolutionary model is aligned to fourth industrial research models (Fullan et al., 2018). To
catalyze this change in practice and theory, it is critical to provide teachers with high-quality job-
embedded training to develop their capacity to implement principles of IBL in theory and
practice.
Parent communities must refuse standardized testing as a summative assessment and
consider its impact on perpetuating the deficit models of instruction, particularly for historically
marginalized students and communities. True to its eugenic foundations, standardized
55
assessments continue to serve their purpose of enclosing historically marginalized communities,
pre-determining their trajectories by defining students’ perceived future social roles (Kliebard,
2004).
Furthermore, since standardized testing will be removed as an accountability measure, it
should be replaced with an evaluation of the community impact of the school and students’
projects. Heilig et al. (2014) contended that communities should set their own goals for students
based on community accountability. Other countries have deprioritized high-stakes testing as a
validating marker of success and moving toward goal-oriented feedback, growth portfolios
aligned with success criteria, and rubrics (Cohen & Singh, 2020; Shute, 2008). Additional
research may also pave the way for professional development opportunities that engage school-
level leadership in redefining authentic learning and developing ways to catalyze community-
based accountability.
Shared Vision
The following articles disseminate information on shared vision. The first portion of this
section will discuss the organizational change management theories of Kotter (2012) and Fullan
(2011, 2016), which are considered common models of change in businesses and school districts.
Agile business models will be discussed as well to give context as to how business models can
change using design thinking models. The second portion of this section will focus on the
transfer of shared vision, relying on empirical studies focused on second-order change initiatives,
to what it takes to lead technology from a district office to the school sites. The last portion of
this section will focus on the changing role of superintendents in school districts, reviewing
literature focusing on the challenges and successes of savvy superintendents, which will lead to a
final discussion on my conceptual framework.
56
Organizational Change Management
Traditional
The conceptual framework for this study begins with the first step in Kotter’s (2012)
eight-step process for organizational change: creating a sense of urgency in an organization. The
previous two sections of this literature review help frame the need for educational organizational
change in the United States as it relates to a pedological shift toward IBL practices. Figure 3
highlights the change process using Kotter’s eight steps. Kotter also discussed the need to adapt
to the constant changes in the globalized market. Businesses that are not changing will face
major challenges, including advanced technological change:
A globalized economy is creating both more hazards and more opportunities for
everyone, forcing firms to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper
but also to merely survive. Globalization is being driven by a broad and powerful set of
forces associated with technological change, international economic integrations,
domestic market maturation within more developed countries, and the collapse of
worldwide communism. (Kotter, 2012, p. 20)
57
Figure 3
Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process to Creating Change
Note. From Leading change by J. P. Kotter, 2012. Harvard Business Press. Copyright 2012 by
Harvard Business Press.
Another figure in change management is Fullan (2011), who names various change
management processes, but essentially focuses on the messy middle. Leading change begins with
a leader’s strong moral purpose and relationship building. According to Innovation USD’s board
notes, the new superintendent was celebrated for his relationship-building skills, and the board
believed he would guide the district into the future. Fullan (2016) noted the difference between
bad drivers (punitive actions and good drivers (capacity building and a collaborative atmosphere
in change management as ways to build stronger relationships within the organization). He
defined coherence as “the shared depth of understanding about the nature of work” (Fullan et al.,
2016, p. 6). Figure 4 is the coherence framework model describing how an organization needs a
58
sense of purpose, driving capacity, a collaborative learning culture, and accountability between
groups.
Figure 4
Coherence Framework
Note. From “Coherence Making” by M. Fullan and J. Quinn, 2016, School Administrator, 73(6),
p. 10.
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Transfer of Shared Vision
Research on how shared vision transfers within organizations is still a growing field
(Christensen et al., 2018; Kantabutra, 2008, 2010; Kantabutra and Avery, 2006; Liou & Daly,
2019). Vision research points to Senge’s (1990) description of vision as being negative or
positive, and, as of 2010, “only a handful of exceptional studies have investigated vision
characteristics” (Kantabutra, 2010, p. 321). Kantabutra and Avery (2006) defined shared vision
as “a mental model that a leader defines, given that it is the actual mental model that guides the
leader’s actions and choices.” After an extensive literature review, the most effective shared
visions had the following characteristics: Brevity, clarity, future orientation, stability, challenge,
abstractness, and the ability to inspire. (Kantabutra, 2008). In a study on the transfer of vision to
followers, Kantabutra and Avery (2006) found that vision will always guide the leader’s
behavior, and vision guiding depends on whether followers will accept and help execute the
vision, employees have an emotional commitment to the vision, and whether employee
satisfaction is aligned to customer satisfaction. Liou and Daly (2019), in a longitudinal study in a
large urban school district on vision, found that district and site leaders should experiment and
co-create new approaches and innovations, share knowledge, and exchange resources during
structured time to strengthen the communication pipeline between central office and site leaders.
Shared Vision for 21st Century Organizations
Various studies also focused on shared vision in districts that wanted to implement
technology initiatives (Adnan & Valliappan, 2018; Agélii Genlott et al., 2019; Casey, 2005;
Christensen et al., 2018; Friedman & Berkovich, 2020; Gonzales, 2020). The research considers
technology implementation a second-order change, defining it as “innovation driven, irreversible
and requiring fundamental change from current practice” (Agélii Genlott et al., 2019, p. 3023).
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Correlating with Hattie’s (2012) meta-analysis regarding the zero effect of technology on student
achievement, Agélii Genlott et al. (2019) found that “ICT use without integration with a
pedagogical method can yield worst results than not using ICT at all” (p. 3022). The call for
focusing on teacher pedagogy through professional learning communities, social systems for
learning, and teachers participating as actors in the change initiatives has positive effects on
success. Hubers (2020) also offered insight into leading teachers in second-order change
initiatives by creating a recommended sustainable model toward change. Table 10 shows the
characteristics of sustainable second-order change in school systems.
Table 10
Characteristics of Sustainable Second-Order Educational Change
Characteristic Recommended initial methodological considerations
1. Substantial changes that are
made that affect the core of
educators’ everyday practice.
Determine why and how the educational change affects the core of educators’ everyday practice
(e.g., through using its theorical underpinnings, collecting data about educators’ perception).
2. A longitudinal process that
starts as early as when
educators contemplate
whether or not changes need
to be made. It ends when
satisfactory achievement on
the other three characteristics
is reached and overt learning
efforts are stopped.
Gain a process view of how change develops over time. If possible, collect data at multiple time
points and try to be involved from the beginning to the end of the change process.
3. A process of individual
learning (professional
development) and
organizational learning as
well as of changing behaviors
at both the individual and
organizational levels.
Gain insights into learning processes at the individual and organizational levels (. If possible,
consider how these learning processes relate to each other.
Determine what changes were made at the individual and organizational level (e.g., through
students’ perceptions, observations, and studying the development of organizational routines).
4. A change process that results
in improved student
outcomes.
Determine what needs to be measured via educators’ engagement’s effect on student outcomes.
Determine how student outcomes should be measured through multiple measurement methods.
Determine how characteristic 3 and 4 influence each other through t the change process.
Determine steps to understand why the change occurred and under what conditions.
Note. From “Paving the way for sustainable educational change: Reconceptualizing what it means to make educational changes that
last,” by M. D. Hubers,2020, Teaching and Teacher Education, 93. Article 103083. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103083)
61
62
Conceptual Framework
To frame my worldview as a researcher in this study, I refer to a sentence in Sinclair’s
(1998) article, which is a call for technology historians and future engineers of technology to
consider how technology is imagined, produced, and employed in communities of color and then
examine how the technological change impacts those communities. According to much research,
technology has been designed to further oppress historically marginalized communities through
biased AI technologies like algorithms that misidentify those with darker skin tones 50% of the
time, algorithms at airports that misidentify non-conforming gender identities, or algorithms in
advertisements that lead to placing loan shark companies in communities of certain
demographics and wealth advertisements in already wealthy areas (Constanza-Chock, 2018;
Ugwudike, 2020). Although technology companies continually absolve themselves of creating
racial divides, they fail to acknowledge the implicit biases embedded in computing through
master disk/slave disk language embedded into programming language, hierarchal command
lines, simulations of Black faces and bodies on servant robots, and the interface having users
identify their race so algorithms can code marketing materials to them. Technology, along with
the internet, “remains racially ‘unmarked’ as not racialized and therefore universal” (Atanasoski
& Vora, 2019; Daniels, 2015).
Research also has turned toward access to the industry itself. It examines how technology
is marketed to have White consumers placed as innovators while racialized consumers are placed
as consumers. It also looks at how technology companies create sweatshops through outsourced
labor from people living in the global south while “tech firms in Silicon Valley are
predominantly led by White men and a few White women” (Daniels, 2015, p. 1379). Other
research examines then how Bill Gates positions himself as the savior of immigration, helping to
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expand HB1 visas to more-qualified foreign workers because Americans are supposedly not
qualified enough to fill high-tech jobs, which Anyon (2014) called out as a false narrative that
connects to the narrowing of entry-level jobs due to automation. These are the new narratives
used to create tension and separation in the workforce.
Research has revealed that these narratives are false but used to justify why historically
marginalized communities have always been and will always be left behind. The industrialized
school model, aligned with the Second Industrial Revolution via obsolete standards and
pedagogical practices and eugenic testing practices, also created false narratives telling all
students that they have deficits. The other enclosure is the colonized teacher mindset fueled by
deficit narratives about how marginalized students are not capable of rigor, making them
complicit actors in the status quo.
A fourth industrial superintendent who walks into a factorized school district must
change both policies and mindsets. The urgency is that the education system overall has not
caught up to the digital age and must first correct the instructional practices to allow for
technology enhancements. This study focuses solely on the imagination piece of this framework,
for it is the urgent need to change, but a leader must first imagine through creating a strong
vision, producing human capacity, and gaining resources to employ the vision and evaluate the
impact on end-users. In this case study, the new technology is IBL practices and how the
superintendent at Innovation USD imagined his shared vision, planned for production of teacher
knowledge and training, planned for resourcing the new process, and how he sought to
understand how marginalized communities of color experienced the new practices of learning.
Figure 5 shows the conceptual framework that anchored this study of Innovation USD.
The framework shows a larger black circle representing the current state of U.S. education. The
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current state is an industrialized school model, Education 2.0, educators’ deficit mindset toward
minoritized students, and the governmental monetary ties to accountability based on eugenic
testing measures. The four circles in the middle represent Sinclair’s (1998) construct of
technology as it impacts marginalized communities. In the context of a school district, a
superintendent must use imagination to plan for drastic teaching change by producing human
capacity through training staff on the new teaching technology of IBL, gathering and employing
resources to fund the new teaching initiative, and finding ways to evaluate student and family
experiences. The rectangles to the right represent new teaching technologies, Education 3.0,
which are inquiry-based teaching strategies that must urgently move through Sinclair’s model as
well as the next teaching technology, Education 4.0: teaching strategies enhanced by technology
advancement. Lastly, the gray square to the left of the circle is an output area representing a
successful entry for students to access the new job opportunities within an Industry 4.0
workforce. This study focused on the plans of one superintendent who is currently making this
change at his school district toward addressing the inequities in the factorized school model and
how he is currently moving through his change process by reviewing his process through this
conceptual framework.
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Figure 5
Conceptual Framework: Construct of Technology As It Impacts Marginalized Communities
Note. From “Teaching about technology and African American history,” by B. Sinclair, 1998,
OAH Magazine of History, 12(2), 14–17. (https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/12.2.14)
66
Chapter Three: Methodology
Critical race theory (CRT) reveals several root issues from the past that affect
superintendents’ ability to navigate their districts into true 21st-century learning models of IBL
and technology. Beginning with the factorization of the school system during the Second
Industrial Revolution, which tried to match content and skills taught in the schools with the
content and skills needed to succeed at the turn of the 20th century (Darling-Hammond, 2015;
Darling-Hammond et al., 2014; Dintersmith, 2018). The continued negative impact of school
reform policies has left superintendents accountable to government control over standardization
approaches, leading to only 40% of students being proficient (Milner & Lomotey, 2014; Moses
& Nanna, 2007, National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2019). Unfortunately, the job
market has moved into a more digital environment led by critical thinking and creative skills
processes and is now misaligned with school systems’ standardized way of teaching (Maynard,
2015; Wagner, 2008).
Research points to constructivist ways of learning, amplified by technology as a way
forward for pedagogical models, yet the production of deeper critical thinking methods is not
truly detectable through government-mandated standardized testing methods fueled by the
testing industry. Meanwhile, global school systems are taking advantage of IBL and technology
by specifically preparing citizens for the current and future job markets using more efficient,
agile school models, such as Education 4.0 in Malaysia (Adnan & Valliappan, 2018). To give
students access to future job potential, a superintendent needs to articulate their vision for the
future and change 21st-century mindsets toward future models of learning styles to make the
second-order changes needed for student growth.
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The literature for this case study reveals the systemic layers of racism and social
constructions that revolve around the extraction and then the separation of science, technology,
and constructivist pedological ways that are more conducive for this next industrial revolution as
it pertains to historically marginalized communities of children. The literature lacks a system to
specifically address the change management of a K–12 school district that engages in an
equitable systems change toward the future industrial revolution 4.0. Literature also reveals a
series of interviews with savvy superintendents as they discuss technological changes in their
systems, but the interviews did not discuss how their second-order changes impacted end-users
from historically marginalized communities. Thus, how the Innovation USD superintendent
makes such changes from pedagogy to transformation of school buildings as part of equity goals
is a case that should be studied further to help other practitioners in the field navigate their
school districts to break through the factorization of schooling toward future models of what
schools should be.
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this case study was to examine a superintendent in the process of
transforming a school system toward equipping students with the content and skills needed for
the future workforce. Through the lens of shared vision, I gained a better understanding of the
successes and challenges the superintendent and district faced and how they affected the change
management process. The study of how shared vision is imagined and transferred throughout the
district may help other superintendents be more equipped to make second-order changes in their
districts to better prepare students for the future job market. Two research questions guided this
study:
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1. How did this superintendent imagine, plan, and spread his vision for the future to
other leaders within the district?
2. How did those leaders experience the vision, imagine the vision through planning,
and transfer the vision throughout the district?
Selection of Population
I interviewed the superintendent, the assistant superintendent of educational services, the
chief operations officer, the director of instruction and innovation, and the director of ethnic
studies at Innovation USD. I selected the participants due to their levels in the district and their
roles in moving the superintendent’s vision of IBL practices forward throughout the district. The
study focused primarily on how the vision was planned and transferred throughout the district.
Using the imagination portion of Sinclair’s (2002) framework of technology’s impact on
marginalized communities allowed me to understand the plans made at the highest levels of the
school system to examine the imagined impact on historically disenfranchised communities. I
compared the plans with the reality of asking for feedback from communities of color. This
allowed me to understand the successes and challenges to inform further research.
I used purposeful sampling to examine how other district leaders experienced the
superintendent’s shared vision. Three factors make Innovation USD unique to align with
Merriam and Tisdell’s (2016) unique sampling preference. First is the specific call from the
parents in 2015 for an equity review of the school district and the recommendation for a new
equity plan. Second is the change in district superintendent in 2016 and the charge toward future
inquiry-based pedagogy that was infused in the new equity plan. Lastly, in lieu of moving the
district toward the future of learning, there was an immediate expansion of a constructivist
pedagogical model, a reconstruction of school learning spaces, and the building of staff
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capacity/resource distributions that carried forth to create rapid second-order changes within 3
years. Understanding how the shared vision was imagined and carried out by the various
followers will also help understand how major second-order changes are carried out by
strengthening distributive leadership protocols. This district was chosen because it caters to a
diverse student population. The schools in Table 11 are a partial listing of Innovation USD
schools showing over 50% diversity. Lastly, this school district was chosen due to the many
building renovations occurring in the school district.
Table 11
Innovation USD Student Demographics
School name Demographic data Quantity
Grand Elementary Black 63
Hispanic 170
Asian 44
White 267
American Indian/Alaska
Native
0
Two or more races 29
J.W. North Elementary Black
Hispanic
54
97
Asian
White
American Indian/Alaska
Native
Two or more races
5
112
1
7
McKenzie Elementary Black
Hispanic
Asian
White
American Indian/Alaska
Native
Native Hawaiian/Pacific
Islander
45
156
49
199
1
1
Two or more races 24
John Wayne Middle School Black
Hispanic
73
503
70
School name Demographic data Quantity
Asian
White
American Indian/Alaska
Native
Native Hawaiian/Pacific
Islander
Two or more races
32
307
0
3
88
Hewlett Elementary Black
Hispanic
Asian
White
American Indian/Alaska
Native
Native Hawaiian/Pacific
Islander
Two or more races
41
211
29
189
2
1
18
Innovation High School Black
Hispanic
Asian
White
American Indian/Alaska
Native
Native Hawaiian/Pacific
Islander
Two or more races
202
995
188
1,145
2
7
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Design Summary
This is a qualitative case study, so I interviewed and observed participants in their natural
environment (Maxwell, 2013). I adopted steps on conducting research from Creswell (2016) and
Merriam and Tisdell (2016). The study focused on the research problem and purpose of the study
presented in Chapter One. The literature review analyzes and defines the problem more clearly
and frames the need of this case study and its impact on actionable results. Chapter Three
addresses how the data would be collected, and Chapters Four and Five discuss data analysis,
interpretation, and reporting.
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Methodology
This study used a semi-structured qualitative protocol rooted in constructivist theory
called appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry interviews sessions are grounded in positive
theory and allow participants to value the progress made while renewing participant rigor toward
constructing their next step in the change process (Ludema et al., 2006; Stratton-Berkessel, 2010;
van der Haar & Hosking, 2004). For the individual interviews, an appreciative inquiry approach
protocol helped me delve deeper into the imagination portion of the shared vision (Ludema et al.,
2006). According to Stratton-Berkessel (2010), appreciative inquiry models are usually used
with organizational focus groups to co-create improvements in the organization. Using
appreciative inquiry with the parent focus groups allowed me to gain deep access to what was
going well while helping guide the parent groups towards evaluating their next steps in this
change process. By staying away from deficit language models, I was able to understand the
challenges of the district change process while helping participants participate in the construction
of the part they will play to continuously improve.
Qualitative Instrument
The qualitative data were gathered using semi-structured interviews (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016) to ensure fluidity and expression of ideas. The alignment of interview questions to the
research questions was imperative to the study, so I created an interview matrix (Appendix A).
Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and interview notes were taken during
the process (Creswell, 2016).
Data Collection
Creswell’s (2016) data collection steps were followed in this study: (a) locate the
individual/site, (b) follow steps to gain access and create a relationship, (c) purposefully sample,
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(d) collect data, (e) record information, (f) resolve field issues, (g) and store the data (p. 146).
The collection of documents was also critical for this case study. An initial collection of artifacts
found on the internet was key to understanding some of the historical inputs that led to the
systems change process Innovation USD is experiencing. A collection of news articles, testing
data, district goals, individual school goals, the initial documents surrounding the equity audit
with conclusions, the new districts equity plans in reaction to the equity audit, school board
meeting documents, and electronic district email communication documents were all included at
the beginning stages of this study and were continually updated throughout this study.
I contacted participants based on their leadership position in the school district. Thus, I
interviewed the superintendent, assistant superintendent of educational services, chief operations
officer, director of instruction and innovation, and director of ethnic studies for this research. I
used purposeful and unique sampling in selecting participants due to the specific roles they
played in the acceptance, planning, production, and employment of the district’s vision. I
selected them due to the work they did to advance the superintendent’s shared vision throughout
the district. The district is not only changing the teaching methods but also designing buildings
and facilities to revolve around the new teaching methods; thus, the department of operations
was invited to participate in the interviews.
All participants’ schedules were coordinated at least a month before the interview. I used
emails and phone calls to verify and confirm participants scheduling requirements (Creswell,
2016). Although I was fully vaccinated and COVID-19 measures were lifted for a time,
interviews were conducted both in person and via Zoom video conferencing software. Videos
conducted by Zoom limited the number of additional observation techniques throughout the
interviews. I followed the Innovation USD superintendent for a day and examined presentations
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from the district. I used appreciative inquiry protocols throughout the interviews (Ludema et al.,
2006; Stratton-Berkessel, 2010; van der Haar & Hosking, 2004) and asked participants about
their comfort levels in being recorded throughout the interview (Creswell, 2016; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). At the beginning of each interview, I gave participants information regarding the
purpose of the study and asked for their consent to conduct the interview (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016). I also emailed each participant a copy of the introduction letter prior to the interview. I
made follow-up phone calls to clarify pertinent information to target the research questions. I
transcribed and reviewed all of the interviews.
The continual data collection of public records, personal artifacts, newspaper articles,
district emails and information, social media pages, and visual artifacts generated from
researcher observations were also collected throughout the study (Creswell, 2016; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). I also kept a research journal used throughout the study as a data collection
apparatus (Creswell, 2016). Various data sources gave more contextual evidence from the
interview data and helped triangulate the themes presented in Chapter Four.
Data Analysis
I used a qualitative appreciative inquiry approach to collect data in this study. All items in
the survey and interview protocols aligned with the research questions. To understand the impact
of Innovation USD’s organizational change on families, with a focus on shared vision, I used an
inductive analysis approach to studying the data (Creswell, 2016; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I
followed the steps of coding as outlined by Gibbs (2018): (a) data preparation, (b) writing, (c)
thematic coding and categorizing, and (d) analyzing biographical, narrative, and discursive
elements.
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As interviews were being recorded, electronic transcriptions were made of all recordings,
which I reviewed and added notes on setting, context, and body language (Gibbs, 2018). Adding
the notes, photographs, observations, and other documentation to the transcripts allowed for
better interpretation measures when looking for larger themes. NVivo software helped me further
analyze all data and place them into emergent codes (Creswell, 2016). I later converted the codes
into major themes presented in Chapter Four. I also uploaded all review documents and artifacts
into the system to help triangulate and verify themes created.
Validity and Reliability
Throughout the study, I created systems of validity and reliability in several ways. First, I
critically reflected on bias throughout the process. Wertz et al. (2011) specifically discussed a
more holistic approach to analyzing narrative qualitative interviews by reading between the lines
when speaking with participants. I maintained the balance of reading between the lines as it
related to my personal bias by aligning all collected data to my conceptual framework. This
allowed me to stay focused on the quality of information obtained. Purposeful sampling was
used to interview the superintendent, who is Black, and other leaders at the district and school
sites who reflect a diverse workforce. I sought to infuse a CRT perspective throughout the
process; therefore, I specifically asked probing questions about the leaders’ positionality. The
intent was also to gain a better understanding of how their ethnicities played into the
dissemination of shared vision throughout the district.
According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), a researcher brings a certain level of bias into
the study through the presentation of their conceptual framework and accompanying lenses that
offer the study’s consumer a window into the researcher’s worldview. I presented a conceptual
framework that outlines my worldview perspective using a CRT lens in the literature review. I
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constantly reflected on additional biases that dealt with my ethnicity, positionality, and social
status in data analysis to ensure that biases “beyond the epistemological or theoretical
framework” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 208) would not project onto the data. Thus, the
population sampling, the selection of the constructivist model of questioning following
appreciative inquiry protocols, data collecting, and analysis of all data aligned with the research
questions and my worldview by applying a conceptual framework through a CRT lens.
Positioning myself and my worldview throughout the study added to the reflexivity giving the
study more authenticity and credibility (Creswell, 2016).
Throughout the selection, data collection, and data analysis, I continually used critical
reflection on the process to ensure the highest levels of ethical standards to ensure the validity
and reliability of the information. Due to qualitative study being a co-construction of how others
view the world (Creswell, 2016; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), I ensured validity and reliability in
the interviewing by using appreciative inquiry protocols. By design, appreciative inquiry
“produces a range of hopeful vocabularies offered as an epistemological alternative that supports
positive relational reconstruction (of social relationships)” (Ludema et al., 1997, p. 1018). Thus,
question design infused humanity into this study to build hope language and add to the
authenticity of this study. The emphasis on the ethical and secure handling of data, asking for
consent prior to interview sessions, creating a space for adequate timing of collecting data, and
analyzing the data all added to the credibility of this research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Summary
This case study on a single school district used a qualitative appreciative inquiry
approach. Data were examined from public and private artifacts, and interviews were conducted
with the superintendent, district-level leaders, and school site leaders to target the research
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questions. These findings have been presented in Chapter Four, with a discussion of the findings
in Chapter Five.
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Chapter Four: Findings
This chapter presents an analysis of the data regarding the strategies used by a fourth
industrial superintendent who imagined and transferred his vision toward equitable IBL practices
in a public school system. As the global education system is moving toward IBL practices by
preparing citizens for the next industrial revolution, research has unveiled several antiquated
practices that are thoroughly embedded in the U.S. education system, aligning current graduate
output of skills with the second industrial revolution workforce (Darling-Hammond et al., 2014;
Dintersmith, 2018; Dintersmith & Wagner, 2016; Mehta & Fine, 2019). Many institutional
barriers contribute to the lack of vision to shift from a factorized model of learning toward IBL
pedagogies that include collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and cultural
intelligence, all rooted in real-world issues (Dintersmith & Wagner, 2016; World Economic
Forum, 2020). The system of accountability through standardized testing, exacerbated by the
negative impact of school reforms, has forced district leadership and teachers to align student
instructional time around content that will only be on state testing (Au, 2007, 2014). Research
points to how the proper implementation of IBL pedagogy amplified by technology will
accelerate learning possibilities and allow students to gain access to the fourth industrial
workforce, specifically for students from historically marginalized communities of color (Acosta
et al., 2020; Jang, 2016; Van Laar, 2017, 2020).
Findings from initial research on Innovation USD revolved around the equity report
given to the district in 2016. The report found that despite a strong track record on test scores, the
school district had a long history of academic achievement disparities as it pertained to students
from historically marginalized communities. Findings from the equity report also highlighted a
lack of consistent implementation of systems, structures, and processes aimed at eliminating
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academic disparities due to varied expectations in the classroom, siloed school sites contributing
to divergent approaches when implementing key initiatives, resistance among staff toward
district-led initiatives, and a lack of coherence when advancing equity within the schools.
A new superintendent was appointed in 2016 with a new vision toward equity which
targeted the pedagogical practices of the district’s teachers. This is a qualitative case study
focusing on the transfer of vision from the new superintendent to his district leadership.
Qualitative data were collected via individual interviews with the superintendent and four district
leaders. Qualitative interviews were conducted in a semi-structured approach using a
constructivist interview protocol of appreciative inquiry (Ludema et al., 2006; Stratton-
Berkessel, 2010) as a reflective tool to deconstruct each participant’s journey from planning
stages, implementation, status, and dream of future possibilities. Questions aligned to the
framework applying Sinclair’s (1998) view on technology as it impacts historically marginalized
communities: imagination, produce, employ, and user experience. This study culminates in a
potential framework to help other district leaders implement new IBL pedagogy at their schools
so that all students have access to the future workforce.
Participants
Participants of this study included the current superintendent, the assistant superintendent
of curriculum and instruction, the chief operations officer, the director of instruction and
innovation, and the director of ethnic studies. Table 12 highlights the participants and their roles
in the school district.
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Table 12
Interview Participants
Job title Demographics Role
Superintendent African American male The superintendent, in conjunction with
the board of education, sets the vision
for the district.
Assistant
superintendent of
educational services
Latin American female To support the vision by transforming
instruction practices in the district to
IBL
Chief operations
officer
White male To support the vision by transforming
building structures toward inquiry-
based instruction
Director of instruction
and innovation
Black American male To support the vision by coaching
instructors in PBL principles
Director of ethnic
studies
Indian American female To support the vision by decolonizing the
history curriculum
The research results presented are organized by research questions. The research
questions guiding this study and serving to organize this chapter are
1. How does this superintendent imagine, plan, and spread his vision for the future to
other leaders within the district?
2. How did those leaders experience the vision, imagine the vision through planning,
and transfer the vision throughout the district?
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study was to understand how a superintendent creates, transfers, and
spreads shared vision throughout a district to create second-order changes. By using Sinclair’s
(2011) analysis of how technology impacts Black people through imagination, production, and
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employment of a new way to teach students using PBL, this study centers around the transfer of
shared vision in one district. This study will allow for the beginning of a framework to help other
leaders support all learners for the next industrial revolution. The research question focuses on
two areas of inquiry: the innovation and dissemination of shared vision from the superintendent
to district leaders and the reception of that vision and co-creation of that vision from the district
leaders to the school sites and community.
Coding of Data
Data analysis centered around an inductive coding approach bringing a holistic value to
the lived experiences of all participants (Wertz et al., 2011). From the superintendent’s
interview, supported by subsequent participant interviews and artifacts to triangulate the data,
arose three findings for each research question and, subsequently, five overarching ancillary
findings, helping to guide a framework toward equitable IBL practices at Innovation USD. I
followed Creswell’s (2016) and Wertz et al.’s (2011) approach to constructing and
deconstructing the narrative data collected: (a) Collecting data, (b) managing data, (c) reading
and memoing, (d) describing, classifying, and interpreting data, and (e) representing and
visualizing data. I filtered narrative themes through the conceptual framework, adding to the
reflexivity and transparency of the applied worldview (Wertz et al., 2011).
Findings
I present findings placed into categories and themes aligned to the research questions.
The data analysis will help support future superintendents motivated to shift school system
pedagogy toward IBL opportunities for all students to gain access to the next industrial
revolution workforce.
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Results Research Question 1
Research Question 1 asked the following: How does this superintendent imagine, plan,
and spread his vision for the future to other leaders within the district? A qualitative interview
with the Innovation USD superintendent, along with correlating artifacts, produced three
findings: (a) moral purpose moves toward a theory of action, (b) creating an intentional IBL
project, and (c) a dynamic of learning through reflection. Figure 6 synthesizes the findings from
Research Question 1 to illustrate the dynamics of how each finding builds upon the next.
Figure 6
Research Question 1 Findings
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Moral Purpose to Theory of Action
The first finding revolved around having a strong moral purpose leading to a theory of
action. The story of the vision for this district begins with the superintendent’s personal narrative
that manifests in his moral purpose (Fullan, 2011). His lived experiences came with layers of
social constructs: immigration, socioeconomics, linguistic challenges, and being Black in
American society. These intersectionalities give him an interesting perspective on equity and
educating children in America. When discussing his native country, the superintendent stated,
You have possible newspapers here and there, but it’s not a lot when you have a lot of
people that didn’t go to school. Democracy is delicate. If you don’t deal with the people,
you’re going to have people raise arms, people can’t eat, and they won’t have a place to
sleep. If we don’t educate everybody, we are going to have problems. That’s why to me,
education is so important. Like Fullan says, transforming education is the most important
thing we can do right now.
He continued with a statement he attributed to Michael Fullan: “Transforming education is the
most important thing we can do right now.”
Table 13 is a series of statements made by the superintendent that gave value to the
various intersectionalities he had growing up in the U.S. educational system. These
intersectionalities imbue the work he does as an administrator and ignite his passion for equity in
the education system.
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Table 13
Observed Lived Experiences That Impact Superintendent’s Moral Purpose
Lived experience Layered intersectionalities
I was born in Uganda and came here as a refugee of war
back in 1979.
Immigrant/refugee
There were 10 of us kids in the family, poor, we didn’t have
anything.
Socio-economics
We didn’t even speak English! Language
I also recognized there are some things about American
culture that I was able to kind of see because of that,
because I came from the outside. I said, “This is a
complicated country,” and racism is complicated, and we
need to address it.
Black
When interviewing for Innovation USD superintendent, he specifically developed a
theory of action plan that targets historically marginalized students. Due to the school board
wanting to find a superintendent who would address their equity audit, the superintendent created
an action plan that involved the advancement of all students, stating,
I think I have to be cognizant that I’m a Black superintendent. Although my focus is on
making sure that we deal with the achievement gap, I’ve got to make this thing real for
everyone. You helping Blacks is for everyone. You helping Latinos is for everyone. You
helping socioeconomically disadvantaged students is for everyone. That’s why I don’t go
into the achievement gap. I discuss the bigger picture.
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The bigger picture is real-time global discussions that affect students in their everyday lives. It
involves types of issues that engage students and demand their attention and discussions around
how students can work toward solving these global issues at the local level through IBL
practices.
Life experience also shaped the superintendent’s passion for IBL for all children. As a
principal, he was introduced to The Center for Advanced Research and Technology program,
which specifically designed IBL experiences for students using “career-specific laboratories in
which students complete industry-based projects” (Center for Advanced Research and
Technology, 2022, para 1). During laboratory sessions, the superintendent noticed that students
were completely engaged in learning. Table 14 presents quotes demonstrating the CART
program’s impact on his moral purpose as it pertains to equity and IBL. The table is organized to
illuminate specific quotes that correlate to his observations of IBL and how he viewed IBL
pedagogy could affect change among various student populations.
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Table 14
Observed Lived Experiences From Efficient IBL Used With Students of Various Demographics
Engagement verbatim Student demographic
You come from a traditional school; some people come in
with a special education aid. So, when you come to
CART, doing a visitation, you’ll see some adults sitting
around not really doing anything. You’re thinking, “Well,
what are they doing?” They came with their special
education students and had nothing to do.
Special education students
Everybody’s engaged! The teacher is engaged in assisting,
arguments are happening (between students), and it’s just
fascinating!
General students
When students are working in multicultural groups, and you
have Black students on the team, they’re going to bring a
perspective to the team that you, as a White person, never
considered.
African American students
It’s kind of like your dissertation, right? How excited are
you? You’re invested because you have a question, and
now, you’re ready to go. It’s the same thing over here.
General students
Research indicates that organizational change management begins with a leader’s moral
purpose for change (Fullan, 2011; Kotter, 2012). It also indicates that a moral purpose allows a
leader to create urgency towards change. The superintendent’s observations from the CART
programs, along with his lived experiences, resonate with the larger vision for what school
should be. By having a tangible example of how those programs specifically engage traditionally
marginalized students of color, he used this model of teaching to guide his planning which led to
his theory of action plan for Innovation USD, stating,
You must name it [in policies]. When meshed together, I don’t need to be specific, but if
I name Latinos and African Americans, then you’ve got to ask the question. Okay, what
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do you need? Well, first and foremost, you got to teach real history, make learning
relevant, and approach learning in a culturally responsive way through [PBL]. When it’s
not named, and everything is meshed together, then you don’t have a specific game plan,
right? No, it’s because you don’t want to name it for what it is.
Another concept that arose was the concept of firing, hiring, and promoting various
people who either do not share or do not wholeheartedly share the leader’s vision. The autonomy
to appoint and hire his cabinet/leadership teams fortifies the foundation of establishing
collaborative cultures and strong relationships. For the first couple of appointments, the
superintendent did not use a hiring panel but appointed his assistant superintendent of
instruction:
The key is the board. I have to make sure they understand what I need. There was a
director that really wanted her job, and I directly went to her and said, “Look, there’s
some things I need. I need to appoint. I’m not going through an interview. But this is my
second year, I got to have somebody understand what I need done. While I’m working
with the community, I need somebody to run this thing.” You just gotta be honest with
people. I’m not going to take them through a process, and I know how organizations
work. People don’t want to change. If I take people through a normal interview panel, she
would have gotten selected because these folks don’t know what I need. Their voting
with their friend or what’s comfortable.
The first reason for this action was to show the district the type of person he needed to
serve alongside him as he made second-order change. The second reason was the candidate’s
strong work in equity and specific knowledge in building bridges between the school district and
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historically marginalized communities. The cabinet he surrounded himself with was culturally
diverse and filled with people from various fields and industries.
Creating an Intentional District-Wide IBL Project
The second finding was what the superintendent referenced as “setting up conditions.”
Within the theory of action plan, he created a framework that intentionally set up the conditions
for teachers to lead initiatives from the middle, leading to school sites creating their own theories
of action and resulting in a cohesive district-to-school site model producing collective
psychological ownership (Martinaityte et al., 2020). To evaluate the superintendent’s plan for the
district, we must take a step back to the context in which he was hired. The district’s equity
report was produced in 2016. During the interview, the superintendent walked through the
components of his moral purpose, which led to his theory of action plan. In 2016, the district
faced a local news report that specifically focused on the discontent of Black and Latinx parents
regarding the type of education their children received.
By the summer of 2016, the district received an equity report from an outside consulting
firm that analyzed previous district and school equity initiatives and the mechanisms used to
initiate and support the change process. The firm interviewed various stakeholders about their
perceptions of past equity efforts in the past. The report revealed a lack of buy-in to district
initiatives due to top-down approaches that created a culture of opposition, a lack of a cohesive
desire to advance equity initiatives from leaders, siloed schools with divergent approaches to
implementing key initiatives, and a lack of building capacity to support equitable learning and
academic practices.
The current superintendent presented the board with his theory of action plan, which was
implemented. The superintendent specifically aligned his theory of action plan with the equity
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report. He spoke to his moral purpose, values, the vision, and theory of action or steps he would
take to implement the vision he presented. Talking again at a high level about why IBL practices
were so important, he discussed the possibilities for the district to prepare all students for life
outside of school.
Shared Leadership Through Accountability
The superintendent created his plan with the concept of teachers leading from the middle,
aligned with the district’s plan for achievement. The district sets forth the vision, supports the
vision through educating all stakeholders, and then helps schools by resourcing teacher-led,
school-led initiatives. Figuratively, the concept of leading from the middle places the teachers at
the center of a diagram. The teachers are then guided by the principals as lead learners, supported
by coaches and district leaders. At each school, a teacher leader is chosen from each department
to help initiate conversations around plans of change related to district-aligned policies centered
on pedagogical practices. Leaders and teachers work in tandem to develop their school-site IBL
protocols, educate the community on their new pedagogy style, and place all innovations in the
school-site plan, which is aligned with the local control and accountability plan (LCAP).
The district set the goals and non-negotiables, which were pre-negotiated with the
teacher’s union. The teacher’s union is continually included in discussions about the district’s
vision of equity through the shift to IBL. Weekly check-ins and quarterly accountability reports
are essential to the questioning process as teacher leaders, principals, and district leaders present
the board with quarterly results from student projects and learning outcomes. Table 15 details
how the district is organized to create collaborative cohesion between the schools and the
district. The table also outlines the accountability check-ins conducted weekly and quarterly.
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Table 15
Creating a High Performing Co-collaborating School Community
Steps to success Implementation Verbatim
Professional learning
communities at all
levels
Teacher PLC groups
The first thing I did was work with the union.
I said I’m not here to tell you how to teach.
I’m here to elevate us to work together. I
want to give you voice in decision making.
Leading from the middle means that I’m not
telling them to do that, I’m creating the
environment where I showed them the
inequities in our schedule.
We engage in student talks to help us
understand their point of view better.
Teacher leadership
clusters
I said that leadership teams in schools are key.
If we’re going to collaborate about massive
issues, we’re going to talk about it.
I have 10,000 students and 2,000 staff. How
do I get into a place where I can
communicate with them? I can’t be in an
auditorium every day talking to everyone.
There has to be a leader from their
department. So, you have all these leaders
that meet with the superintendent, and that
is the school’s leadership team.
And this is a negotiated item. I pay the PLC
leaders, and I pay the site leaders of teams.
So, anytime we convene about a district-
wide approach to something, then they meet
with the site leadership team, and then they
break up into the site.
Principal cohorts The principal is what we call a lead learner,
meaning I’m not going to be here as the
principal to tell you everything.
You have a site leadership team with all my
instructional leadership coaches, my
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Steps to success Implementation Verbatim
coordinators, my department research and
assessment team meeting and supporting
school sites.
Then the district also has their leadership
teams.
District leadership
teams
My entire ed services division is in one place
with all my instructional coaches, my
coordinators, my department of research
and assessment.
They are all questioning because we never
want teachers to say, “Well, it’s because
that’s what the district wanted.”
Alignment of school
site plans with
LCAP data
School autonomy
I’m a firm believer in that we support the
schools, but I need the principals and teams
to develop a plan to present to me that you
understand the outcomes I’m looking for.
You’re going to have different approaches.
One principal I hired wanted to do IB
[International Baccalaureate] and asked if I
would support it. Yeah, of course, but you
will need to sell that to your community.
So, his plan is IB focused but with district
goals in mind.
A different school’s action plan deals with
academic language within [PBL]. So, notice
they look different, but the goal is the same.
You give them (the schools) the opportunity
to do that.
You can never say that this is a top-down
decision, right? How to do the work? All I
ask for is the goals we need. That is non-
negotiable. Then you are going to develop
your plan for your site. You need to make it
authentic.
Weekly and quarterly We have teams that are engaged in weekly
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Steps to success Implementation Verbatim
check-ins and monthly check-ins. You can’t just say,
“We planned this at the beginning of the
year, I’m not going to talk to you ever
again,” about archives. We’ve got to know
if we are making progress.
Which students are doing well or not doing
well? Are they understanding what we
intended? Really having deep conversations
in the weekly check-ins.
And then quarterly progress reports. This is
where I’m bringing the board into play
because a lot of times, what happens is if
you don’t do this, what we’re trying to do is
capture the issue at hand right now.
If on our weekly check-ins and quarterly
check-ins, we start seeing the divide
between Latinos, and Blacks, and Whites
right now. Why can’t we pause? Why can’t
we figure out why this is happening? Why
is it that those specific students aren’t
getting it? What is happening?
From that process of reflection, we can go
through the sites and see if it is an issue of
engagement. You could talk to the kids. We
notice this, what do you think about it?
They might say that they are reading
Shakespeare (not a standard, just a reading)
and they are not fully engaged in the
reading.
Again, the most essential question to me is,
why is this happening, and what does the
research say?
So, these check-ins are key because you need
to establish a culture of accountability.
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A Learning Organization and Reflective Organization Dynamic
The third finding was a continual cycle of reflective practice centered around student
voice. Several times throughout the interview, the superintendent discussed the importance of
understanding student needs by speaking with them directly. The qualitative research began with
student voice when district leaders conducted their equity check-ins and moved into collective
research for better understanding, which eventually led to a quarterly review of the school plan
for student achievement (SPSA). These actions helped to create immediate and continual growth
for all stakeholders. Each SPSA plan holds each school site’s theory of action, goals for students,
and professional development plans to reach those targets.
Teaching Cross-Cultural and SEL Skills. Creating an equitable organization at
Innovation USD meant inviting all stakeholders to discuss and create a shared understanding of
what equity is and educating them about the true meaning of equity and equitable practices to
change the culture in the district. To create this shared understanding, leaders held reading
sessions to educate themselves on zero-sum philosophy to gain a better understanding of the
institutional enclosures surrounding African American and Latinx students. According to the
superintendent, “There’s a nuance to this thing; why mess with things when things are perfect?”
Not wanting to affect the already achieving, highly affluent students was just as important to him
as closing the opportunity gaps for students of color. Therefore, strategies were set for creating
an inclusive atmosphere for students who have been locked out of the curriculum.
The capacity building around PBL and the notion of end products were introduced.
Additional training and professional development sessions on IBL protocols were implemented
using the shared accountability model. According to a local news article, the superintendent and
a learning coalition of district stakeholders spent about a year studying various IBL models by
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visiting schools that have successfully implemented IBL at their schools. According to board
meeting documents, the district approved special training from leading organizations specializing
in IBL implementation. The superintendent discussed how, throughout the district, leaders and
staff studied Fullan and Quinn’s book Deeper Learning. He also purchased the workbook to
accompany the book and paid for Michael Fullan and staff to help train and assist staff on IBL
understanding and implementation strategies. For principals who were resistant to the new style
of learning and looking to continue status quo pedagogy at their schools, he took them on tours
of various school programs that implemented IBL to attend to personal growth and to help
develop the principals’ and community’s understanding about what teaching and learning should
look like. Table 16 is an example of how to build a cohesive learning organization.
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Table 16
Steps to Creating a Learning Organization Focused on Equitable Education
Steps to success Implementation Verbatim
Book studies Sum of Us (Author) This book is a powerful book. I had the entire
administration read it:70 and board
members.”
Deeper Learning
Fullan and Quinn
and workbook
He [Fullan] talks about actually in this book,
too, in Deep Learning.
School investigation
teams
Visited successful
school sites that
used IBL protocols
for teaching all
students.
It’s a warehouse of rooms with computer
work taking place, machines fabricating
materials, all culminating in a year-end
project,
Create opportunities
for resistant leaders
to tour facilities of
the successful
programs.
I got a principal who didn’t really want to do
PBL. So, I took him to CART. We did all
kinds of tours, and the parents were excited
for the whole thing.
All of this is happening, the bond is passed,
and the principal is sitting there saying, ‘ I
don’t know about this.’ Well, this can’t
work because the principal is now going to
fight with the community that does want
this.
Professional
development
District leaders and
coaches
The school leadership team then breaks it up,
and it goes back to the PLCs. So, you can
have that conversation going back and
forth.
PLCs Everything is structured into teams, from team
leaders to teacher PLCs.
Centering student
voice
Equity conversations There was something called My Dear —-
High last year after George Floyd. A lot of
high schools had students report issues of
racism. Ours was one of them. Leaders and
staff went around and actually talked with
students about their experiences.
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Steps to success Implementation Verbatim
Student check-ins After reading this and then engaging in
student talks
Any time I stop and ask students what’s going
on because I’m trying to help you.
This came from students’ living experiences.
In a restorative way, what we found was when
a student gets to explain their peace in a
restorative way with the adult, often they
say something that the adult never even
possibly considered.
So, you go back and ask the question. Hey,
what are we doing? Do we need to go talk
to students? Let’s review what happened.
Through a continual learning organization focused on equity, the why behind IBL
practice, and student engagement, district stakeholders began to mutually agree on what equity
truly is and how pedagogical practices enhance learning for all students. The learning
organization is the base to gain a shared understanding and language around equity in pedagogy
to move the curriculum into the decolonization of Eurocentric views of learning.
Simultaneously, the superintendent had the board adopt anti-bias frameworks during his
first month: “If you want me to create an ethnic studies curriculum, I need to understand first,
what do you want out of that?” The board thought that an ethnic studies program would solve
their achievement gap. He immediately created a shared agreement on how the curriculum
needed to engage students differently to help include them and to give access to a Eurocentric
curriculum through engagement. The problem was deciding whose culture has the most social
capital in the school system to be studied and how to place these studies during the school day.
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After evaluating various frameworks, the board approved infusing the history curriculum with a
social justice framework, developing courses that include a minimum of five perspectives from
various social constructs where students develop an interdisciplinary project that focuses on an
equity issue.
Engage in Reflective Practices Around Issues of Equity. The last section of the
superintendent’s theory of action revolves around meaningful reflective practice to continually
assess progress and make instructional changes. In many districts, schools create a yearly plan of
action for the school board to approve and evaluate the following year after state test scores are
recorded. The principals work with their community stakeholders to review data and set plans
and goals aligned to the district's goals. The superintendent considers this process “red tape” for
each school year for principals to throw haphazard plans together without constantly letting those
plans guide the direction of each school site.
At Innovation USD, the district set forth goals along with embedded accountability. Four
times each year, principals take a pause each quarter to reflect on each student segment and
adjust their plans if needed. Principals sit with the superintendent to discuss their school
achievements guided by their SPSA to show evidence of impact. The superintendent is currently
searching a path director who will regularly discuss each principal’s SPSA prior to their meeting
with the superintendent to help coach them on their plan. The superintendent stated, “The reason
why I bring those directors is, this is their number one task. To make sure that this is happening
in an authentic way.” He tied this authentic space of reflection to their evaluation process,
stating, “I’m not saying to be perfect. I’m just saying go through the process so we can learn.”
When evaluating the district’s website, the dedicated SPSA page defines the plan as a
way to “identify and address the instructional needs of students and specifies how categorical
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funds provided through the Consolidated Application will be used to accomplish the goals
outlined in the plan.” This includes reviewing performance data, describing strategies to enhance
student learning, and discussing student progress monitoring plans, interventions, professional
development, parent engagement, and funding. Stakeholders must be involved with the creation
and communication of plans.
According to the conceptual framework and the literature review, I specifically asked
about the superintendent’s point of view on student testing in the traditional sense of collecting
data. He asserted, “Assessment is multifaceted.” His approach to standardized testing is to
implement cycles of showcases, inviting parents throughout the year to view the end product of
student work: “Trying to compete right now to say no, everybody must move away from testing
is not going to happen because parents and colleges are still looking at grades, even though
grading and testing is transitioning.” So, for now, until society changes, the district continues to
support tests and grading while creating pathways for students to showcase the various skills
they learned through capstone projects: “The more we have these [showcases], the more parents
will see and understand the deeper learning experiences students are having.” Within the
authentic reflective process, the superintendent will accept test scores as a measure of student
growth, but as research has shown, IBL does not improve test scores, so the hope is to create an
environment for growth in the testing space for principals to move past numbers and toward
project showcases. Research supports other assessment practices through goal-oriented feedback,
growth portfolios, community accountability, and project impact (Hattie, 2012; Milner &
Lomotey, 2011; Shute, 2008).
Producing and Resourcing Through a Symbiotic Relationship With All
Stakeholders. Creating a learning organization full of various support systems, coaching,
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professional development, and sourcing of project materials comes with fiscal challenges.
Buildings that lead to future learning and industry support, including mentorship opportunities
for leaders, teachers, and students, require money. Per board documents, many board meetings
have approved budget allocation to consulting firms, professional development firms, and
educational materials along with building maintenance. The superintendent specifically
recognized the blessing of being in a district that always supports student growth through voting
for school bond measures. He stated,
This is a political place. That’s why I always must have allies. I’m part of this group and
that group. I’m part of Rotary. I meet with a city manager, a college, and different
political groups, but my biggest allies are my parent groups.
The district spent 2 years building affinity PTA groups, an African American Parent Advisory
Committee, and a Latino Parent Alliance: “I equip them and train them on what we are trying to
accomplish here.” Within the political system, some parents do not know or understand the
change toward IBL and are pushing back. The superintendent simply understands that the status
quo will try to keep the status quo:
We spent [2] years developing the African American Parent Advisory Committee. They
meet every month. They bring in speakers that discuss issues that affect the Black
community. Affinity groups are open to every parent to participate, and more affinity
groups are currently being added.
The importance of leading from the middle also affects the way initiatives and projects
are funded. When school sites create their SPSA, they must also submit information on
professional development and other resources needed to make their initiative successful. As
teachers’ lenses widen through awareness of various institutional barriers, their voices are heard,
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supported, and, most importantly, funded by bond initiatives. Table 17 reveals how this district
identifies and allocates resources and funding to school sites and teacher initiatives.
Table 17
Producing and Resourcing Initiatives From the Middle
Resource Verbatim
Board support And then [the board] went on to describe some of the issues. We’ve
done a lot of stuff in literacy, coaches, this and that, and poured
money here and there. I told them that’s because you were hitting the
wrong target. You’re trying to clean up something that is rotten. It’s
not going to work. You must tear this thing up and start again,
School initiatives Then all of a sudden, people go to work and have questions, and what
about funding? I don’t worry about that. I’ll get you the funding you
need.
Tied to LCAP So, now, you will take SPSA, and you’ve got to align it through LCAP
goals. And then in June, you’re turning it into me, I pay, I deploy
your resources.
Partnerships We probably have more money than most districts because of what we
call basic aid, and then the partnerships with the city, and partial
taxes and all that. So, we are paid pretty well. We have a lot of
support, partnerships with businesses, and so on. And then
academically, based on traditional testing scores now that our
students do well, though we have an achievement gap.
Bonds So, I separated the bonds, the $485 million school bond over there was
the biggest addition, $200,000. So, you add that together, that’s
almost $700,000. That’s almost a billion dollars. So huge. Both
passed at 72% because [the community] loved that [PBL] concept.
School transparency I need you to make visible everything you’re doing, your projects, your
game plan. Your SPSA has to be open. It’s not one of these
documents you just write up. This is what you live by how you
spend your money, the actual plans, your vision, and everything
needs to be public domain. And in fact, I want to make it all visible.
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The Employment of Shared Vision and The Impact on Parents. When asked whom
the superintendent considered allies, he said he considered his school board’s members his
primary allies in his change initiative, but that comes with spending much time continuously
educating them about the what, why, and how of what he is doing, explaining adjustments and
iterations of the plan, and providing context for the push toward equitable student outcomes. In
return, the superintendent noted, “We protect them by being good.” Other major allies are the
parents from the established affinity groups. Due to the affinity PTO groups, along with the
general PTO, parents have a platform and voice in the change process. The allies in the shared
vision transfer-affinity groups come to board meetings to support initiatives. In each group, the
superintendent fosters relationships and gives all parents pathways into leadership, amplifying a
co-constructed learning community whereby the parents are educated on how this new style of
pedagogy will give their students access to the future workforce. Lastly, the superintendent again
reiterated his relationships with external stakeholders within the community (i.e., Rotary,
NAACP, the city council, and various other organizations and businesses).
The staff, especially the teachers, have been the largest help in this change process. Due
to his theory of action of leading from the middle,
Remember the whole design of the middle? That’s brought me more credibility than
anything else, moving us farther than anything else. Everything ties back to the theory of
action, where there is shared accountability, a culture of learning, and continual reflective
practices.
The superintendent knows that there is much success in this area because school sites and
staff professional learning communities (PLCs) come to him now for advice on how to remove
barriers for students. One high school English teaching staff came forward and asked for his help
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initiating conversations with their parent community about leaving behind AP classes due to the
lack of access to the curriculum for all students. The teachers saw the inequitable divide between
White students and students of color. When they tried to engage in dialogue with parents about
their plans, the community pushed back. That Friday, the teachers were to have another meeting
with the parent community to discuss the reasoning for a curriculum change. The superintendent
told them that their best course of action was to allow everyone in AP classes and discontinue the
remedial college prep courses. This is one example of teachers taking ownership over all
students’ academic well-being, giving teachers a voice in the plan of action, and then, as a
district, supporting teacher-led efforts toward equitable teaching practices.
Successes and Challenges. During the interview, the superintendent specifically cited
various successes and challenges. He spends much time educating all internal and external
stakeholders on what good is by asking questions, being a thought partner, and giving agency to
the students. This allows him to be a guide to the side in many of these difficult conversations
that surround equitable systems and teaching practices. His proudest success to date is giving
space to support his theory of action. He understands that the process will take about 10 years to
have a lasting effect on the organizational culture. He is now finding that teachers have been
creating their own initiatives, just like the literacy teachers who wanted to remove AP classes:
“You set that framework of what has to happen, but you let them fit into it with their approach.”
Innovation USD is a highly political district, so transparency is key. From school SPSA
being public to continually educating the public on initiatives, these challenges are taken as part
of fighting the status quo. The real challenge for this superintendent has been trying to get
principals to understand and implement restorative justice practices at each school. COVID
affected this implementation because principles were too busy. He was wondering if he should
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push harder on the principals, but if he did, we knew that it would become a top-down initiative
where principals would say, “The superintendent wants us to do this.” He hopes that reflecting
on equity four times a year will help clarify the need for principals to embrace restorative justice
practices at their school’s SPSA.
The district's future is unknown; there have been short-term wins through establishing
leading initiatives on equity from the middle, organizational learning practices, and
implementing IBL. According to the superintendent,
How do we know that we’ve arrived? What I say through this process is, if we can be
predictive of outcomes is when I know. I want to be predictive of the outcomes of how
our students are going to do based on this work here.
The aim of the reflective cycle is to have a better understanding of where students are in the
moment and will help with having informed predictions.
Results Research Question 2
Research Question 2 asked the following: How did those leaders experience the vision,
imagine the vision through planning, and transfer the vision throughout the district? In Research
Question 2, I sought to understand how each participant processes the vision to carry out their
own theory of action. Research Question 2 produced three findings (Figure 7) pertaining to how
the superintendent’s vision for change was experienced, produced, and employed at the school
district. Findings are (a) lived experiences outside of education, (b) contributing to and
supporting the organizational learning culture, and (c) employing initiatives through the
development of relationships.
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Figure 7
Findings for Research Question 2
Lived Experiences Outside of Education
The importance of moral purpose was also a strong theme throughout the series of
interviews with Innovation USD leaders. Aligned to the superintendents overarching strategic
vision and plan, each created value by exercising their creativity in the plan to catalyze the
transfer of vision at the ground level, impacting student achievement. Each leader had a strong
passion for change, but their personal narratives were also as interesting as the superintendent’s
path. Table 18 describes how the participants’ lived experiences impacted the personal value
they bring to this change initiative and how they experienced the vision of IBL in the district.
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Table 18
Moral Purpose to Planning
Moral purpose District
leader
Plan
Equity, strategic Participant 1 Community of learning using evidence-driven
frameworks
Resourcing teacher-led initiatives
Iteration based on impact
Creative, theater,
teacher
Participant 2 Integration of vision into current planning
Research to action
Resourcing
Public tours
Creative, relatable,
entrepreneur, lead
teacher
Participant 3 Using frameworks and experience to drive change
Scaling programs
Being a connector
Equity, lead teacher Participant 4 Creating professional development
Continual interactions
Two participants were hired into the system, and two had over 15 years of experience at
Innovation USD. The two participants who were in the system prior to the new superintendent’s
arrival self-described as creative individuals. One participant went the extra mile to say that he
didn’t even want to be a teacher but went through credentialing because a college academic
advisor encouraged him to have a more stable career by becoming an educator and have his
summers free to pursue his other interests. The other participant, a long-time employee of
Innovation USD, had a unique journey into the school system by way of managing and directing
plays and taking part in large productions. When the new superintendent arrived, each leader was
already using their creativity and backgrounds to create spaces of opportunity for IBL initiatives.
Participant 3 was promoted to the district office due to the various IBL programs he started
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throughout his teaching career. The other two participants were hired into their positions at the
district, so the superintendent appointed individuals aligned with his shared vision.
Each participant believed that IBL practices were key to student engagement and an
equitable education. Participant 4 noted, “I feel like the social justice framework is the big
picture, and it serves as an umbrella for everything else that’s done in the district.” Participant 1
spoke about the dedication it takes to work towards equitable education for all students, saying,
“I feel that this is the place where I need to be because I will do whatever I can to support that
vision as hard as it may be and as much resistance as we may get because I know that we are all
working towards that common goal.” Participant 2 had a specialty in creating theater productions
and teaching acting. His idea of good teaching aligned with the new superintendent’s plans
citing, “What they’re calling 21st-century learning is what I call learning.” Participant 3 was so
passionate about IBL for students that he created a limited liability company separate from the
district to run his projects through the school year and summer breaks. He felt that it was divine
intervention that he was doing exactly what he embodied for students: “I couldn’t believe I was
gonna get the opportunity to do what I had been trying to do for students.”
The superintendent’s strategies also transferred to the leaders in the district. One
participant, for example, did not use the term “lead learner” but described meetings with teachers
where she specifically wanted to guide them toward the district vision by asking questions,
noting their ideas, and creating a professional development plan for them to learn more student
engagement techniques. Another participant used the term “learning community” to refer to the
district staff collectively, which reiterates the construct of being a learning organization. The
SEL component is being revamped and will be integrated into the IBL curriculum this fall as it is
imperative to create a solid foundation for a student learning community to have a “pedagogy of
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love,” as one participant commented. All leaders practice teacher-led initiatives from the middle
by meeting with teachers, hearing them, training them, or placing their ideas in planning and then
acting through the execution of plans.
From Vision to Planning
Each leader understood the vision and used their moral purpose as it relates to it with
their own theories of action. Due to each leader having their own role in the district, each theory
of action driving change is varied but still follows the framework of producing and employing
their theory of action. Table 18 describes the process each participant used to push forward their
plans for the vision for the school sites and communities. Each participant’s strategies will be
described in detail in the following sections and will follow Sinclair’s model of production and
employment and discuss how each leader measures the experiences of students/families to
understand the impact of their work.
Participant 1. Participant 1 was a first-generation college student whose parents
supported her formal and informal education endeavors. Education through college was
considered “a way for me to be able to support my family, to assist others, and to give back to
my community.” Participant 1 did much ethnographic research at school sites and always
championed ways to support students like her gain opportunities she had, which she considers
her driving force in education. She carried this drive with her throughout her education career
and was mentored by superintendents who were dismantling barriers and providing opportunities
for all students to succeed. Participant 1 discussed the aligned vision with the superintendent as a
“commitment to the process of engaging all stakeholders in the work of teaching and learning
and addressing the problems of practice that we face every day.”
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To understand the type of impact they are currently seeing, I asked each participant to
fast forward 5 years from now and see students and families who might be thanking them for
something. What are they thanking them for? Participant 1 said with a tear in her eye, “For
seeing them. For helping them and supporting them and for seeing themselves. For validating
them and supporting them to be who they want to be.”
Participant 2. Participant 2 previously managed theaters, led productions, directed,
produced, and even taught at the university level. As an artist in residence, Participant 2 went to
various schools and used theater to help teach math and science: “We would figure out ways of
using the proscenium theater style to help teach math, science, or to help teach English. So, I
immediately started to see how what we were doing in facilities could align with 21st-century
learning.” Research on using theater programs to teach math and sciences to students showed
positive results from connecting the experience to learning. One key finding from research in arts
and science education is that “the arts transforms the environment for learning” (Fiske, 1999, p.
ix). Fullan (2011) also discusses the importance of transforming the environment during the
change process.
When planning for change in the district, the facilities staff drafted their own guiding
question:
What do our facilities need to be to support learning for the 21st century and beyond? We
did a very full and very in-depth education specifications study and compiled our
findings into our presentation document, which is an aspirational document.
The team coordinated with the assistant superintendent of instruction, several principals, and
teachers who helped develop new ways of imagining a classroom:
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You know, the first big thing is our little 960-square-foot classrooms. This was an
idea built by the fire marshal 100 years ago and not by an educator. We need more
space, more flexible room to teach in different forms, modalities of learning, to be
able to engage the indoor-outdoor relationship with learning, and natural light
because research shows that airflow can improve attention and retention for students.
All of these ideas became clear to us through this study.
In the presentation document, there is an outline for 21st-century learning and how the new
buildings will enhance the learning experiences for all students through moveable wall consoles,
showcase areas, and moveable furniture. These ideas are all tied to various research and
successful learning models. The plan details each classroom from transitional Kindergarten
through Grade 12, maker spaces, community labs, and redesigned library and media areas. The
plan connects all upgrades to how the designs will enhance student learning.
When asked the question of the type of impact, Participant 2 considers much of what he
does invisible to students and families but wants to make sure that the facility creates a strong
condition where learning may occur at a high level:
Let’s say we’re doing an engineering program. They would say, “I really got my hands
on stuff, and I really developed skills that taught me and prepared me for my career in my
life, and it opened up where I was going.” If I could say that facilities were a partner in
that program by creating the condition because we don’t teach anyone anything. So, I
hope someone says, “Yeah, I was in that building!” I can say, “Yeah, I did that.”
Participant 3. Participant 3 also had an unconventional route to teaching. At the school
district alone, Participant 3 created several programs as a teacher, including a hands-on college
and career summer program for students where children worked side by side in classes with
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college students. Participant 3 also had a program where he taught students how to be leaders at
the school. He takes pride in his creativity and ability as a lead teacher, helping to scale IBL
initiatives at the school district. He truly considers himself the lead teacher in this area of IBL
and an expert in career technical education (CTE): “I’m here director of learning and innovation,
and it felt strange because nobody knows what that means.” It was a new position.
He considers his job as officially scaling what he was already doing with the district as a teacher
and leading other teachers to be as successfully creative in their classrooms as he was.
When I asked how students are experiencing IBL, Participant 3 showed a bracelet on his
wrist from a complex IBL project that was a passion project from a new teacher that hadn’t gone
through his official training yet but was taught the strategies from the staff at her school site.
They’re doing a program that is dealing with students in another country and improving
conditions there. It’s so integrated, so much passion, and they are proving that you can
do all of this and still hit the standards and be rigorous.
When asked about what students were thanking him for in 5 years, Participant 4 responded, “If
they knew what I did, they would thank me for having a vision for their lives and opportunities.
Bringing them opportunities.”
Participant 4. Participant 4 always wanted to be a teacher and considered being an
educator her calling. As a veteran teacher, program leader, national board certified, and two-time
county teacher of the year award winner, Participant 3 takes ownership over moving theory to
practice. What intrigued Participant 4 about her position was the large movement happening in
the district. Participant 3 views her role in more broad terms, which is the move toward culturally
relevant pedagogy and the integration of social justice standards: “My role was pretty clear when
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I started. They had a plan. There’s the social justice framework, and my job was to help lead the
implementation of that.”
The district’s plan is her plan, and she uses the social justice framework as a tool in
meetings. The key modality used was monthly meetings with lead teachers in history, being the
lead learner, and creating specific professional development targeting identified needs.
Participant 4 described her role as lead learner: “I elicited [teacher’s] responses, but I knew
where I wanted the discussion to go. After taking their responses, I wrote a professional
development plan.” Participant 4 creates professional developments around the needs of the
schools she visits and rounds of inquiry visits to review teacher behavior and student
engagement: “My role is taking what the sites need and making it mesh with what the district is
articulating.”
The enactment of shared accountability is being implemented in Participant 4’s work as
she is the lead learner gaining insights from the teaching staff, building a professional
development plan, and then reviewing the impact through conducting rounds of inquiry. As for
resourcing, Participant 4 follows the protocols set forth by Participant 1 and feels that the district
has always been supportive in giving resources for all teacher-led initiatives. When asked about
how students might thank her in 5 years, Participant 4 said,
What I would hope to hear is that they are thanking me for making the classrooms that they
were in places where their curiosity was honored and the intellect stimulated. Where they
are made to feel a part of a classroom environment and that they found the study of history
joyful and meaningful.
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Contributing and Supporting the Organizational Learning Culture
The second finding in relation to Research Question 2 revolves around the impact of the
cabinet team in fostering the vision, mission, and organizational culture through supporting and
contributing to the collective knowledge base of the organization. Gathered from interviews,
review of district documents, presentations, and synthesized from each participant’s personal
narrative, each district leader designed qualitative research, encouraged rigor in understanding
evidence-based research, provided and facilitated professional development opportunities, and
evaluated the impact of acquiring new knowledge on students and families. This process of
creating a solid learning organization is supported by much research as a way of changing the
culture within an organization overall (Fullan, 2011; Kezar, 2001; Schein, 2004). Where the
superintendent of the district’s focus was to help all stakeholders gain a shared understanding of
purpose and mission, the district leader’s mission and purpose for growing a learning
organization were to move theory into practice. Understanding how each participant contributed
to the knowledge culture of the district was synthesized through a filter of relating the various
processes placed district-wide to produce the human capacity needed to change the pedagogical
practices in the classroom.
Using Research to Plan
When asked how the superintendent’s vision transferred into their plan, Participant 2
linked the vision to current projects, as they conducted qualitative and desk research, innovated,
prototyped, and then iterated. The implementation of the new type of facilities came through a
plan already created and funded due to the department’s prior-year LCAP goals. The windows,
floors, and doors project coordinated with the first step in enhancing students’ classroom
experience by creating more light and better HVAC systems for airflow. This project flowed into
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the 21st-century furniture project, which changed every classroom to be more flexible through
the furniture:
We find that furniture touches every student every hour of the day. Our research
found that our little 960-square-foot classrooms was an idea conceived by a fire
marshall 100 years ago. As we interviewed educators, this space doesn’t work. They
need more flexible room to teach in different forms, different modalities of learning.
It is important to engage the indoor-outdoor relationship with learning. They need
natural light, and studies show that good air quality can improve attention and
retention engagement for students. We just needed to place all of this into the
buildings and facilities for students.
From this project, they began designing and transforming the buildings into learning spaces, led
by teachers and principals at each school site. With each new design, schools can reconfigure the
learning configurations, and facility managers can upgrade the buildings in the future:
“Academic spaces have raised floors, where air, data, water, electrical, everything goes under the
floors. So, over the summer, we can reorganize and reconstruct the inside of the building.” Due
to student experience being at the forefront of the facilities department, Participant 2 also
understood how parents might not understand the need to change facilities or learn from the
education they received in the past. Therefore, conducting community sessions where various
stakeholders walk through facilities and classroom spaces with teachers and principals at various
school sites helps educate the community about how each space creates a better environment for
learning.
In the first several months after accepting his position, Participant 3 needed to present to
the school board and community what the IBL tenets would be. He explained that his
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presentation was a study session around what 21st-century learning should and should not look
like 18 years into the 21st century. Out of the study session came four initiatives: IBL schools,
district-wide professional development, capstone learning experience, and CTE. Everything
needed to revolve around industry, real-world problems, and solutions and be project-focused.
This was the superintendent’s working committee on IBL. The steering committee began
researching by surveying and interviewing eighth-grade students about what they wanted from
school. Several questions were asked, including, “What do they wish they had in school? Would
they enjoy something like this or that? So, that laid the groundwork for the PBL pathway.”
Participant 3 felt that he was supported in moving from teaching to scaling IBL initiatives in the
system through having clarity in role and responsibilities, support from a steering committee, and
support from a community liaison to help co-chair the committee.
The recurrence of research centered around end-user voice helps support the process of
being a learning organization and feeds into current research on agile business models (Silva et
al., 2019). Departmental research collected throughout the process from planning,
implementation, and iteration cycles centered student, teacher, and principal voices in their
research coupled with desk research and conducting tests which align with the agile process of
continually gaining customer input when designing and producing new products. From the
discovery phase through implementation, students were engaged to help shape the new process
of pedagogical practice and facility design. Teachers and principals gave much input into the
new facilities’ design and helped to educate the broader community on how the facilities help
support student learning. Research guided by student voice was centered on department plans
and implementation, while action research was conducted simultaneously to help test various
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implementations to gain further feedback on how various stakeholders were experiencing the
new innovation. Thus, continuous improvement was guided by end-user experience.
Using Existing Frameworks to Help Guide Discussion
Building capacity revolved around the guidance of multiple frameworks used by directors
with specialties driving the language of math integration, literacy integration, and science
integration in the curriculum. When I asked about what processes the district used to build
teacher capacity around IBL, Participant 2 explained,
We develop multiple frameworks that support us and are able to strengthen particular
areas to integrate subject topics, i.e., science, math, and literacy. Then we provide the
professional development around how to integrate the various disciplines and how we use
[IBL] to really support students in having a deeper understanding of literacy through
science, of literacy through mathematics, and or history, or social science, so really
infusing those pieces within that space and making sure that district leaders are partners
in making those connections.
Frameworks were also important to Participant 4, stating, “The social justice framework is a
clearly articulated framework which has academic rigor built into it.”
When addressing teachers and parents who might be concerned about what is being taught in the
classroom as it relates to social justice, Participant 4 simply brought them back to the state
framework citing,
We don’t teach whatever we want. California has one of the most progressive frameworks
in the nation. So, I ask them to tell me what grade level they are interested in and then ask
them where it aligns to the state framework.
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Participant 4 also has led professional development for teachers to unpack the state framework
and standards and align them to the social justice framework.
Participant 3 consistently used frameworks from his first presentation through to
implementation and now has begun to blend various frameworks, adding to the initial BIE
framework that the district initially began with:
So, I created a framework on how to solve problems. I started using that in elementary
school based on word problems. Now, we use it to help solve real problems because they
can broaden that out into anything.
Through the use of frameworks, each participant helped educate and build capacity toward
growing knowledge in social justice, IBL, and how to integrate subjects to target student
engagement and educational growth.
Using Targeted Professional Development to Produce Impact
Participant 1 discussed how as a community of learners, all stakeholders come together
around a school site’s identified problem of equity and begin to problem solve as a collective.
Once a possible solution is identified, the district deploys resources to support any materials,
training, or coaching needed with the intention of providing proof of impact. According to
Participant 1,
Our school sites have leadership teams, and within their leadership teams, they’ve
identified their strategic focus and the best practices or instructional strategies they would
like to develop. They identify what professional development needs they have as it relates
to implementing IBL learning, and then we allocate funding for those areas of need.
There has to be a connection between what the evidence of student learning is telling us
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[and] what resources are needed to support the professional development that will impact
the learning needs.
Once funding has been allocated for professional development, district directors conduct equity
visits to ensure that teacher behavior has changed as evidence of impact in the classroom: “So,
there are different levels of impact. It’s not just always the end result of student test scores.”
When explaining that the true impact of behavior change on students might not happen for 2 to 3
years, Participant 1 discussed how leaders look for how professional development impacts the
delivery of lessons, how students are responding to the change from what they are experiencing
during lessons, and how teachers are monitoring and measuring each student’s progress.
The concept of district leaders as lead learners was supported distinctly by Participant 4
when describing her role when meeting with school site leaders and leading professional
development. When discussing professional development she had with teaching staff a couple of
weeks earlier, Participant 4 discussed how she was able to ask questions around many students
using their mobile devices during instructional time:
I asked a question based on what I saw and asked how we could address that issue. I already
knew where I wanted to guide the conversation but wanted the teachers to have ownership
over the solutions they created. I wrote down the teacher’s solutions on a chart and told
them that I would design a professional development around their ideas on how to correctly
implement them within the classroom.
This is a clear example of how the superintendent’s plan to lead initiatives from the middle has
transferred into the actual everyday work that district leaders do as they support the learning
organization. Participant 4 prided herself on her ability to initiate an open discussion on a
problem through questioning techniques, guide the conversation with the district vision in mind,
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and then allow teacher voices to be heard, supported, and acted upon at the district level. This is
the fostering of collaboration through the monthly team meetings, the professional development,
and Participant 4 mentioned district-resourced book clubs that started at school sites due to the
resourcing and support of the district following educators’ voices.
While many school districts felt the impact of the COVID-19 quarantine as they tried to
fill the digital divide with devices, internet connectivity, and teacher preparation, Innovation
USD saw how educators directed and launched even more real-life experiences on a digital
platform. According to Participant 3, resourcing for IBL initiatives took a downturn after the
2019 implementation due to backlash on spending issues in the district. As explained, “We were
putting money behind it, and there was backlash. There was a perfect storm for backlash because
our population was shrinking in the district, meaning we had to let go of some teachers.” Thus,
all directors had to tone down, which affected a large contract with PBLWorks. Instead of
copying their materials, Participant 3 began widening the training lens for the district by
blending BIE protocols with more research and connecting with people and resources from other
site visits:
I took other training from other organizations and distilled what I felt were the crucial
elements, and I created my own training along with our own resources for our own
planning guides. So, I created resources that were portable, and now teachers have over
100 links to different videos so that they can learn.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the district was poised to continue its IBL initiatives because
Participant 3 had already created the digital modules that were stand-alone training. This instance
is also concurrent with how Participant 3 considered himself a creative in the district, lending
more insight into how each participant iterated their own theory of action plans.
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At Innovation USD, there was a consistent underpinning of how the superintendent
afforded the freedom for individuals to advance the vision through their own theory of action, for
which district leaders were empowered to act consistently with the new vision and sustain their
commitment to it (Kantabutra, 2010) further contributing to the collective psychological
ownership (Martinaityte, 2019). Each participant used professional development with the
intention of seeing evidence of changed teacher behavior which in turn impacted student learning
experiences.
The second finding from Research Question 2 involves how each participant discussed
their role in supporting the culture of learning at the organization through a cycle of recognizing
a problem of practice. Figure 8 synthesizes the strategies the participants used as they were
moving their plan into action at the district. In support of the superintendent’s theory of action as
it related to teacher-led initiatives to create a learning organization, participants used their lead
learner influence to guide school sites toward identifying problems of practice, collaboratively
researched best practices using various frameworks to help guide practices, and then resourced
the professional development and coaching needed to implement targeted programs to monitor
the impact. All participants used student voices throughout the process, gaining immediate
feedback on the new strategies employed in the classrooms to iterate if needed. The cycle began
again through the established equity visits, SPSA reviews, and professional learning
communities aligned to the superintendent’s theory of action, for which district leaders turn into
lead learners who were able to co-create new possibilities centering teacher voices and
correlating with the superintendent’s original vision of leading from the middle on all
pedagogical initiatives.
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Figure 8
Problem of Practice Cycle
Employing Initiatives Through the Development of Relationships
The third finding pertaining to Research Question 2 was the intentional focus on building
internal and external relationships with all stakeholders. This finding correlates with many
statements made by the superintendent indicating how important informal and formal
relationships are in the change management process (Fullan, 2011; Liou & Daly, 2019). Fullan
(2011) makes a strong connection between how a leader ignites others to their moral purpose
through relationship building and developing a shared concept around what needs to be
implemented within an organization. In the same way, Innovation USD leaders build
relationships to ignite others with the same moral purpose towards an equitable learning
environment for all students and create a shared understanding of the moral purpose to help the
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district gain more financial resources from the community as well as a deeper collective
psychological ownership over all students’ learning experiences at the district.
According to Participant 1, relationship building in the district also helped build their
learning organization: “The building of relationships, connecting with our teachers, our families,
and our students to bring everyone along as we engage in this journey is really powerful.”
Participant 1 also placed emphasis on the parent affinity groups along with the overall PTA,
stating, “It’s really about connecting with them, sharing the narrative, and clarifying any
misunderstandings that might be out there.” Engaging with families to control the narrative of
the district was also emphasized as “in the absence of the narrative, we all make up stories to
make sense of what is happening.” Participant 1 correlated information from the superintendent’s
interview when saying, “Our parents are, in fact, our allies when things become difficult.”
Participant 1 also considers the teacher’s union as a strong ally in the district as they continually
center teachers’ voices with the development of all the initiatives. The community overall trusts
that the district, in coordination with teachers, is trying to elevate students in all of its initiatives.
When asked how the district funded this organizational change toward IBL, Participant 1
discussed their relationship with the community at large: “The community really comes together.
They have different [bond] measures they’ve approved to support teaching and learning and to
enrich students’ experiences.” Participant 2 thoroughly explained the continual relationship with
the external stakeholders. To enhance and reconfigure the buildings, created partnerships through
leasing agreements.
When I walked into the district, I was hired to manage a new theater the district just
renovated. They made about $70,000 per year renting facilities. Eventually, I took all the
facilities and rented them for filming, leases, and special events and now generate over
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two million dollars a year, and we oversee another 24 million dollars a year that come
into the district through joint use.
The facilities department has become an important part of the economics of the school district as
well as the community making them a community center through partnerships. An example of
this partnership is how the city relies on school campuses to provide parks and recreation for
families after school and on weekends. This revenue is in addition to the bond measures passed
and the normal allotment of facilities funding.
Relationships also needed to be fostered through strong partnerships with businesses to
gain access to real-world industry experience for IBL projects. Participant 3 specifically spent his
time as a teacher and district leader developing strong partnerships with various external
stakeholders. Prior to his position at the district office, Participant 3 created numerous
experiential programs for students centered around real-world skills for the workplace:
I created modules based on what I felt through research was telling me were important in
the workplace. I had friends at Google. So, we went to Google, Hulu, the fire department,
and architectural firms to help solve problems within various industries. It was a learning
experience involving a dynamic problem-solving activity where students would come out
with industry terms and industry ways of doing things. It all relies on relationships in the
industry.
As a teacher, Participant 3 relied on his relationships with all industries, such as actors from TV
shows acting out student-created plays about their lives and using public transportation instead of
school buses to enhance navigation skills. Also, instead of providing college tours, Participant 3
sent students to college to work alongside students in science labs or play real basketball games
with college cheerleaders and college band included. Bringing immersive experiences to students
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is a highly personalized endeavor: “One thing I learned is if the group is small enough, you can
get into the boardroom. People will do anything for kids.”
Along with using external relationships with industry, Participant 3 also developed
relationships with IBL practitioners from various organizations and built great relationships with
the CTE accreditation officials and with internal district stakeholders. When asked whom he
considered an ally while moving the shared vision into the district, he mentioned internal and
external stakeholders by name. Internal and external relationships have been a strong influence
on gaining resources for student success and gaining access for students to engage with
industries to help work through real problems.
Participant 4 relied on her strength as a teacher to develop internal relationships with lead
teachers at school sites. She builds relationships is by “rolling up my sleeves and letting teachers
know that I am here to serve you.” Along with being a servant leader, Participant 4 also prides
herself on knowing where teachers might resist professional development. Thus, she “examines
the barriers of resistance so when presenting, I can help make the information meaningful to
them and motivate them.” When asked whom her allies in the district were, Participant 4
discussed how she relied on other specialists at the district as they continually shared resources
impacting students’ lives.
The most important relationship the district has is with its students. Students’
experiences, family experiences, and their voices are continually heard, valued, and acted upon
to create a better learning experience. When discussing student experiences, Participant 1
posited, “We are continuously seeking to get more input from our students to have more student
voice, whether through focus groups or surveys, to truly get at how they are experiencing
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teaching and learning.” This idea of discovery and gaining input from end-users speaks again to
the agile nature of Innovation USD (Silva et al., 2019).
Summary
This chapter reported the findings from five interviews to better understand how a shared
vision toward equitable IBL practices evolves throughout a district. The results from this study
indicated that a shared vision begins with a strong moral purpose usually obtained by lived
experiences that transfer into a theory of action to imagine new possibilities for the district.
Within the theory of action, the superintendent set goals for each school and created pathways,
centering teacher’s voices in the development and innovation of new initiatives. To transfer the
vision throughout the district, findings indicated a strong learning organization helps to produce
teacher capability toward IBL best practices growing collective psychological ownership and
supported by all leaders. When employing the new initiatives from the school sites, simultaneous
relationship building must happen with internal and external partnerships to help with financial
and industry partnerships. The full process begins and ends with student voice, parent
empowerment, and multilevel cycles of reflection.
Chapter Five will present a summary of the research findings and implications for
practice. Recommendations for future research will also be presented.
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Chapter Five: Discussion
Chapter Five summarizes findings related to implications for practice in the educational
community. This chapter discusses key findings and a framework for how shared vision spreads
throughout Innovation USD. The intention of this chapter is to give other superintendents an
opportunity to act forward toward fourth industrial change in education. The chapter also
presents recommendations for future research.
This study focused on how districts can shift pedagogical practices from a factorized 2.0
model of learning toward IBL practices that will deliver equitable access to Industry 4.0 for
historically marginalized communities of color. Research showed many intersectional problems
that enclosed diverse populations of students long before the Second Industrial Revolution’s
influence on the school system (Armstrong, 2012; Trotter, 2000). Through a CRT lens, research
illuminated how various innovations were extracted from enslaved Africans and then from the
same population using laws and the patent system (Armstrong, 2012; Crenshaw, 1991; Trotter,
2000). During the Second Industrial Revolution, eugenic testing measures became the norm,
which has today precluded the same communities from advancing past standardized
measurements of learning (Au, 2007, 2014). As the world moved past standardization of learning
toward IBL practices, research has found that schools that cater to diverse populations are not
implementing IBL strategies with fidelity, thus locking our students of color and ultimately
locking them out of the future job market (Mehta & Fine, 2019). The purpose of this study was
to provide insight into how a superintendent creates and transfers a shared vision throughout the
district. By studying the process of conceptualizing, producing, and employing a new shared
vision in a school district, the research can center around the output of such a change in how the
end-users are experiencing the district’s direction. The following questions guided this research:
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1. How does this superintendent imagine, plan, and spread his vision for the future to
other leaders within the district?
2. How did those leaders experience the vision, imagine the vision through planning,
and transfer the vision throughout the district?
This case study implemented a semi-structured qualitative protocol rooted in a
constructivist questioning theory called appreciative inquiry (Creswell, 2016; Ludema et al.,
2006). Appreciative inquiry with a qualitative format allowed participants to reflect on their
vision, processes, and strategies for transferring their vision in the district. This research design
used purposeful and sampling to select participants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Due to their roles
in the district, this study focused on the superintendent, assistant superintendent of instruction,
chief operations officer, director of innovation, director of equity, and director of ethnic studies.
Interview data were analyzed using inductive coding to allow for organic themes to arise for
which findings resonated and fell within the conceptual framework.
Findings
Study findings suggest that having a moral purpose for oneself and as many stakeholders
as possible is imperative to organizational change. Findings further suggest that a strong moral
purpose leads to a theory of action, which is imperative to organizational change. The questions
that center this study are grounded in understanding district change regarding introducing IBL
teaching practices. Research shows that more technology research needs to focus on how
technology impacts communities of color (de la Peña, 2010; Sinclair, 1998; Trotter, 2000).
Trotter’s (2000) opinion of technology includes any new type of product or process introduced to
marginalized communities. Meanwhile, Sinclair (1998) discussed that the introduction of new
technology should be viewed through the lens of how it is imagined, produced, employed, and
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experienced among Black communities. This study specifically used these ideas to create a
conceptual framework on which findings centered.
Eleven themes emerged related to the study’s two research questions. Research Question
1 centered around the superintendent’s vision, where he set forth various systems and processes
that were later correlated by board meeting notes and participant presentations and reinforced
through the other qualitative interviews from the participants who helped answer Research
Question 2. This section presents a summary and discussion of the study’s findings which
culminate in a possible framework for future research to examine how shared vision is
transferred in a school district.
Research Question 1
Research Question 1 inquired: How does this superintendent imagine, plan, and spread
his vision for the future to other leaders within the district? Qualitative data related to Research
Question 1 produced three findings. The first finding was that the superintendent’s lived
experiences contributed to his moral purpose towards equity and IBL practices, which ultimately
led to the theory of action plan presented to the school board. Fullan’s (2011) work supports a
strong moral purpose for a leader in organizational change management and specifies that moral
purpose drives a purpose-driven plan in creating coherence in an organization (Fullan &
Kirtman, 2019). In the imagination portion of planning for change, a leader needs a strong moral
purpose, enhanced by creating an urgency towards change (Kotter, 1996) for other leaders to
begin to ideate in their imagination.
The second finding is that the superintendent continually referred to setting up conditions
for internal leadership and iteration. The notion of leading from the middle, as well as using
district and school site leaders placed in the position of being lead learners, is supported by
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research on creating coherence in school districts (Westover, 2020). The district cultivated a
collective psychological ownership that anchors the superintendent’s vision and mission via a
continual focus on having each school create its own theory of action, address pedagogical shifts
by allowing school leaders and teachers to decide what style of IBL fits their community, and
focus on teacher voices as leaders.
The third finding was the continual dynamic between all stakeholders participating in
educational growth and reflection based on student voice to align district vision, action, and
output. The superintendent created a learning organization that included book studies through
PLCs, consulting and workshops from professionals in IBL, and community visitations to
schools and districts that implement IBL with fidelity. In turn, the regular equity check-ins from
the district level centering student voices, the creation of parent affinity groups within the school
district, and the regular evaluation with principals on their SPSA plans create continual growth
and reflection points in the organizational structure. The superintendent also stressed the
importance of using parent groups and student voices to understand if the effort at each school
was elevating student growth and allowed the schools to make immediate changes without
waiting for end-of-year testing scores.
Research Question 2
Research Question 2 inquired: How did those leaders experience the vision, imagine the
vision through planning, and transfer the vision throughout the district? Data analysis related to
Research Question 2 produced three findings. The initial finding was that lived experiences
outside of education help with the planning and iteration of shared vision and the transfer of
shared vision. All but one interviewee had ambitions to pursue other careers prior to going into
education. Each participant with a background in fields other than education used their expertise
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to enhance their innovation toward IBL pedagogical practices. The sole participant who was a
lifelong educator may have been an outlier in this study because they were passionate about the
vision but, from an organizational view, mostly followed district plans aligned with the
superintendent’s vision without iteration. The other participants noted that they came into
education from different points of view, and these views ultimately enhanced their understanding
of the superintendent’s vision through implementing their plans. The best example is that the
chief operating officer considered himself a strong communicator between educators, architects,
and construction workers due to his innate understanding of theater and his short time as an
educator. This marriage of the world outside of education and the superintendent’s vision helped
align more innovative planning and various strategic iterations within each participant’s role,
helping to move forward the vision to all stakeholders.
The second finding in relation to Research Question 2 was that each participant
contributed to the organizational learning culture by being lead learners and resource providers.
They were the guides to the side, along with the superintendent, creating conditions for learning
growth for all stakeholders, including themselves. All participants discussed the importance of
professional development, whether it was the planning of professional development or the
resourcing of professional development. District leaders also contributed to educating the public
by walking the community through their planning and walking stakeholders through buildings.
Participants also considered themselves lead learners by increasingly gathering data around
effectiveness, gaining feedback from all stakeholders, but mostly centering student voice in their
research and asking questions on how everyone can do better towards removing opportunity
barriers for each student.
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The third finding was the intentional focus on building relationships with all
stakeholders. From a district level of leadership, each participant cited the importance of external
and internal relationships. This finding aligns with Fullan’s (2011) work emphasizing
knowledge-building to enhance the relationships with internal and external stakeholders. The
organizational structure around leaders being lead learners again is important to the relationship
of being a thought partner with the school district.
All participants considered relationship building with all stakeholders an essential part of
the change process. All used their relationships with various stakeholders to help educate other
stakeholders, which also contributed to the overall learning organization. When Participant 1 was
asked what she would change with the implementation of the plan, she wished that her team
knew how deeply she honored their work and commitment to equity. She wished she had spent
even more time letting them know how important they were to her. When asked about various
allies in the organizational change process, Participant 2 cited teachers and administrators
accompanying various stakeholders through new buildings facilitating a change in mindset for
community members who do not understand IBL and how buildings need to change to enhance
learning for students. Participant 3 continually discussed their strong relationships with various
businesses, IBL-focused programs, and various mentors at the district that help advance his
initiatives. Participant 4 used monthly team leadership meetings to build strong relationships at
the school sites, which helped transfer and advance the district’s vision.
Recommendation
According to Sinclair (1998), technological history should study how technology impacts
marginalized communities of color by reviewing how the technology was imagined, produced,
employed, and experienced by the end-users. In this study, the new technology being examined
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is a process (Trotter, 2000) that initializes the transition from a factorized second industrialized
model of teaching toward IBL within a school district. IBL is considered a style of pedagogical
practice that would lay a solid foundation for the technological shifts to be encountered through
the ushering of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Darling-Hammond et al., 2014; Dintersmith,
2018; van Laar et al., 2020; Wagner, 2008). Research provided in this study discussed the
importance of IBL practices in affording access to the fourth industrial work model for all
students. Innovation USD is a school district with a visionary superintendent with a strong moral
purpose focused on equitable learning experiences rooted in real-life problem-solution project
models. When analyzing the data in this study, five main findings emerged pertaining to creating
and distributing a shared vision in a school district. These findings are
• moral purpose (moral purpose, impacts theory of action, innovation)
• change process as an IBL project (imagine)
• culture of continual learning (produce)
• relationships (employ)
• adjustments through reflective cycles (experience)
Figure 9 is a visual representation of the five findings as a possible framework for future
superintendents focused on aligning their school districts with the fourth industrial workforce.
The interpretation of the transfer of vision components of the conceptual framework can be
illustrated in the following diagram as a cyclical and ongoing process. The overarching moral
purpose serves to ground the individual practice and subsequent theories of action in the shared
leadership structure launching with the superintendent’s moral purpose.
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Figure 9
Shared Vision Framework for the Fourth Industrial Superintendent
Moral Purpose
Organizational change revolving around leadership’s moral purpose is well documented
in research (Fullan, 2011; Fullan & Quinn, 2016; Kezar, 2001; Kotter, 1996; Senge, 1990;
Westover, 2020). The first significant finding at Innovation USD was the various divergent
perspectives presented and most of the participants’ multidimensional nature. All but one
interviewee came from a background other than education and found themselves being
translators between educators and industry, creating a divergent type of thinking model. Design
thinking research specifically considers positive deviance an essential component when
designing an innovative team (IDEO, 2015). Within a team dynamic, positive deviants are
classified by having knowledge of two domains or more, lending more to the iterative processes
of solving problems through human-centered design projects. At Innovation USD, positive
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deviancy lent itself to the alignment of shared vision transfer, integrated itself into each leader’s
theory of action plan, and carried over into various iterative models.
Qualitative data revealed an outlier, as one participant was a career educator who always
wanted to be a teacher. The participant shared the superintendent’s vision, but the transfer of that
vision was distributed throughout the district and mirrored the superintendent’s strategies to
carry it out. Behaviors of lead learning were noted when participants were invited to share
innovation about the transfer of shared vision. However, there did not seem to be authentic
innovation to deliver the vision and mission. In other studies, this participant would be
considered normal, but in this study, certain differences dealt with the establishment of the status
quo. Positive deviants continually iterated by finding ways to disseminate the district’s
messaging with internal stakeholders and found innovative ways to interact with families,
leverage external partnerships, and create value for the community at large. Even though the
analysis did not amplify an authentic iteration, there was still alignment through an equity lens
serving as a conduit for the superintendent’s vision and mission.
Lastly, moral purpose through promoting positive deviants into district positions without
moving through the regular channels helped create a space for positive deviant behavior to occur.
Mertens et al. (2016) discussed the difference between being a positive deviant and positive
deviant behaviors within an organization. Two teachers were placed in the district office to
intentionally diverge from district leaders’ normative behaviors. The human-centered design
organization IDEO (2015) emphasizes leaders embedding various positive deviants in design
teams to divert from normative solutions through a design process. The superintendent placed
together a divergent team in an organizational change structure aligned to his vision, and each
team member could then form their own theory of action towards change.
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Change Process as an IBL Project
The second finding from this study guides the imagination portion of the framework
where a leader’s moral purpose specifically leads to a theory of action (Fullan, 2011; Westover,
2020). The original conceptual framework used imagination in the context of planning the
transfer of shared vision at a school district. Each participant had their own theory of action,
adding to the superintendent’s shared accountability model in the district’s system. The
participants considered their organizational change process as their own IBL experience, and all
were co-creators in the process of change. The superintendent continually discussed the
conditions and the environments he was creating to advance teacher-led initiatives, how he
centered student voices during equity visits, or how he created various opportunities for
stakeholders to experience the new pedagogical practices.
In turn, the district leaders became lead learners, interviewed students to help reimagine
their learning experiences, and met with parent groups to discuss various co-created district
initiatives. Co-creation through discovery practices, student interviews, creating a driving
question to frame the problem, and stepping out of the way to allow teams the autonomy to form
their own action plans are all part of IBL experiences. I asked the superintendent if he viewed
this change process as his own IBL project, and he answered, “Yes.” This notion of viewing the
change process was also correlated when Participant 2 named that they used a driving question to
frame and guide their research and innovations. A driving question is part of the design thinking
process (IDEO, 2015), which drives innovation. When asked about challenges, participants
viewed them as opportunities to grow. When asked about decisions they would have changed, all
said that they would have made the same decisions.
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Mehta and Fine (2019) found that core high school classes did not have as many IBL
experiences as elective classes. One of their recommendations was to allow the elective teachers
to move into core classes because they understand how to teach concepts for deeper learning.
After analyzing the district team from Innovation USD, a Fourth Industrial superintendent should
place in their plan room for divergent thinkers and work in tandem with their boards accordingly.
Along with the aligned but divergent thinkers should be educators who can lead teachers to help
scale programs and guide other teachers toward the vision.
Culture of Continual Learning
The third finding from this study guides the production portion of the framework. The
original conceptual framework used production in the context of building teacher capacity
toward IBL practices for equity. Establishing an organizational learning culture is key to
producing the ideation needed for change. The superintendent’s theory of action emphasized the
shared accountability component through having teacher initiatives raised to the district. The
district set the mission and asked school sites to create implementation plans. All plans began
with action research, qualitative research, and book studies. All educators began to identify
various educational problems of practices at their school sites, prompting ideation toward finding
frameworks and evidence-based solutions. These solutions were placed in the school SPSA plan.
The district funded Professional development and coaching, and evidence of impact was
monitored through frequent equity visits and a quarterly review of the SPSA. The outcome was
analyzed and adjusted if needed.
By creating such a robust learning organizational structure, all district leaders became co-
creators in the system of change. The district views this as shared accountability, but it lends
itself to more of a collective psychological ownership model (Martinaityte et al., 2020).
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According to Martinaityte et al. (2020), individual ownership varies from collective ownership of
an initiative, as some individuals lose attachment to ownership when an innovation becomes too
large. All participants seemed to have individual ownership over their respective theory of action
evidenced by either innovating further or mirroring the processes created by the superintendent.
A couple of the participants mentioned how they knew vision had transferred throughout the
organization because teachers are currently asking for guidance through difficult initiatives they
would like to implement at their respective sites. The teachers are leading their own initiatives
and simply asking for guidance on presenting the new initiatives to their communities. This can
be considered evidence of a collective psychological ownership at the school level.
Relationships
The fourth finding from this study guides the employment section of the framework. The
original conceptual framework used employment in the context of how a district gathers
resources to implement IBL pedagogical practices. Through qualitative interviews, the
superintendent and several district leaders discussed the importance of internal and external
partnerships for financial gain through community bond measures, access to industry learning
experiences, and community contributions to measure the impact on student learning. A sell,
don’t tell protocol is in place with various participants. The superintendent sent various
community members to view schools and programs that implement IBL practices with fidelity to
gain shared agreement on what type of experiential learning to expect from the district. Staying
with a design thinking mindset, one participant would prototype future facilities and partner with
principals and teachers to guide stakeholders through new facility designs. These instances
helped create a tangible transfer of shared vision, making ambiguous plans more digestible.
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Coinciding with creating a learning organization is a process of resourcing teacher-led initiatives
expecting an impact on student learning.
Adjustments Through Reflective Cycles
The fifth finding from this study guides the experience section of the framework. The
continual cycle of amplifying and empowering students’ voices seems as if they are at the end of
the cycle, but they are leading the cycle because the original equity report was prompted by how
students and families were experiencing education. Each participant began their planning with
qualitative information from students. The parental affinity groups were created to have a
continual feedback loop with historically marginalized families to understand how they are
experiencing new initiatives. Teachers continually meet in teams and PLCs to critically reflect on
various problems of practice, culminating in an SPSA that is reviewed once a quarter so
adjustments can be made immediately. The cycle of reflection through the SPSA plans, equity
check-ins by district leaders, and continual support systems embedded throughout the system
allow for the superintendent’s vision to be transferred and iterated throughout the district.
Limitations
Limitations of study findings reside in generalizability and validity. The results are not
generalizable due to focusing on one school district and its contextual measures. The focus on
district-level leadership threatens validity. Interviewing students and parents would have
provided an understanding of the true impact of end-user experience. This study is a case study
of one school district that situated interviews and researched district-level processes for
pedagogical change. It is important to understand the primary context that this district is situated
in an affluent community, which impacts the ability to raise funds and secure additional
resources as the district moves toward IBL teaching practices.
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Another limitation of this study is that it focused solely on the transfer of shared vision
from only one level in the district, from the superintendent to district-level leaders. The continual
exchange between shared vision and how the vision was experienced and implemented at the
school-site level might have influenced this study’s findings. Lastly, the final impact of the
organizational change was not examined by interviewing various students, families, and
caretakers. Additional interviews would have added information on how the intended end-users
experience the change in processes from primary accounts. The perception of experience is
addressed in this study based on district equity audits and SPSA plans posted directly on the
Innovation USD website due to the transparency negotiated in the district’s plans to make sure
that the community is continually updated.
Implications for Practice
This study examined the transfer of shared vision in one school district. Study findings
established themes that inform district leaders on implementing second-order change toward IBL
practices at a school district through the transfer of shared vision. The study resulted in thematic
findings mounting towards implications for leadership practices and processes.
The first implication for practice by organizational change leaders to consider when
having a strong moral purpose resulting in a vision towards instructional change at a school
district is to have a well-thought-out theory of action that includes a model for collaboration by
all stakeholders. Study findings suggest that the superintendent had a theory of action, and all
district leaders also had their own theory of action supporting the vision.
The second implication for practice by organizational change leaders as it pertains to
changing pedagogy towards IBL practices addresses the importance of who is in leadership,
supporting change, and the support systems to spread the shared vision. Most interviewees did
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not have any intention of working as educators but, through lived experiences, pursued a career
in education. Participant 3 did not want to be a teacher or an administrator, yet they are now
scaling innovative practices and programs in a district-wide role. Furthermore, Participant 4
wanted to be a teacher all of their life, has won many awards for teaching, and has a strong moral
purpose for change in the district, but leans on familiar levers for education, such as professional
development and scheduling. Study findings emphasized how individuals with strong moral
purposes, underlying lived experience, and previous experience outside of education were more
prone to iterate in their specific positions and used the shared vision to innovate, expanding on
the possibilities larger than a status quo expectation toward change. The study addresses the
importance of creating and maintaining a condition to receive authentic teacher input to inform
leadership practices. Leaders might appoint, promote, and advance people in and outside the
district who are innovative, creative, and have experienced life outside the education system.
Leaders who are promoted from teaching will also need liaison support to help guide
administrative and legal aspects of the work.
The third implication for practice highlights the importance of creating a strong learning
organization. Participants discussed the various ways shared learning is implemented throughout
the district. Professional learning communities supported by site leaders and district leaders
allow the organization to innovate initiatives directly from educators facilitating a continual
process of shared understanding, shared accountability, and shared accountability. Furthermore,
findings from the district and school site websites highlighted fluid plans that are continually
reflected upon at each school and supported by district staff four times throughout the year, along
with regular district equity check-ins with students. The continual growth in shared learning
removes barriers in pedagogy. Consulting firms support professional development, and continual
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job-embedded coaching, observations, and student discussions support shared training and
accountability for learning implementation.
Future Research
This study’s literature review suggests the need for further study on the transfer of shared
vision (Kantabutra, 2010; Liou & Daly, 2019), the need for further research on technological
history to racialize studies that pertain to technology as it impacts on various marginalized
groups in the United States (de la Peña, 2010), and more research on how IBL practices impact
students of color at the elementary school level (Duke et al., 2021). This research specifically
focused on how Innovation USD is shifting pedagogical practices to have an impact on all
student development.
The first recommendation for future research is to provide more case studies of districts
that are moving toward IBL practices to correlate and strengthen the findings in this study. This
study only features one school district. Although many districts are focused on technology
integration, the research identifies that the integration of technology is merely enhanced by the
teacher using correct teaching strategies (Hattie, 2012; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2019). It is
imperative to focus on changing pedagogy toward IBL practices and the impact on populations
of color and teacher morale under the principal’s direct influence. The instrument used in this
study measured teacher morale broadly, including assessing factors that could be considered
extraneous to principal influence. Study findings revealed leadership practices identified by
teachers and principals that appear to positively impact teacher morale during principal
succession and throughout a principal’s tenure. It would be beneficial for future research to
further investigate the correlation of specific principal leadership practices with teacher morale
within a principal’s realm of control.
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The second recommendation for future research is to strengthen the generalizability of
this study’s findings. While generalizability was not a primary focus of the research,
investigating additional contexts would strengthen the applicability of implications for practice.
This study’s strength resided in triangulating data across three contexts of principal leadership,
and practitioners could benefit from a more in-depth analysis of specific contexts through a case
study. Involving school site leaders, teachers, students, and families would allow for more
insights into how the superintendent’s shared vision affects the intended end-user. The broader
applicability of the additional information could help the district add to its current reflective
practices and help pivot school SPSA’s.
The final recommendation for future research is to further investigate the other
dimensions of the conceptual framework produced in this study by moving away from the
imagination portion to the production and employment portion of the framework. Due to the
primary focus on how imagination impacted planning toward IBL pedagogy, other studies might
focus on teaching capacity through the evaluation of curriculum, learning methods, and
professional development to produce behavior change in the classroom. Additionally,
employment and implementation of the plan may also be examined in detail. The employment
portion of the framework would need to focus more on resource development to fund the plan
implementation as well as how end-user voices mold and change the resources needed.
Investigating the other areas of the conceptual framework inspired by Sinclair’s (1998)
observation of how technology impacts communities of color would help to expand the body of
technological historical research by framing historically marginalized groups in the research
itself.
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Conclusions
This study confirmed that education organizations understand the need for a change in
pedagogical processes to help prepare students for the fourth industrial workforce. Overall, IBL
pedagogical practices are imperative to giving students access to the next industrial-age
workforce (Darling-Hammond et al., 2014; Dintersmith, 2018; van Laar et al., 2020; Wagner,
2008). Literature suggests that proper IBL pedagogical practices should be present within school
systems to boost the effectiveness of technology implementation (Ayer et al., 2020; Hattie, 2012;
Hussin, 2018; Koul & Nayer, 2021). This study used the writings of technological historians to
assist in framing how new technologies, even acknowledging new processes as new technology,
impact communities of color (de la Peña, 2010; Sinclair, 1998; Trotter, 2000). All participants
discussed the need for students to have real-world experiences and how the institutional progress
of modern schools moves away from factorization toward personalization of learning
experiences. The underlying factor for this need to change is not to close an achievement gap
caused by standardization but to allow students from historically marginalized communities the
opportunity to experience real-world learning experiences where they can contribute to the world
as the problem solvers they inherently are.
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Abstract (if available)
Abstract
With the advancement of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, and other disruptive technologies indicative of the fourth industrial revolution, are reshaping the current workforce. Literature points to the need to realign American K–12 education to fit the organizational workforce of the future. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) practices is how other nations are currently training their citizens for the next industrial revolution. The United States continuously struggles to educate students from historically marginalized communities in an equitable way as studies have shown how schools that cater to a diverse population of students are not using IBL practices which will essentially allow all students access into the future workforce. The conceptual framework used within this study is based on one of a handful of technological historians that research how technology impacts historically marginalized communities. This study focuses on the innovation portion of how a superintendent created and spread his shared vision throughout his school district. Appreciative inquiry was used to help guide participants through a reflective practice as they discussed how they imagined, produced, employed, the shared vision of shifting pedagogical practices from a factorized model of education toward equitable IBL practices of learning focused on real-world projects. Findings show a pattern that follows the conceptual framework as the superintendent and district leaders have created their own system wrapped around IBL strategies and iterative processes of continual growth.
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Martin, Marie Gingerrai
(author)
Core Title
The fourth industrial superintendent: transforming public school systems beyond 21st-century mindsets
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Educational Leadership
Degree Conferral Date
2022-12
Publication Date
03/24/2024
Defense Date
06/28/2022
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
appreciative inquiry,Fourth Industrial Revolution,K–12 superintendents,OAI-PMH Harvest,organizational leadership
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Cash, David (
committee chair
), Hinga, Briana (
committee member
), Krop, Cathy (
committee member
)
Creator Email
ginjack2002@gmail.com,mgjackso@usc.edu
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC112023826
Unique identifier
UC112023826
Legacy Identifier
etd-MartinMari-11246
Document Type
Dissertation
Format
application/pdf (imt)
Rights
Martin, Marie Gingerrai
Internet Media Type
application/pdf
Type
texts
Source
20220925-usctheses-batch-984
(batch),
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Repository Email
cisadmin@lib.usc.edu
Tags
appreciative inquiry
Fourth Industrial Revolution
K–12 superintendents
organizational leadership