Getting to “Yes”: A Case Study of Teacher Buy-in to School Improvement Efforts

This dissertation seeks to explore whether and how organizational structures of school (educational infrastructure) influence teacher belief alignment and self-efficacy as they relate to school improvement strategies. Within the context of an autonomous network of schools, this study leverages differences in educational infrastructure and instructional improvement strategies between three schools to understand how systems and structures influence teacher buy-in to the strategy. Given that teacher participation in turnaround efforts is key to the theory of change in the network and empirical support indicates that specific elements of infrastructure may influence buy-in, the study focuses on how teachers perceptions of collaboration time, professional guidance for capacity building, and teacher leadership opportunities lead to the cultivation of buy-in. Findings indicate that elements of infrastructure positively influence teacher buy-in under certain conditions and that components of buy-in are 1) interdependent with each other and 2) heavily reliant on a coherent instructional vision and strategy.

Author

• Higgins, Breanna

Language

• en

Keyword

• educational infrastructure
• turnaround
• school improvement
• teacher buy-in

Date created

• 2022

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Educational Administration & Policy Studies

Degree

• Ed.D.

Advisor

• Glazer, Joshua

Committee Member(s)

• Schueler, Beth
• Grant, Elizabeth

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/b2773w51j