The Work of Improvement
Item
Title
The Work of Improvement
Alternate name
Chapter 2
Abstract/Description
In this chapter, we summarize key stances and insights from studies of work and workplaces that can inform improvement research in education. First, we make linkages between studies of work and vital features of CER [community-engaged research] such as the building of trust and relationship structures in partnership work. We provide illustrative examples of how research that foregrounds work systems and infrastructures inform the ways in which we can approach CER. Second, we highlight how design methods such as human-centered design, participatory design, and related methodological extensions can help CER practitioners more clearly see the key targets for improvement work from the perspective of community members. Finally, we illuminate how critical and equity-focused lenses help us push beyond assumed values, goals, and work processes to understand when CER projects must radically shift in their approach, or when research itself may not be beneficial for a given community’s needs. These frameworks are vital to help practitioners develop deeper practices of reflexivity, to bound CER work in situations where values and aims are aligned, and to continuously monitor the potential harms one might enact (often unintentionally) without a critical CER practice.
[Quoted from pp. 29-30 of Chapter]
Author/creator
Date
In publication
Pages
29-46
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Resource type
Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
Published Text
Scholarship genre
Methodological
Synthesis/Overview
IRE Approach/Concept
Featured case/project
Open access/full-text available
No
ISBN
978-1-5381-5234-8
Citation
Ahn, J., Van Steenis, E., & Penuel, W. R. (2022). The Work of Improvement. In D. J. Peurach, J. L. Russell, L. Cohen-Vogel, & W. R. Penuel (Eds.), The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538152348/The-Foundational-Handbook-on-Improvement-Research-in-Education
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