Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Jason Frydman

Second Advisor

Kelvin Ramirez

Third Advisor

Angela Breidenstein

Abstract

Educational leaders increasingly prioritize equity reform processes; however, many struggle to enact sustainable change that addresses persistent disparities in student outcomes. Existing research on district effectiveness identifies key improvement practices but offers less insight into how leaders operationalize these practices effectively. The growing body of research on professional learning communities (PLCs) offers emerging evidence that job-embedded, focused PLCs are a mechanism that can positively impact student outcomes. This study addressed the connection between the improvement practices and PLCs by exploring how school and district leaders leverage collaborative teacher teams as a mechanism for equity-minded reform. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with district and school leaders (N = 8). Participants reported feeling that equity reforms stalled, often at the initial stage of adult learning about systemic racism and did not always inspire belief change that translated to action. Participants found, however, that deliberate changes in daily school structures did begin to shift instructional practice well before any consensus on beliefs occurred. Instead of relying on professional learning, leaders shifted to crafting new conditions for work more likely to generate equitable actions. Those structural shifts were reported to involve actions such as introducing new equity-focused curriculum, implementing a new daily schedule or a more equitable grading system. The grounded theory suggests that in an equity reform process, collaborative teacher teams can function as urgent sense-making spaces where educators interpret, adapt, and implement structure changes. In this way, collaborative teacher teams were conceptualized as spaces where educators translate abstract equity commitments into concrete instructional practices and action.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Download

Share

COinS