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Charter School Policies and Teachers’ Sensemaking of the Pressures to Recruit Students to Their Schools

Luke, Jeremy B.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555601509085359

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Studies.
This dissertation examines the ways that teachers in charter schools respond to market pressures to recruit students to their schools. Policymakers in the United States promote charter schools to introduce competition into the education system in an effort to increase quality, efficiency, and innovation in schools. Charter schools do not draw a pre-determined student body based on their geographic location. Rather, charter schools start with no students and must recruit every child who enrolls in the school. A key assumption underlying these policies is that school personnel will feel competitive pressures when they do not meet their enrollment needs and make changes to their educational approaches to attract more students. One unintended consequence of charter school policies is that teachers may be drawn into work to recruit students to their school in addition to their full-time work to educate students. Drawing on sensemaking theories and employing a multiple-case study methodology focusing on 12 teachers at seven schools, I examine the ways that teachers come to understand and act on the need to recruit students to their school. There are several notable findings. All teachers in this study were surprised by the need to recruit students and experienced ambiguity both around how to respond and whether they would keep their jobs if they did not meet enrollment numbers. Teachers engaged in multiple different actions to recruit students, although there was a high level of variation in the extent to which teachers participated in student recruitment work and the ways that they experienced competitive pressures. The factors that shaped sensemaking include the extent to which schools are under pressure to recruit students, teachers’ conceptions of their school’s mission, ethical considerations, the extent to which teachers experienced burnout, and characteristics of school leaders. Teachers’ sensemaking of student recruitment work also led them to create competitive distinctions within their staff between “insiders” who were willing to engage in student recruitment work and “outsiders” who were not able or willing to engage. These distinctions led to contention between teachers. In some cases, competition between teachers to enroll the most students appeared to be a strong motivating factor to recruit students. Finally, teachers were often caught between promoting the democratic aim of education by including all students in their school and upholding the mission of their school by working to deter students from enrolling who were not a good fit. I conclude by offering suggestions for policymakers, implications for school leaders and teachers, and suggestions for future research.
Ann Allen, Dr. (Advisor)
Belinda Gimbert, Dr. (Committee Member)
Jozef Raadschelders, Dr. (Committee Member)
260 p.
Education; Education Policy; Organization Theory; Teaching
Charter schools; sensemaking; student recruitment; school choice; charter school teachers; community schools; marketization; privatization; competition; policy implementation; discretion; education policy; organizational theory; extra-role tasks

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Luke, J. B. (2019). Charter School Policies and Teachers’ Sensemaking of the Pressures to Recruit Students to Their Schools [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555601509085359

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Luke, Jeremy. Charter School Policies and Teachers’ Sensemaking of the Pressures to Recruit Students to Their Schools. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555601509085359.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Luke, Jeremy. "Charter School Policies and Teachers’ Sensemaking of the Pressures to Recruit Students to Their Schools." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555601509085359

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.