Policy Language as Paradigm:An Organizational Theory

Perspective of No Child Left Behind

Jennifer Lynn McKinnon

Sonoma State/UC Davis

“The new sciences are filled with tantalizing and hopeful processes that foster change. But to learn

these lessons, we need to shift what we look for.”

Margaret Wheatley

“The priority of lines and linearities in the language is nested in the contested spaces of good and evil, truth and deception, morality and deviance.”

Brent Davis and Dennis

Sumara, 2005

Organizational Theory

14 key organizational characteristics

7 linear/rational 7 non-linear/complex

Linear/Rational•Planned highly specific goals•Efficiency and Time orientation•Reliance on measurable facts and data•Formal structures, defined roles, and uniformity•Hierarchical Supervision•Sanctions and Rewards•Predictability

Linear/rational

Non-linear/complex Organizational Characteristics•Emerging values and patterns•Process and information exchange orientation•Utilization of tensions, patterns, response to the environment•Acceptance of unpredictability•Utilization of diversity• Interdependence•Local context and expertise

No Child Left Behind—Linear and Non-Linear Characteristics

91% Linear

9% Non-Linear

Linear Organizational Characteristics

Sanc-tions Other Linear

Emerging values and patterns

I am not in control

PatternsVision, principles, values

ResourcesCapacity Building

Process and information exchange orientation

RelationshipsRoutines that are set up for information

exchanges

Information exchange keeps anxiety in check

helps with the ambiguity of an unpredictable world

Transparent communication is for Sensemaking

NotJudgment/Sanction Purposes

“We need to find a different set of words, a different way of saying so we see and think differently, and a different way to imagine more energetically.”

Karl Weick, 2009

Jennifer Lynn McKinnonjlynnmckinnon@gmail.com

Policy as Paradigm: An Organizational Theory Perspective of No Child Left Behind

Dissertation available from: Proquest/UMIOr upon request through email above