scholarly journals Title IX coordinators as street-level bureaucrats in U.S. schools: Challenges addressing sex discrimination in the #MeToo era

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Meyer ◽  
Andrea Somoza-Norton ◽  
Natalie Lovgren ◽  
Andrea Rubin ◽  
Mary Quantz
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equity ◽  
Title Ix ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Sex Discrimination ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
State Regulations ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
K 12

Sex discrimination in educational contexts is an ongoing problem despite the passage of Title IX in 1972. Many schools have not aligned their policies with new laws protecting students from bullying and harassment, and many professionals are unaware of their new obligations in regards to new state regulations. This article presents the findings from semi-structured interviews with 10 participants reporting on the roles and responsibilities of Title IX coordinators in their K-12 school districts. Title IX coordinators were difficult to locate and recruitment was a challenge in this study. However, our findings indicate a strong alignment with Lipsky’s concept of “street-level bureaucrats” (1971, 2010). We found that these school administrators had autonomy and discretion in interpreting and enacting their duties, however they lacked time, information, and other resources necessary to respond properly to the stated duties in their position. They reported spending very little time on Title IX-related duties, many felt under-supported and under-prepared, and few had comprehensive understanding of their responsibilities. We conclude with recommendations for policy and practice regarding the training and supports of Title IX coordinators and related gender equity efforts in K-12 schools.

Who is (Not) Protected by Title IX? A Critical Review of 45 Years of Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Meyer ◽  
Mary Quantz
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Title Ix ◽  
Sex Discrimination ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Queer Of Color Critique ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
Queer Of Color ◽  
Transgender Students ◽  
K 12

Background/Context This is the first published systematic literature review with an exclusive focus on Title IX scholarship. This article aims to offer a holistic view of the existing knowledge base in this field presented in peer-reviewed scholarly publications. Purpose This review of the literature identifies key trends in this body of research and highlights strengths, as well as gaps and oversights, that future research should address. Research Design This descriptive literature review systematically collected 169 peer-reviewed articles to identify the conceptual boundaries of the field and the current gaps. Data Collection and Analysis Authors applied Booth, Sutton, and Papaioannou's SALSA approach (Search, AppraisaL, Synthesis, and Analysis) to this systematic review to identify and analyze the 169 articles included in the study. We applied an intersectional feminist lens and Queer of Color critique to the analysis of the included articles. Findings/Results Peer-reviewed scholarly publications on Title IX (169) have generally focused on analyses of legal decisions (93) and studies of athletics (75), with little attention to other aspects of the law. Most studies lacked intersectional analyses of how “sex discrimination” has been understood in K–12 and higher education contexts, which leaves experiences of students of color, transgender students, and LGBQ students missing from most of the scholarship in this field. Conclusions/Recommendations This review of the literature is intended to help scholars interested in issues of sex discrimination and gender equity in educational institutions in the United States have a clear overview of scholarship that already exists related to Title IX in order to ask more focused and critical questions about its impacts and implementation. More research is needed to understand the ways in which educational institutions interpret and apply their responsibilities under this law—particularly through the lenses of intersectional feminism and Queer of Color critique. Contemporary issues, including campus sexual assault, and the negative experiences documented about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in schools underline the importance of staying current with Title IX, and the current body of literature indicates scant attention to collecting and analyzing data about this law's application in practice and implications for diverse groups of people.

Surviving at the Street Level: How Counselors’ Implementation of School Choice Policy Shapes Students’ High School Destinations

2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj ◽  
Jennifer L. Jennings ◽  
Sean P. Corcoran ◽  
Elizabeth Christine Baker-Smith ◽  
Chantal Hailey
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
New York ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Street Level ◽  
School Choice Policy ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Choice Policy

Given the dominance of residentially based school assignment, prior researchers have conceptualized K–12 enrollment decisions as beyond the purview of school actors. This paper questions the continued relevance of this assumption by studying the behavior of guidance counselors charged with implementing New York City’s universal high school choice policy. Drawing on structured interviews with 88 middle school counselors and administrative data on choice outcomes at these middle schools, we find that counselors generally believe lower-income students are on their own in making high school choices and need additional adult support. However, they largely refrain from giving action-guiding advice to students about which schools to attend. We elaborate street-level bureaucracy theory by showing how the majority of counselors reduce cognitive dissonance between their understanding of students’ needs and their inability to meet these needs adequately given existing resources. They do so by drawing selectively on competing policy logics of school choice, narrowly delineating their conception of their role, and relegating decisions to parents. Importantly, we also find departures from the predictions of this theory as approximately one in four counselors sought to meet the needs of individual students by enlarging their role despite the resource constraints they faced. Finally, we quantify the impact of variation in counselors’ approaches, finding that the absence of action-guiding advice is associated with students being admitted to lower-quality schools, on average.

Title IX and Campus Recreation: Guidelines to Increase Gender Equity in Club and Intramural Sport Programs

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
Jacqueline McDowell ◽  
Robyn Deterding ◽  
Terrence Elmore ◽  
Edward Morford ◽  
Erin Morris
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equity ◽  
Title Ix ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Sex Discrimination ◽  
Campus Recreation ◽  
Recreation Directors ◽  
Club Sports ◽  
Intramural Sport ◽  
Sport Programs ◽  
Intercollegiate Athletic Programs

Title IX legislation seeks to prevent sex discrimination in club and intramural recreational activities; yet guidance to encourage compliance with the law is limited. Hence the purpose of this investigation was to critically assess the applicability of Title IX athletic guidance and advance gender equity guidelines specific to intramural and club sports. Campus recreation directors from six NIRSA regions were sent an online survey with recommended gender equity guidelines. Eighty-two directors appraised the guidelines in relation to their effectiveness in evaluating gender equity in intramural and club sport programs. This investigation found the majority of the guidance for intercollegiate athletic programs to be relevant to club and intramural sport programs, but differences were found concerning provisions and participation opportunities. Similarities and differences are discussed and twenty guidelines are advanced to provide institutions with ways to provide men and women with nondiscriminatory participation opportunities.

scholarly journals The political process of international education: Complementarities and clashes in the Manitoba K-12 sector through a multi-level governance lens

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Merli Tamtik ◽  
Angela O'Brien-Klewchuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
International Education ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Additional Layer ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
K 12

International education has become a policy sector of growing importance to Canada. With increased government regulations, disconnect is often observed between the intended policy outcomes and practice. This study aims to explain this disconnect by analyzing the heterogeneity among stakeholder interests. It focuses on 1) distribution of authority; 2) heterogeneity of values; and 3) complementarities and clashes in policy issues. A multi-level governance (MLG) framework (Chou et. al., 2017; Hooghe Marks, 2003), as a guiding theoretical lens, is applied to examine the interactions among governments (federal-provincial), non-governmental organizations, school administrators, international students and their families in the context of the Manitoba K-12 sector. Data for this study were collected through document analysis and 40 semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate increased steering power of both the federal and provincial governments to regulate international education with conflicting agendas based on political ideologies. The pursuit of Canada’s economic competitiveness through K-12 international education has led to a rise in the authority of non-governmental actors, including parents and students, to shape the services, programs and curriculum content offered by public schools. The study proposes adding an additional layer to the MLG framework, that of the complexities within stakeholder groups.

scholarly journals General Practitioners' Discretion of Preventive Needs

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofie Ilsvard ◽  
Marie Østergaard Møller
Keyword(s):  
General Practice ◽  
Lifestyle Intervention ◽  
General Practitioners ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Preventive Strategies ◽  
Health Prevention ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Professional Ideology ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

This article examines general practitioners’ discretion in preventive contexts. Based on semi-structured interviews with 15 general practitioners, we examine how lifestyle is used in their discretionary practices in contexts of healthcare prevention. Despite common educational background and professional ideology, GPs’ do not share lifestyle and our analyses show that this matters to their discretion of patients’ need for lifestyle intervention.  The correspondence between general practitioners’ preventive strategies and their own lifestyle preferences is interpreted as evidence of autonomy in general practice where general practitioners act relatively autonomously and differ in their interpretation of how preventive policies should be exercised in practice towards patients.Keywords:  discretion, lifestyle, health prevention and promotion, street-level bureaucrats, general practitioners

scholarly journals The connectivity dilemma in freshwater management: exploring the role of street level bureaucrats in water governance

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1067-1081
Author(s):  
Carina Lundmark
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Formal Policy ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Freshwater Management ◽  
Implementation Resources

Abstract Connectivity is key in freshwater management, e.g. to ensure viable populations of fish, but restoring it may cause the spread of invasive species. Goal conflicts of this kind are common in freshwater management, and the burden of addressing them rests on the shoulders of street-level bureaucrats, i.e. public officials at the end of the policy chain. This study uses a theoretical framework to explore their management choices employing previous research on natural resource management. The findings, based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with street-level bureaucrats from all water districts in Sweden, show that the three factors explored – their understanding of formal policy, their implementation resources, and their policy beliefs – matter when anthropogenic connectivity barriers are considered in ongoing management. Additionally, the factors are interrelated in a way that can obstruct the implementation of policy goals. While connectivity issues rank high and are considered a great problem all over the country, invasive species are regarded as a relatively small problem. If this should change in the future, the level of preparedness is low, primarily due to restricted implementation resources, but also due to the absence of guidance and formal responsibilities.

Street-level bureaucrats: tensions and challenges in online placemaking

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Breek ◽  
Jasper Eshuis ◽  
Joke Hermes
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Open Coding ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Purpose Social media have become a key part of placemaking. Placemaking revolves around collaboration between multiple stakeholders, which requires ongoing two-way communication between local government and citizens. Although social media offer promising tools for local governments and public professionals in placemaking, they have not lived up to their potential. This paper aims to uncover the tensions and challenges that social media bring for public professionals at the street level in placemaking processes. Design/methodology/approach This study aims to fill this gap with a case study of area brokers engaged in online placemaking in Amsterdam. In total, 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, focusing on area brokers’ social media practices, perceptions and challenges. The authors used an open coding strategy in the first phase of coding. In the second phase, the authors regrouped codes in thematic categories with the use of sensitizing concepts derived from the theoretical review. Findings The use of social media for placemaking imposes demands on area brokers from three sides: the bureaucracy, the affordances of social media and affective publics. The paper unpacks pressures area brokers are under and the (emotional) labour they carry out to align policy and bureaucratic requirements with adequate communication needed in neighbourhood affairs on social media. The tensions and the multidimensionality of what is required explain the reluctance of area brokers to exploit the potential of social media in their work. Originality/value Several studies have addressed the use of social media in placemaking, but all neglected the perspective of street-level bureaucrats who shape the placemaking process in direct contact with citizens.

Between suspicion, nicknames, and trust—renegotiating ethnographic access with Swedish border police

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157
Author(s):  
Lisa Marie Borrelli
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Research Field ◽  
The Other ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

PurposeThis article contributes the following: First, it argues along previous works that rites of passage include continuous testing, which needs to be passed in order to gain a certain level of acceptance within the research field. Here besides the emotional effort, researchers have to position themselves and are confronted with questions of trust. Second, it is argued that the collected and analysed data on the rites of passage enable us to make sense of street-level bureaucrats' work and functioning of state institutions, especially in a police context. Reflections on research negotiations drew the author's attention to how mistrust towards the “other”, here defined as migrant other, prevails the migration regime. This mistrust is later transferred onto the researcher, whose stay is deemed questionable and eventually intrusive.Design/methodology/approachThe collected data include semi-structured interviews, as well as several months of participant observation with street-level officers and superordinate staff, deepening previous discussions on research access and entrance. It further allows understanding street-level narratives, especially when it comes to the culture of suspicion embedded in police work, connecting the experienced tests with the everyday knowledge of police officers and case workers.FindingsThe analysis of rites of passage enable us to make sense of street-level bureaucrats' work, especially in a police context, since we find a specific way of suspicion directed towards the researcher. It is based on a general mistrust towards the “other”, here defined as migrant other, whose stay is deemed illegal and thus intruding. In this context, the positionality of the researcher becomes crucial and needs strategical planning.Research limitations/implicationsAccessing and being able to enter the “field” is of crucial relevance to researchers, interested in studying, e.g. sense-making and decision-making of the respective interlocutors. Yet, ethnographic accounts often disclose only partially, which hurdles, limiting or contesting their aspirations to conduct fieldwork, were encountered.Originality/valueThe personal role of researchers, their background and emotions are often neglected when describing ethnographic research. Struggles and what these can say about the studied field are thus left behind, although they contribute to a richer understanding of the functioning of the chosen fields. This work will examine how passing the test and going through rituals of “becoming a member” can tell us more about the functioning of a government agency, here a Swedish border police unit.

Göçmen çocuklar ve okul kültürleri: Bir bütünleştirme çalışması

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halis Sakız
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Culture ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
School Cultures ◽  
Inclusive School

Bu makale, Türkiye’de yoğun göç almakta olan Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi’ndeki okullarda, göçmen çocukların okullara dâhil edilmesine yönelik olarak idarecilerin düşünce, inanç ve tutumlarını inceleyen nitel bir araştırmanın sonuçlarını bildirmektedir. Araştırma özelde, okul yöneticilerinin göçmen çocukların kendi okullarında eğitilmesine yönelik tutumlarını, bu eğitimin önünde duran ve okul ikliminden kaynaklanan engelleri ve göçmen çocukların kendini ait hissettikleri bütünleştirici okul iklimleri inşa edilebilmesi için eğitim sistemindeki mevcut fırsatları ortaya koymayı amaçlamıştır. Araştırmada, 18 okul yöneticisinden nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden olan yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşmeler kullanılarak veri toplanmış ve bu veriler tematik analiz yöntemiyle çözümlenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda (i) okul yöneticilerinin göçmen çocuklara ayrıştırılmış ortamlarda eğitim verilmesini desteklediği ve kendi okullarında eğitim görmelerine dair olumsuz tutumlar beslediği, (ii) yapısal yetersizliklerin ve düşük toplumsal kabul düzeyinin göçmen çocukların eğitimine yönelik olumsuz tutumları önemli ölçüde etkilediği ve (iii) bütünleşik okul kültürlerinin oluşması için paydaşların psiko-sosyal ve yapısal anlamda desteklenmesi gerektiği ortaya çıkmıştır. ENGLISH ABSTRACTMigrant children and school cultures: A suggestion for inclusionThis article reports on the findings of an empirical research investigating the thoughts, beliefs and attitudes towards the inclusion of migrant children in the South-eastern region of Turkey which is currently exposed to intensive migration waves. Specifically, the article explores the attitudes of school administrators towards the education of migrant children in their schools, the barriers to this education stemming from the school culture and the opportunities in the education system to build inclusive school cultures in which migrant children can feel belonging to. The research employed 18 school administrators, utilized semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data and analyzed them through thematic analysis. Findings showed that (a) school administrators supported education of migrant children in segregated environments and possessed negative attitudes towards their education in public schools; (b) structural limitations and low social acceptance levels affected the negative attitudes towards the education of migrant children and (c) stakeholders needed to be provided with psycho-social and structural support in order to establish inclusive school cultures.  Keywords: Migrant children; inclusive school culture; qualitative research; Turkey 

WORK-BASED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPERIENCE AND CHALLENGES OF LEARNERS, WORKPLACES AND INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Roosipõld ◽  
Krista Loogma ◽  
Mare Kurvits ◽  
Kristina Murtazin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
University Education ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Constructivist Learning Theory ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
Restaurant Management ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University ◽  
Social Constructivist Learning

In recent years, providing higher education in the form of work-based learning has become more important in the higher education (HE) policy and practice almost in all EU countries. Work-based learning (WBL) in HE should support the development of competences of self-guided learners and adjust the university education better to the needs of the workplace. The study is based on two pilot projects of WBL in HE in Estonia: Tourism and Restaurant Management professional HE programme and the master’s programme in Business Information Technology. The model of integrative pedagogy, based on the social-constructivist learning theory, is taken as a theoretical foundation for the study. A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with the target groups. The data analysis used a horizontal analysis to find cross-cutting themes and identify patterns of actions and connections. It appears, that the challenge for HE is to create better cooperation among stakeholders; the challenge for workplaces is connected with better involvement of students; the challenge for students is to take more initiative and responsibility in communication with workplaces.

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