Abstract
School change efforts often rely on formal organizational structures to support educator knowledge of new instructional practices. Rural districts face challenges accessing the resources necessary for robust structures, but informal relationships among educators are often strong. Using structuration theory as a lens, this paper examines the knowledge-building behaviors of educators in one rural school district regarding new instructional practices related to a recent initiative. A thematic analysis of interviews with a purposive sample of district educators reveals that, in the absence of robust formal supports, educator agency was critical for establishing informal knowledge-building structures that supported knowledge-sharing within district schools. These findings suggest that rural districts would benefit from attending to structures and routines that support social interaction in order to leverage educator agency during change implementation.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Karnopp, J.
(2022).
Uncovering Rural Educators' Secret Agency.
The Rural Educator, 43(2), 34-46.
https://doi.org/10.55533/2643-9662.1324
