The New Institutionalism in Education

Citation

Cherubini, L. (2007), "The New Institutionalism in Education", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 45 No. 3, pp. 342-344. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230710747866

The edited text, “The New Institutioalism in Education”, features both a descriptive and critical discussion of institutional theory in light of emerging trends and practices in the field of education. The book consists of thirteen chapters each of which offers a unique but complementary perspective of institutional analysis as recognizing the inherent connections between traditional educational institutions as the gatekeepers of formal knowledge, and other particularly recent emerging societal institutions and their significant implications upon social life. Meyer and Rowan (2006), in their introductory chapter, firmly establish the rationale of the text for the prospective reader by addressing the existing gap in the research literature; namely, the lack of a rigorous consideration of new institutionalism in the field of education. Further, the editors assert a clear theoretical focus by contending that the evolving educational landscape, given the prominence of private educational services, more strictly controlled practices, and heightened accountability measures needs to be reconceptualized with sophisticated attention to institutional analyses. The emphasis for new institutionalism is, for the editors, on “how people actively construct meaning within institutionalized settings through language and other symbolic representations” (p. 6).

The New Institutionalism in Education is a constructive collection of theoretical conversation. Although it is somewhat regrettable that nearly half of the chapters (six in total) are authored by one or both editors and may then be perceived by some as self‐serving, the selected readings offer a sequential approach in their consideration of historical, national, and international educational contexts from varied institutionalist perspectives. Each of the respective authors offer a specialized academic and at times pragmatic discussion of a particular institutional framework and the complex, sensitive, and often clandestine interplay between organizations, institutional environments, school structures, and the technical core of schooling. The thread that weaves itself throughout the analytic fabric is the link between school structures, the environments in which they exist, and the nature of change characteristic of these social realities. After Rowan and Bidwell's section dealing with re‐instating new paradigms of institutionalist theory into the reform‐minded and politically‐laden milieu of contemporary education, Meyer follows with a captivating study of myths and collective beliefs from a social‐constructivist approach. In it, he focuses on the common school as the central myth that has influenced US public schooling given its proficiency in assimilating children from various diverse cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds and religions in the name of civic responsibility and cohesion. Consistent in these reviews is a consideration for education whose legitimacy is not necessarily perceived to be drawn from the state. The subsequent three chapters attest to what many of the cited authors describe as the permeation of entrepreneurial spirit into kindergarten to grade 12, public education, and the outcomes of market conditions that have inevitably loosened regulation and influenced organizational forms. The cohesiveness and clarity of the authors' objectives in these chapters (and in fact throughout the majority of them) are both informed by ample research and suggest a propensity by the researchers to willingly dismantle the traditional roles of social institutions. Equally convincing is the invitational tone adopted throughout the text that engages the reader in consistently profound conceptual insights related to learning organizations, organizational learning, and the differences of interpretation among these. The four chapters that precede each of the editor's closing statements turn their attention to higher education and what Levy (in “How Private Higher Education's Growth Challenges the New Institutionalism”, chapter 9) identifies as, the contrast between the new institutionalism's emphasis on isomorphism and convergence that yields similarities among entities and the private higher education literature's depiction of ample and expanding diversity (p. 144).

The cross‐sectional and cross‐national data is consistently supportive in each of these chapters and illuminates the technical rationality and institutional realities in higher education, particularly from perspectives that factor American considerations and those from abroad. Meyer and Rowan (2006), in their concluding chapters successfully focus the content of the preceding analyses and resist offering a pre‐packaged explanation to the common background and recommendations elicited in the collected research. In effect, much of their concluding remarks rest in what they allude to as “the pivotal role” (p. 203) of new institutionalism to account for the changing complexion of the educational landscape. The selection of articles target developmental theories and compatibly scrutinize the isomorphic concept that institutions of schooling existing in relatively the same environment mimic each other's structural and functional capacities.

The scholarship inherent in this text is arguably best‐suited for graduate students with an interest in various educational and sociological points of view. The text is, quite clearly, not intended to be prescriptive and is admirably committed to enriched levels of analytical accuracy. It does not shun historical interpretation, nor does it neglect the traditionalist interpretations of institutionalist progression. Instead, it factors both of these considerations to carve a distinct niche for institutionalist theory in understanding the intricate changes that have rather innately surfaced within institutional realities and constitutions. Its forthright style and collective influence would serve as fertile ground for graduate study discourses that examine institutional educational environments as lending meaning to the practices of teaching and learning. The editors and individual contributors elucidate how national and international demands for high‐quality schooling have cast a shadow education on the institutional horizon that have translated into support services, tutoring agencies, testing centers, and residual educational resources. Particularly intriguing is the discussion in Meyer's epilogue of the effect of shielding an institution's legitimacy from its procedural competence as being, essentially, an implication of institutionalization:Unlike non‐institutionalized organizations that will be judged by their effectiveness and efficiency, the support of institutionalized organizations is guaranteed almost independent of their performance and despite the availability of demonstrably superior models … Institutions are not judged by how well they facilitate the attainment of specific goals but rather by how much they contribute to social order and stability (p. 219).Scholars in the education and sociology fields, and perhaps other who have a familiarity with the terms and theories under discussion, can extend the main points that the collection espouses and as a result expand the capacity of institutionalist theory to other contexts and circumstances in an attempt to investigate and then articulate emerging events in education and the societies to which they belong.