Democratic Dilemmas: Joint Work, Education Politics, and Community

6 Implications for Policy and Practice in an Era of Accountability

It was messy, but that’s the way democracy is. (CAP staff member, Mid Valley) THE EXPERIENCES OF Mid Valley and Highland expose the “messiness” of democratic joint work. While leaders in both districts started with similar goals, they achieved very different results. Highland’s strategic planning process involved a wide range of stakeholders in a reason-based decisionmaking process that yielded several ideas for districtwide improvement— ideas subsequently implemented throughout the district. In contrast, the collaboration of district staff and community members within the Advisory provided the only beacon of democratic light in Mid Valley, whose overall CAP initiative devolved into potentially avoidable deliberative failure. Despite the different outcomes, both districts’ attempts to initiate and sustain joint work encountered common struggles along the way. Sitting in a political environment ripe with power imbalances and competing values and modes of thinking, community-educator collaboration faced a range of obstacles and opportunities. The wider context of organizational culture and social trust further shaped the delicate work of deliberation, providing yet another set of possible constraints and facilitators. What do these cases teach us as policy makers, educators, researchers, and citizens? We can seek answers by first revisiting some of the key tensions and dilemmas uncovered by this research. Next, I reflect on the implications of democratic joint work for education accountability policy and recap the outcomes resulting from these two efforts—illustrating the potential role collaboration plays in improving public education and democratic institutions. 157 SIX Implications for Policy and Practice in an Era of Accountability The chapter then identifies for practitioners and citizens practical lessons and strategies for achieving key principles of deliberative democracy and joint work. Finally, I conclude by exploring unresolved issues and questions. Like any study with a sample size of two, the findings presented in this book cannot be generalized to all districts. The insights, however, can contribute to theory and research on democratic processes, as well as the policy conversation on education and democratic reform. Many districts, schools, and community organizations across the country are attempting to engage the public in improvement efforts. Thus, findings on what the collaborative endeavors in Mid Valley and Highland accomplished and what influenced these efforts offer valuable lessons to policy makers, educators, and citizens with similar goals and contexts, as well as researchers seeking to better understand and improve similar efforts. KEY TENSIONS AND DILEMMAS REVISITED This research uncovers a set of pervasive tensions and dilemmas—some more easily resolved than others—in the model of deliberative, democratic joint work and its enactment in educational settings. One major challenge facing conveners of joint work is how to involve laypersons and professional educators as equals in decision making knowing that certain attributes and resources (e.g., positional authority, verbal skills) give some participants more influence than others. While norms of preclusion and other structures may assist in leveling the playing field, certain power imbalances are likely to persist. Most notably, the speech biases and emphasis on commonality inherent in the model of deliberative democracy —which potentially undercut the needs and interests of traditionally marginalized individuals—create dilemmas that were not adequately resolved in either district and that I examine further at the end of the chapter. Another pervasive tension in joint work pertains to the inevitable conflicts that arise when individuals with different world views and values come together. More specifically, the clash between democratic and professional values raises important questions about whose knowledge is legitimate and to whom professionals should be held accountable. Although these tensions may exist, the Highland and the Mid Valley experiences suggest that they are not insurmountable and that a participatory and deliberative democratic process in a district setting relies on the collective knowledge of participants, a vital aspect of which is the technical expertise of professional educators. The challenge facing conveners of joint work is making this knowledge accessible and balancing it with the knowledge brought to the table by laypersons. School districts by design are bureaucracies that often embody structures and cultures incompatible with the norms of collaboration and deliberative DEMOCRATIC DILEMMAS 158 democracy. An organization that rigidly adheres to rules, values control and uniformity, positions staff into specialized and often isolated roles and departments , and cautiously approaches data is a potentially hostile host for an endeavor that calls for inclusive participation, open dialogue among equals, decisions based on reason over power, attention to personal relationships, and a climate allowing individuals...