EdD Students’ Sensemaking of Improvement Science as a Tool for Change in Education

Abstract

Although research scholarship offers valuable guidance to those hoping to use improvement science in their teaching and practice, it tends to center the perspectives of researchers and EdD program faculty. Less research has focused on the voices of practitioners who use improvement science in their schools and organizations. We draw on sensemaking theory to investigate how EdD students are learning about and applying improvement science in their practice. We share how practitioners made sense of each stage of the improvement science process, including affordances, and how they navigated challenges with collaborators and communities within their organizations.