An Institutional Analysis of School Closures in Saskatoon and Windsor

Abstract

During the 1978–88 period the public and the Catholic separate boards closed seventeen schools in Saskatoon and twenty-two in Windsor. The repertories of involvements and interactions between the community representatives and the school board officials during the reviews of the closure of these schools are theorized. The empirical analysis utilizes archival data for two episodes of school closures in each city, after which the school boards might have amended their procedures for the closures. The findings illustrate the real and instantiated powers, and the agency skills of the involved community representatives versus those of the school board officials.