Negotiating Differences in Small Urban Schools

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of widely advocated organizational reform for secondary schools, namely the small school model, on the collective efficacy of teachers and students who did not share the school’s common vision. Themes that emerged during the study linked the students’ academic engagement to faculty dispositions, the physical facilities of the school, and the socioeconomic context of the student body. Cogenerative dialogue (cogen) was used as a pathway to ameliorate such exclusionary policy. The results of the study indicate that the conversations during cogen meetings became resources to draw on in changing oppressive structural features.