Punctuated Legitimacy: A Theory of Educational Change

Abstract

This research presents a theory of educational change grounded in 23 years of qualitative data that document the history of a public elementary school. The pattern of change observed supports the punctuated equilibrium theory of organizational change in which short periods of revolutionary change—usually the result of failed innovation—are followed by long periods of equilibrium or incremental change. Attempts to legitimate organizational and individual behavior—the dynamics of construction, erosion, loss, reconstruction, and maintenance of organizational legitimacy—explain the sequence of stages in the change process. The study concludes that punctuated legitimacy, which created the need to reestablish legitimacy, not rational administrative attempts to improve the programs and structure of the school, was the major factor that produced significant organizational change.