When Crisis Meets Crisis: Sensemaking of Third Grade Retention Policy and Crisis Management of COVID-19

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through 13 in-depth interviews conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, this qualitative study investigates how policy actors make sense of Michigan’s third grade retention policy as a smothering crisis, what factors influenced variations in their sensemaking, and how sensemaking has evolved to address difficulties imposed by the pandemic as a sudden crisis. Drawing upon sensemaking and crisis management frameworks, the findings reveal different meaning makings due to contextual challenges: 1) information filtering, 2) principals’ instructional leadership, and 3) parent involvement. The pandemic catalyzed collaboration among policy actors to respond to, recover from, and learn from the crisis.