Role Identity and Sensemaking as Institutional Mechanisms for Policy Translation: The Case of School Principals and Education Reforms in Israel

ABSTRACT

Education policies are rarely implemented as they have been written or planned. Instead, school principals interpret and apply these policies according to their professional role identity and sensemaking. This study highlights the importance of the micro-institutional context. Specifically, it addresses the professional role identity and sensemaking of individuals who are responsible for policy translation and implementation. I find that policy implementation depends on the interlaced relations between the principal professional role identity and sensemaking. As such, principals differ in the way they notice, process and react to different policies. These variations in policy adaptation and implementation, resulting in organizational heterogeneity.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the participants of the Networks and Organizations and the Comparative Education workshops at Stanford as well as to Gili Drori for critically commenting on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The Leonard Davis Institute for International Studies.