{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132530"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132530","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency: district leaders’ conceptions of shared power","abstract":"This study explored the possibility that supporting institutional student agency beyond the classroom setting can lead to authentic power sharing and build more equitable systems, particularly for historically marginalized students in K-12 public education. This study sought to understand the potential for and barriers to enacting district-level policy and practice aimed at supporting epistemic justice through building institutional student agency. The notion of supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency bridges educational equity and definitions of agency because it calls for a systemic approach to ensure people who are excluded from power have agency over decisions that impact them the most (Fricker, 2007, 2013; Radoilska, 2020). This qualitative study used a conceptual framework of institutional student agency that operationalizes necessary conditions for sustained epistemic justice through policy and practice to analyze the role of district leadership in creating and implementing policy in public secondary schools. To address the final research question, it applied the tenets of Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) to the policies discussed by participants. Analysis revealed district leaders had a strong conceptual understanding of institutional student agency and a sense of critical responsibility to implement but most examples of existing practices and no policy examples met the full definition of institutional student agency. The findings indicate the conceptual framework offers a powerful lens for identifying policy language and implementation practices to strengthen existing practices into institutional student agency.","abstract_html":"This study explored the possibility that supporting institutional student agency beyond the classroom setting can lead to authentic power sharing and build more equitable systems, particularly for historically marginalized students in K-12 public education. This study sought to understand the potential for and barriers to enacting district-level policy and practice aimed at supporting epistemic justice through building institutional student agency. The notion of supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency bridges educational equity and definitions of agency because it calls for a systemic approach to ensure people who are excluded from power have agency over decisions that impact them the most (Fricker, 2007, 2013; Radoilska, 2020). This qualitative study used a conceptual framework of institutional student agency that operationalizes necessary conditions for sustained epistemic justice through policy and practice to analyze the role of district leadership in creating and implementing policy in public secondary schools. To address the final research question, it applied the tenets of Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) to the policies discussed by participants. Analysis revealed district leaders had a strong conceptual understanding of institutional student agency and a sense of critical responsibility to implement but most examples of existing practices and no policy examples met the full definition of institutional student agency. The findings indicate the conceptual framework offers a powerful lens for identifying policy language and implementation practices to strengthen existing practices into institutional student agency.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hougard, Megan"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ed.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hinze-Pifer, Rebecca","Hale, John","Roegman, Rachel","Wilson, Asif"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-12","date_published":"2025-12","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z","subjects":["Epistemic justice","student agency"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Megan Hougard"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132530","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hinze-Pifer, Rebecca","Hale, John","Roegman, Rachel","Wilson, Asif"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hougard, Megan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-12","2025-11-25"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ed.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Epistemic justice","student agency"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Megan Hougard"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132530"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This study explored the possibility that supporting institutional student agency beyond the classroom setting can lead to authentic power sharing and build more equitable systems, particularly for historically marginalized students in K-12 public education. This study sought to understand the potential for and barriers to enacting district-level policy and practice aimed at supporting epistemic justice through building institutional student agency. The notion of supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency bridges educational equity and definitions of agency because it calls for a systemic approach to ensure people who are excluded from power have agency over decisions that impact them the most (Fricker, 2007, 2013; Radoilska, 2020). This qualitative study used a conceptual framework of institutional student agency that operationalizes necessary conditions for sustained epistemic justice through policy and practice to analyze the role of district leadership in creating and implementing policy in public secondary schools. To address the final research question, it applied the tenets of Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) to the policies discussed by participants. Analysis revealed district leaders had a strong conceptual understanding of institutional student agency and a sense of critical responsibility to implement but most examples of existing practices and no policy examples met the full definition of institutional student agency. The findings indicate the conceptual framework offers a powerful lens for identifying policy language and implementation practices to strengthen existing practices into institutional student agency.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Megan Hougard, accepted the attached license on 2025-11-25 at 11:32.","The student, Megan Hougard, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-11-25 at 11:40.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-11-25 at 12:49.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22948 on 2026-02-19 at 18:25:18"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency: district leaders’ conceptions of shared power"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Hinze-Pifer, Rebecca","Hale, John","Roegman, Rachel","Wilson, Asif"],"dc:creator":["Hougard, Megan"],"dc:date":["2025-12","2025-11-25"],"dc:description":["This study explored the possibility that supporting institutional student agency beyond the classroom setting can lead to authentic power sharing and build more equitable systems, particularly for historically marginalized students in K-12 public education. This study sought to understand the potential for and barriers to enacting district-level policy and practice aimed at supporting epistemic justice through building institutional student agency. The notion of supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency bridges educational equity and definitions of agency because it calls for a systemic approach to ensure people who are excluded from power have agency over decisions that impact them the most (Fricker, 2007, 2013; Radoilska, 2020). This qualitative study used a conceptual framework of institutional student agency that operationalizes necessary conditions for sustained epistemic justice through policy and practice to analyze the role of district leadership in creating and implementing policy in public secondary schools. To address the final research question, it applied the tenets of Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) to the policies discussed by participants. Analysis revealed district leaders had a strong conceptual understanding of institutional student agency and a sense of critical responsibility to implement but most examples of existing practices and no policy examples met the full definition of institutional student agency. The findings indicate the conceptual framework offers a powerful lens for identifying policy language and implementation practices to strengthen existing practices into institutional student agency.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Megan Hougard, accepted the attached license on 2025-11-25 at 11:32.","The student, Megan Hougard, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-11-25 at 11:40.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-11-25 at 12:49.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22948 on 2026-02-19 at 18:25:18"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132530"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Megan Hougard"],"dc:subject":["Epistemic justice","student agency"],"dc:title":["Supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency: district leaders’ conceptions of shared power"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ed.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z"}