Supporting epistemic justice through institutional student agency: district leaders’ conceptions of shared power

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hougard, Megan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hinze-Pifer, Rebecca
• Hale, John
• Roegman, Rachel
• Wilson, Asif

• Epistemic justice
• student agency

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Megan Hougard

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132530

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132530