Beyond the Committee: Structures for Involving Faculty in Equity-Based Change

To create the change necessary to dismantle educational inequities, school leaders need to involve faculty in the change process. Faculty involvement ensures that equity-based interventions are designed with diverse input to maximize their efficacy and helps to secure faculty buy-in to carry out those interventions. Prior research outlines how schools use committees, department meetings, and other methods to involve faculty in change; however, there is limited research on the efficacy of these structures. This study fills that gap by examining the relationship between the use of the structures to involve faculty in decision-making, and the perceived degree of faculty involvement in equity-based decision-making. This research took a quantitative approach, utilizing a survey of 206 independent school teachers to examine the usefulness of six decision-making structures (committees, open forums, faculty meetings, department meetings, informal conversations, and surveys). Multiple regression analysis showed that committees, meetings, and forums each predicted a higher perceived degree of faculty involvement. However, it did not support that correlation for department meetings, informal conversations, and surveys. School leaders should continue their frequent use of committees and expand their use of full-faculty meetings and open forums to effectively involve faculty in equity-based decision-making.