Institutional legitimacy and de-legitimacy: insights from the case of an innovative school

ABSTRACT

The education field favors innovations, but innovative schools tend to fade after an initial ‘golden age.’ According to the new institutional theory, this happens due to the innovative school’s need to achieve institutional legitimacy, which encounters several difficulties. This study aims to explore the journey to attaining legitimacy in one entrepreneurial school that gained legitimacy from some actors, but not from other relevant ones, and did not survive. Using a case study method, 30 interviews were conducted, and over 200 documents, including media articles, school protocols, and court protocols, were analyzed. The findings reveal that the concept of legitimacy is not dichotomous, but a continuum ranging from legitimacy to neutral and de-legitimacy, and stakeholders differ in their positions, resources, and type of legitimacy. Additional theoretical and practical implications are presented in the discussion.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutional theory
• educational change
• educational entrepreneurship
• innovation
• legitimacy

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hilla Tal

Prof. Dorit Tubin, Head of the Program for Educational Administration, Policy, and Society, and Head of the Principal Training Program, Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Her main interests are school organizations, educational leadership, professional development, innovative learning environments, and national culture and schooling.

Dorit Tubin

Dr. Hilla Tal, is a research fellow in the Laboratory for the Study of Pedagogy at the Department of Education, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Dr. Tal is Head of the Program for Teachers’ Specialization in Educational Evaluation and Assessment. Her main interests are educational entrepreneurship, policy making in educational reforms, and school organization.