A Case Study of 1:1 Technology Policies in Four Texas High Schools and Their Relationship to Practice Page: 88
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very successful model, whose school has actually been recently visited by the President of the
United States and provides professional development internationally, pointed to his head and
said, "It's all up here." This statement was significant in that it revealed an obvious disregard for
documented policy. "It's all [in my head]" indicates that a program's success lies with an
individual leader. In fact, the superintendent and technology director in this district tactfully
confirmed that this principal looks only to himself for guidance that in ideal circumstances is
provided by policy. Program sustainability, or the ability to create cultures to sustain practices,
is at risk if the success of a program lies with one person.
Theoretical /
Philosophical . Practice
Inputs
Figure 5.1. Lack of referenced policy.
Major educational studies on policy (as discussed in Akiba & LeTendre, 2009) show that it has
to be reviewed and refined by stakeholders in order to align policies with practice. Policies are
necessary (Hope, 1998; Kotter, 1995), and in order to connect teaching, learning, and
technologies (Weston & Bain, 2010) they must be strategic and coherent. For a school system,
they can be neither strategic nor coherent for a system if they involve only one individual.
However, not all cases in the study were as extreme as the one claiming that policy
resides in his head. One principal replied to Interview Question 1 by saying:
There's nothing formal. There are expectations. But those expectations allow teachers
autonomy within the program. We ask them to use [technology in the classroom]. We88
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Bauter, Cynthia. A Case Study of 1:1 Technology Policies in Four Texas High Schools and Their Relationship to Practice, dissertation, December 2013; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc407819/m1/99/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .