EdSight

Adrianna Kezar is a multidisciplinary higher education educational scholar whose work consistently highlights the creation of inclusive and fair educational institutions, especially in higher education. Her scholarly work is influenced by her multidisciplinary thinking and previous professional experience in student affairs administration. Through her work, Dr. Kezar has expanded our understanding of educational issues ranging from STEM reform to organizational change. Kezar advocates for the use of organizational change tactics for the common good, student success, and educational justice.

Kezar also experienced many leadership positions in higher education such as the Pullias Center for Higher Education, the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, and the Promoting At-Promise Student Success (PASS) Project. See more at https://ncwit.org/profile/adrianna-kezar/

According to Kezar's argument, universities undergoing periods of reform and transition frequently rely on their campus leaders to concentrate on programming and interventions, neglecting the possibility of implementing comprehensive change strategies that could result in increased institutional performance. She proposed “The Change Macro Framework,” a workable framework for implementing organizational change that can be used across a wide range of organizations and in a variety of contexts, including postsecondary institutions. Her work addressed the need for large-scale organizational change strategies. Kezar advises institutions to think about three aspects of the change process before determining how they would approach this change: the type of change, the context for the change, and agency/leadership.

The four phases of Kezar's Change Macro Framework assist us to “understand it, negotiate, resist, and facilitate it” when it comes to ensuring organizational changes.

1. To assess the kind of change that is required, as well as its extent and content.
2. To conduct additional analysis to take into account the social, political, and economic backdrop of this development.
3. To decide how much agency, or action, needs to be taken and which leadership style—top-down versus bottom-up—should be used to establish this agency.
4. To design the change initiative, taking into account institutional and neo-institutional variables, evolutionary, cultural, political, and social cognition concepts, as well as political and cultural management theories.

• Kezar, A. (2018). How colleges change: Understanding, leading, and enacting change. Routledge.

Kezar worked with KC Culver and Jordan Harper, and the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California to contribute to the existing liberatory design thinking model. They created the Design for Equity in Higher Education (DEHE) model to further address issues of equity in higher education, which includes eight linear steps:

1. Organize
2. Empathize
3. (Re)define
4. Ideate
5. Choose
6. Prototype
7. Get buy-in
8. Test

To advance the paradigm, some of the processes may, nevertheless, cross over to accomplish a common goal. The Kezar et al. model included the additional steps of “Organize,” “Choose,” and “Get buy-in” in contrast to earlier models. Kezar also underlined the value of prototyping, which may require more time in order to present ideas to important stakeholders and other interested parties and obtain support. Nevertheless, securing support from individuals impacted by the proposed modification is crucial to initiating an organization's change initiative.

• Culver, K. C., Harper, J., & Kezar, A. (2021). Using design for equity in higher education for liberatory change: A guide for practice. Pullias Center. https://pullias.usc.edu/download/using-design-for-equity-in-higher-education-for-liberatory-change-a-guide-for-practice/.
• Kezar, A. (2017). Organization theory and change. In J. H. Schuh, S. R. Jones, & V. Torres (Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (pp. 220–235). Jossey-Bass.

Kezar has concentrated on the work that institutions must learn and improve to better support the success of all students, especially those who have historically been underrepresented or excluded from the academy, because she is passionate about equity and inclusion. Her research in this field focuses on community partnerships, financial literacy, transition programs, support services, and faculty, staff, and student involvement.

• Kezar, A., Hirsch, D. J., & Burack, C. (Eds.). (2001). Understanding the role of academic and student affairs collaboration in creating a successful learning environment. Jossey-Bass.
• Kezar, A., & Eckel, P. (2007). Learning to ensure the success for students of color: A systemic approach to effecting change. Change: The Magazine of Higher Education, 39(4), 18–21.
• https://doi.org/10.3200/CHNG.39.4.18-25
• Kezar, A. (2010). Faculty and staff partnering with student activists: Unexplored terrains of interaction and development. Journal of College Student Development, 51(5), 451–480. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2010.0001
• Kezar, A. (Ed.). (2010). Recognizing and serving low-income students in postsecondary education: An examination of institutional policies, practices, and culture. Routledge.
• Kezar, A. (2010). Organizational culture and its impact on partnering between community agencies and postsecondary institutions to help low-income students attend college. Education and Urban Society, 43(2), 205–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124510380041
• Culver, K. C., Harper, J., & Kezar, A. (2021). Design for equity in higher education (Resource document). Pullias Center for Higher Education. https://pullias.usc.edu/download/design-for-equity-in-higher-education/.
• Introduction to liberatory design. (n.d.). National equity project. https://www.nationalequityproject.org/frameworks/liberatory-design.

Leadership drives the educational system and culture change. Formal leadership might come from administrators, boards, or people in power. Change doesn't usually start with college leadership. Kezar has also examined student, professor, and staff activism and grassroots leadership. Kezar also emphasizes the need to establish and support leadership initiatives by persons without institutional power. Educational leadership challenges include “academic capitalism,” centralization, the decrease of shared governance and faculty participation in formal leadership, technological shifts that standardize the curriculum and limit faculty freedom in teaching, and the shift from seeing faculty as leaders on campus to seeing them as “workers with professional expertise.”

• Kezar, A., & Lester, J. (2009). Organizing for collaboration in higher education: A guide for campus leaders. Jossey-Bass.
• Kezar, A., & Maxey, D. (2012). The Delphi project on the changing faculty and student success: Report on the project working meeting (Project Report). Pullias Center for Higher Education. https://pullias.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Delphi-Project_Report-on-Working-Meeting_Web-Version-1.pdf.
• Lester, J., & Kezar, A. (2012). Faculty grassroots leadership: Making the invisible visible. In A. Kezar & J. Lester (Eds.), Enhancing campus capacity for leadership: An examination of grassroots leaders in higher education (pp. 3–28). Stanford University Press.
• Kezar, A., & Sam, C. (2014). Governance as a catalyst for policy change: Creating a contingent faculty friendly academy. Educational Policy, 28(3), 425–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904812465112
• Kezar, A. J., Chambers, A. C., & Burkhardt, J. C. (2015). Higher education for the public good. Wiley.
• Lester, J., & Kezar, A. (2017). Strategies and challenges for distributing leadership in communities of practice. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10, 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21499