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Sensemaking is a popular framework for studying the meaning-making dimensions of policy implementation, change initiatives, and practitioner action in education. While generative, it has traditionally offered less guidance on how certain organizational actors have formal and/or informal power to advance their version of events and how certain narratives gain legitimacy over others. A power and politics approach addresses these lacunae. Yet, to date, this approach is little used in education research, despite the fact that contests over meaning and meaning-making are routine in educational institutions. Using an empirical case of meaning-making about "equity" at a community college, this study demonstrates how a power and politics analysis identifies and interrogates the forces--implicit and explicit, within and outside an organization--that make meaning(s) (il)legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]