Context and community: Influences on a high school mathematics reform effort

This case study describes the adoption and abandonment of a reform curriculum. The five Pre-algebra teachers involved in the study began the school year with a traditional curriculum and classroom practices. A few months into the school year, they adopted the reform curriculum Mathematics in Context (MiC). They used MiC for three months before abandoning it to return to a more traditional curriculum.;The purpose of this study was to understand the influences on this reform effort. Because the teachers went through the adoption and abandonment of the reform curriculum as a group, I chose to focus on the factors influencing the decisions and actions of the group as a whole. In particular, I characterized the teachers as an emerging professional community and sought to understand the influence of the nature of the professional community on the reform effort. I also sought to identify factors external to the professional community that shaped what the teachers did with respect to reform. I gave particular attention to the influence of the professional development course in which the teachers were participating.;The results suggest that the most prominent influences on the reform effort in this case were the shared beliefs of the community. In particular, the teachers' beliefs that their students were barriers to reform and their shared conflict over the nature of the Pre-algebra course prevented them from engaging in sustained reform. Moreover, the shared beliefs of the group were shaped, in part, by factors associated with the context in which the community was situated. Specifically, the teachers' position within a more traditional department likely contributed to their conflict over the nature of Pre-algebra. And the resistance that they experienced from students in response to the new curriculum likely bolstered their beliefs that their students were barriers to reform. In addition, particular features of the professional development course also played a role in this case by making it possible for the teachers' problematic beliefs to go unaddressed.;The results of this study have potentially important implications for the design of future professional development, particularly for efforts targeted at teachers of low-track classes.