| This is a study of an innovation from three perspectives: that of a district through its design and implementation of the innovation; that of a first grade teacher through a case study of her classroom implementation; and that of the researcher through her view of innovation generally, and language innovation specifically. The purpose of this research is to study change both in a district's and a teacher's attempts to implement a new approach to the teaching of writing. The study not only explores the project design, training and kinds of support both the district and the school gave to this change in language teaching, but also is an in-depth case study of one first grade teacher's attempts, her "making sense" of the writing innovation. This is an innovation that invites a teacher to rethink the nature of knowledge, student performance and classroom organization. In addition, the role of the researcher, as a participant/observer, has been to document not only the innovation from the district's and teacher's perspectives, but also to draw some conclusions about change efforts generally and the possible role of the researcher.;The methodology used was ethnographic with the researcher serving as a participant/observer. Data was collected from September, 1988, through June 1989, with Epilogue based on interviews during September, 1990. Data sources included transcribed interviews with teachers and administrators, videotaped observations that were followed by transcribed interviews during viewing, and district documents.;Significant findings include: (1) well-designed training programs and support systems still lead to different types of innovation implementations. (2) Contextual history and personal beliefs of those implementing an innovation influence that implementation. (3) First and second order changes require different implementation designs. (4) Moving from a change in procedures to a change in ideology requires more than time. (5) What a district designs may not be what an individual teacher implements. (6) Since innovation implementation happens in individual classrooms, studies of innovation need to investigate both individuals and groups. (7) Case studies of individuals will vary depending on the individual being studied. (8) Since the researcher's beliefs serve as a filter for all data collected, those beliefs should be made explicit to the reader. |
