| This study examined the process of a change initiative in one middle school language arts department as perceived by a district administrator, a building principal, and teachers. The purpose of this study was to identify varying perceptions of the initiation and implementation of a curriculum reform designed to raise reading test scores. Salient themes and patterns illustrate scenarios that explore the interface between “top down” and “bottom up” aspects of a substantive change process. This study adds to current research about school change by focusing on the juncture in which the two entities meet and negotiate the reform process. In other words, neither the administrators nor the teachers alone organized and implemented the change, but each participated in decisions throughout the process.; Innovation in schools has been enacted almost entirely in a top-down manner. In education, such traditional approaches focus on in-service teacher training; for example, programs designed by district administrators aimed at correcting deficiencies in teachers' performance through technical training in new strategies and materials. The traditional paradigm often ignores the complexity in educational change and overlooks realities of context, human psychology and the process of change. This study, however, shows change as a multidimensional process that involves multiple aspects of the organization, such as its structure, politics, and emotions of the participants.; Along with interviews, data sources included fieldnotes from relevant in-service and team meetings, written artifacts gathered from work at these meetings, conversations with each of the administrators and teachers, and brochures and handbooks provided by the district. Through this study, I identified changes necessitated by the curriculum initiative and examined how the instructors, who were (or had been) part of an 8th-grade interdisciplinary team, negotiated changes within the required components of the change process. By examining this curricular change, I identified differing perceptions of the proposed change, and also showed how professional development, teacher collaboration, school environment, and effective leadership added to teachers' abilities to make effective curricular changes within an atmosphere of increased district, state, and federal guidelines. |
