Relations Between Policy and Practice: A Commentary

The research reported in the cases suggests that California’s new policy has affected instructional practice. Many teachers have tried to change their mathematics teaching, and some have made significant changes. But practice also has had a profound influence on the new policy. The teachers in the cases did not simply assimilate new texts and curriculum guides. They enacted new instructional policies in terms of their inherited beliefs, knowledge, and practices. Hence when teachers changed in response to the policy, they did so in terms of their pre-existing practice, knowledge, and beliefs. They reframed the policy in terms of what they already knew, believed, and did in classrooms. The result in many classrooms was a remarkable melange of old and new math teaching. This may be only the beginning of the story of the California math framework. It remains to be seen whether the reform will continue, and, if it does, whether the California system will be able to support this reform adequately.