UC San Diego

This mixed methods study draws on Sensemaking Theory (Weick, 1995) and Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987) to understand how teachers experience mandated programs, curriculum, and other activities associated with large- and small-scale reform efforts. The complex nature of teachers' practice, as they are situated in this nexus of reforms, is a largely unexamined area in the field of education. Missing from the research literature is a study that explicitly combines these constructs in an examination of how teachers experience about mandates. Study participants included nine teachers at an elementary school in Southern California who had contrasting orientations toward teaching and learning, a range of teaching experience, and varying attitudes toward mandated change. Surveys, interviews, and questionnaires were used to examine how teachers conceptualized mandates, felt about mandates, perceived mandates, and talked about implementing them. The study yielded four findings. First, several factors play a role in how teachers define and interpret mandates, which leads to contrasting notions of what mandates are and which activities are mandated. Secondly, teachers approach their practice with agency. Thus, they tend to adapt mandates and have a strong desire for autonomy. Third, teachers tend to have negative attitudes toward mandates, as well as negative feelings associated with implementing mandates. As such, teacher's personal lives can be adversely affected. Finally, there are distinct features of mandates that teachers believe have positively and negatively impacted their practice: effective mandates have goals that were realized and fairly moderate rules, whereas ineffective mandates have goals that are not realized and strict or permissive rules. The results of this study suggest that teachers will thrive in environments in which they are allowed to express their autonomy. Conversely, if teachers practice in constraining environments, their professional identities and emotions may suffer. Therefore, administrators should create supportive environments, provide adequate resources, and encourage teachers to modify mandates. In addition, because there is so much variation in how teachers defined and thought about mandates, it is important that administrators clearly communicate their expectations and whether certain activities are mandated, especially as new mandates are introduced