Institutional Complexity and Policy Implementation: How Underlying Logics Drive Teacher Interpretations of Reform

Abstract

One critical factor in policy implementation is how teachers interpret policy. Previous research largely overlooks how the broader culture shapes teachers’ interpretations. In the current research, we explore how teachers’ interpretations of instructional reforms are associated with the logics of broad societal institutions. Our longitudinal mixed-methods study of 117 teachers at three urban public schools demonstrates that teachers’ interpretations are rooted in market accountability logics, professional bureaucracy logics, and communal sentiment logics. Teachers’ logics partially depend on their school and community contexts. The most substantive differences in teachers’ logics result from individual attributes, namely, race/ethnicity. One implication is that effective policy implementation depends on formulation and framing that address the multiple and potentially competing logics that motivate teachers’ responses to reform.