The Rationalizing Logics of Public School Reform

Abstract

The research herein uses a mixed methods approach to examine how organizational phenomena at the macro level of analysis translate into phenomena at the micro level. Specifically, the research attempts to explain how cultural institutions may translate into individual attitudes and actions, such as public school teachers’ decisions about using instructional practices prescribed by reform. The findings suggest that public school teachers rationalize their instructional practices by drawing on the logics of three core cultural institutions: bureaucracy, democracy, and markets. When the logics of these institutions are violated, teachers reduce their reported use of prescribed instructional practices.