To maintain a sense of identity and self-confidence, humans rely on cognitive structures that allow individuals to identify similarities between prior experiences and new ones brought about by change. Educators are subjected to work environments that are in a state of constant change brought about by continuous series of new educational policies that teachers are tasked to implement within their classrooms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how five elementary school teachers experienced and responded to educational policy changes that influenced their instructional practices. This study also investigated the role and influence school sub-cultures had on elementary school teacher's experiences of and responses to educational policy change, and the role school sub-cultures played in teacher-initiated change during periods of policy change. Data were collected through focus groups, interviews, and journal response by teacher-participants. This study was framed by two concepts: communities of practice , by which individuals, who share common concerns or passions, interact with others routinely to learn from one another in a way that improves his or her particular practice, and organizational culture which views organizations as structures that consist of multiple smaller groups or cultures. Following the phenomenological data analysis process described by Creswell and Patten, the primary themes that emerged from the experiences of the five teachers in this study were: 1) Perceived student academic needs , 2) The influence of the principal , 3) Curriculum changes and professional communities , 4) Professional development , 5) Grade level team influences , 6) Teacher identity , and 7) Teacher emotion . Findings of this study provide a deeper understanding of: teacher decision-making as they try to understand and integrate new policies into their instructional practices, the importance of how school principals lead and support teachers during periods of policy change, the inconsistency of professional support provided by their school district, and how changes in professional networks brought about by policy changes create conflict between teachers identities and altered educational environments. The findings of this study provide researchers insights for future research how teacher identities and communities of practice influence teacher responses to educational policy changes.

Teachers are an essential link between the curriculum and student achievement. Teachers make instructional decisions that (1) determine the success or failure of a curricular intervention and (2) can result in either alignment or disconnect between the written and enacted curricula. Despite overwhelming evidence linking the success or the failure of a curricular intervention to the classroom teacher, little is known about the instructional decisions teachers make when using a standards-based curriculum. The use of standards-based curriculum is becoming common, therefore, it is essential to know how teachers are using it. This study focused on three questions. First, can the factors that influence instructional decisions be consolidated into manageable, representative, and useful categories? Second, what instructional decisions did six science teachers in a rural central Texas school district make when using the standards-based curriculum, CSCOPE? Finally, what steps did one district take to select and adopt the SBC, CSCOPE? This study found that the factors that influence instructional decisions could be clustered into four categories: (1) working conditions, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, (3) prior experiences, and (4) beliefs. Further, that teachers made instructional decisions both to use CSCOPE as intended and to modify CSCOPE lessons. Modifications to CSCOPE were made despite (1) an administrative mandate not to modify CSCOPE, (2) good administrative support, and (3) the stated intention of these teachers to adhere to CSCOPE. Teachers omitted, replaced and/or supplemented lessons and/or parts of lessons in order to (1) accommodate the needs of their students and (2) prepare students for the state assessment. Finally, several steps taken by Bluecat ISD administrators assisted teachers in using CSCOPE as intended. This study makes three contributions to the educational literature. First, no useful categorization exists of the factors that influence teachers‟ instructional decisions. Chapter II provides an initial categorization of these factors that is manageable, representative, and useful. Second, administrators need to be able to anticipate how teachers may use a standards-based curriculum. Chapter III identifies the instructional decisions made by these six science teachers. Chapter IV identifies the measures put in place to support teachers as they adjusted to CSCOPE.