Lenses on Learning: Administrators' Views on Reform and the Professional Development of Teachers

Abstract

If the intellectual norms and values embedded in the mathematics education reform movement are to move beyond individual classrooms and significantly influence entire schools and districts, school and district administrators will need to become centrally, rather than peripherally, involved. This paper discusses the ways administrators' ideas about the nature of mathematics, learning, teaching, and school culture affect their interpretations of the nature and intent of the elementary mathematics reform movement and their thoughts about of how they might support it. In particular, administrators' views of parents' concerns, professional development for teachers, and of how new ideas move around in a school are discussed. I argue that administrators have well-formed ideas about mathematics, learning, and teaching, which influence their views of reform and their ideas of how to provide support. These ideas need to be taken into account if administrators are to be central actors in reform.