No Satisfaction: “A Case of ‘The Monkey’s Paw,’ ” Top-Down School Reform, and the Conduit

Abstract

Tom Hatch’s research interests in school reform and theories of action and my research interests in teachers’ narrative knowledge and the shaping effects of context come together in this issue of Curriculum Inquiry. Tom offers an important response to my article and raises key points. I am grateful to him and the editors for the opportunity to continue the discussion. I also am thankful to the T. P. Yaeger educators who carefully read the manuscript and the review, participated in rich conversations about the pieces, and reiterated what they knew and did not know about the statedirected, national reform initiative introduced to their school. This rejoinder is informed not only by my own thinking, but also by the school-based educators’ interpretations of, and responses to, Tom’s comments and by my more extensive experiences of reforming school contexts in the time since the paper was written.In his personal reading of “A Case of ‘The Monkey’s Paw’” piece, Tom Hatch found a story of reform and repetition, the stuff that makes the history of school reform “legendary.” In this reply I will provide a kind of a metalevel narrative analysis where I will further unpack the original research, keeping Tom’s commentary on the T. P. Yaeger reform experience and his questions and wonders sharply in view. In the process, I will weave in my own set of reflective queries arising from Hatch’s interpretation of the article, namely, (1) why the repetition in reform occurs and (2) why the practical/theoretical dissatisfaction with educational reform continues. I begin with the tale (i.e., Fletcher, 1996) passed along in the oral tradition that provided the creative seed for Jacobs’s short story. It offers powerful images that are useful to keep in mind as this metal-level narrative analysis unfolds.