The purpose of this project is to investigate the evolution of an innovative second grade problem solving mathematics project, compatible with recent NCTM guidelines (NCTM, 1989), to determine how the implementation of the project is influenced by broad cultural, social, and political forces. Specifically, the perspectives held by parents, community leaders (school board members), school administrators, teachers, and the university project directors about what mathematics instruction should look like and how teachers should be teaching and students should be learning will be compared and contrasted. These perspectives (values and beliefs about mathematics) are important in light of the voice and power parents, community leaders and administrators have in influencing innovative change in mathematics. Using the research methodology of ethnography and the theoretical underpinnings of holistic ethnography and symbolic interactionism, the perceptions about this innovative project will be studied through intensive observations, interviews, and document analysis. Questions guiding the data collection include, what happens when university researchers and public school in general and mathematics in particular, play in influencing what occurs in mathematics classrooms? and what role do parents and school board members play in informing and developing school district instructional policy and how do they influence the process of educational change in mathematics? Data will be analyzed and interpreted using qualitative, inductive procedures. This project may serve as a paradigm case for those who want to learn more about the complexities associated with implementing innovative mathematics programs that are compatible with recent reform recommendations (e.g. NCTM, 1989).
