Illuminating the impact of state educational policy promoting school reform on curriculum and instruction in programs of urban teacher preparation

Using their experiences as teacher educators as a starting point, the autho rs identify and describe the most salient manifestations of state policy in their work with prospective urban teachers. Analysis of six vignettes demo nstrates how experiences of teacher educators might be interpreted to suppo rt commonly accepted tenets of systemic reform: for instance, alignment of institutional mandates. However, another reading of the narratives demonstr ates that systemic reform as it has become operationalized adversely affect s urban teacher preparation in several important areas because the centrali ty of teachers' thinking and beliefs is ignored, and power differentials am ong education's constituencies have been reinforced.