Local manifestations of institutional agency: the case of evolution education in Tennessee

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This RAPID project explores the impacts of 2009-2010 Tennessee science standards requiring schools throughout the state to teach elementary school students about how natural selection drives adaptation and biological evolution. The project will address the following questions: (1) how and why these standards were developed and adopted; (2) how the mandate will be implemented (from state to classroom levels); (3) how these implementations are negotiated on the local level (parental demand vis-à-vis state government and teachers); and (4) how the resulting curricula inform students' learning of evolution. This project offers the opportunity to study, in real time, what happens when controversial new standards are imposed upon local schools from afar. The project mixes a variety of anthropological and cognitive methodologies, from randomized control experiments of biological knowledge to the collection of ethnographic, survey, and interview data of stakeholders. The results promise to shed light on issues in curricular development, teacher training, and the interplay of social, organizational, and governmental factors that affect teaching and learning.