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Centering on the monkey's paw metaphor, this narrative inquiry links teachers' pedagogical practices with their professional-development experiences associated with a national reform movement that, in this situation, acted in a top-down manner. The longitudinal study illuminates the short-and long-term influence that the state-directed national reform initiative had on the story of a diverse, U.S. middle school and on the stories its teachers subsequently lived and told. The work particularly focuses on the relationships between and among teachers' knowledge developments, their knowledge communities, and their attitudes toward school reform.

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Anchored in the narrative inquiry tradition, this article examines commonly held beliefs about curriculum dissemination from the perspective of a teacher whose campus participated in a major school reform initiative. Through the presentation of a constellation of fine-grained stories revolving around the teacher’s curriculum making as an art educator, the integral role that narrative played in the elucidation of her knowledge, most specifically her emerging understanding of curriculum development and dissemination, comes to light. At the same time, the underside of technical rationalism, the taken-for-granted worldview that dominates Western society and drives educational policy, is exposed and held open to scrutiny.