ABSTRACT
During my first visits to Indonesian schools, it was clear that teachers’ views of their professional responsibilities and their position vis-à-vis the state were unlike those of instructors located in any education system I had previously witnessed. With each school I visited, I became more aware that teachers tailored their words and behavior to fit the institutional cultures in which they were inscribed. How would those institutional cultures support or impede recently promulgated reforms that aimed to reform teaching practices? That was a question that had not yet been addressed by educators, policy planners, or international consultants.
