Reforming teaching practices is a challenging mission. This multi-level case study aims to explore the complexities inherent in a pedagogical reform by shedding light on the dynamics and tensions within and across communities of practice at three levels--international, national, and local--in the case of an on-going pedagogical reform implemented in Cambodia. I was particularly interested in the social process in which various actors take part in constructing and reconstructing this reform named Effective Teaching and Learning (ETL) that is based on the globalized student-centered pedagogies. Informed by social constructivist theory and vertical case study framework, I designed this research as a multi-level case study that focuses on communities of practice as the primary unit of analysis. I conducted interviews, observations, and archival search in Prey Veng province, Cambodia, from November 2012 until July 2013.This research explores a puzzle, in which pedagogical reform fails to change teaching practices substantially even when teachers seriously and actively engage in it. I identified the nature of Cambodian pedagogical reform as follows: (1) it is a social practice where various actors with different backgrounds and interests actively construct and reconstruct the meaning, mediated by tools; (2) it is a reversible process that involves dynamics and tensions both within and across levels; (3) it is not just a pedagogical project, but it has political, social, and cultural facets that define its shape and scope. In particular, I found that policy messages were expanded,modified, and even transformed in the communities of practice at different levels, as a result of actors' negotiation of meaning. It produced contradictions with ETL policy itself, and further facilitated local practices that strengthens--rather than changes--existing ideas about teaching and learning even though I did not observe any overt contestations.These findings suggest the necessity to re-conceptualize a pedagogical change as a political, social, and cultural enterprise that requires us to revisit fundamental assumptions in education, ranging from the theory of knowledge, the socially appropriate relationship between teacher and students, to the purposes of education. The current reform, however, fails to address these assumptions with which pedagogical practices are governed and thus may not produce substantial changes at the classroom level.
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