A qualitative assessment study examined four teachers' understandings of school and society. One assessment tool, the Activity System, examined instructional practices of the four teachers to identify to what extent, if any, they utilized strategies valued in the social foundations tradition. The Principles of the CSFE function as an assessment instrument to distinguish to what extent the respondents' beliefs about school and society reflected the knowledge base of the Social Foundations field.

The study fully explored the following four questions: First, how do four elementary, intermediate-level instructors of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from a large, Midwestern city school district demonstrate and describe their interpretations of social context as they teach in urban, low-income, multicultural communities? Second, what relationships are observable between these four teachers classroom practices and their expressed beliefs about the social contexts of those practices? Third, to what extent do teachers express familiarity with a professional knowledge base that connects teaching values and practices to social or cultural context? Fourth, to what extent do teachers' own minority/majority ethnic status appear to inform their thinking about their teaching in social context?

The findings revealed that the four teachers reflected some of the elements of the CSFE Principles and the Activity System but none of them fully applied knowledge and strategies identified in both assessment tools. Most striking, three of the four respondents better met the Activity System standards than The Principles, indicating that professional knowledge did not explicitly drive instruction. They performed better in their classroom practices than they explained their practices from a professional knowledge base. Their expressed beliefs did not necessarily cohere with their practices nor did they explain them fully. The teachers' minority/majority status did not seem to explain much in terms of the teachers' professional practice.