This paper employs an ethnographic approach to researching the implementation of a reform within a secondary school mathematics department. The study was conducted in a junior secondary/middle school context. Drawing on teacher interviews data, it is argued that there appears to be three main themes in teacher responses to reforms – the Conservatives who prefer the status quo, the Pragmatists who are concerned about practical issues related to implementation of reforms; and the Contemporaries who see the value and need for reform.