Teaching transformation under centralized curriculum and teacher learning community: Two Chinese chemistry teachers' experiences in developing inquiry-based instruction

•Centralized curriculum cannot warrant teachers to implement the reform.•Teaching learning community is not sufficient to warrant teacher change.•Interactions between standards, beliefs and learning communities are complex.

The establishment of centralized curriculum standards and school-based teacher learning communities are presumably necessary to reform science teaching towards inquiry-based instruction in many countries. Drawing on interview, document, and unit plan data from two high school chemistry teachers in China, this study examines these assumptions. Findings indicated that both teachers developed different kinds of science teaching practices despite working under the centralized science curriculum and school-based teacher learning communities. Different teaching experiences of the two teachers and their school cultures of teaching interacted with the centralized curriculum and teacher teaching community to consequently shape their teaching practices in different ways.