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The purpose of this paper is to identify the level of resistance to change in implementation of total quality management (TQM) in Iranian schools and investigate the influence of principals’ and teachers’ gender and years of experience on resistance to change.

This study presents the results of survey research carried out in Iran. The participants of this study are secondary school principals and teachers. The researchers employed descriptive analysis on data collected. Independent sample t-test was used to determine the difference in resistance to change based on teachers and principals gender, and one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis H-test were applied to determine the difference in resistance of teachers and principals based on years of experience.

The researchers found that the level of resistance to change in Iranian schools is medium; the most important factor for resistance to change is confidence in the status quo. Gender has an effect on resistance to change only for teachers. Years of experience do not have an effect on resistance to change.

The study identifies some useful points for school’s principals and teachers to implementation of TQM in school.

In the 30 years since Giroux (1983) named schools as a site of resistance, little has happened to sustain and embed that practice in schools. The contexts, structures, and policies in schools do not foster opportunities for resistance, and schools of education do not prepare teachers to support students’ critical actions in schools, ensuring the reproduction of inequity and injustice. While this is true for all historically marginalized groups, the specific legacy of discrimination (i.e., threats of deportation) faced by Latinx students and communities in the western United States often serves to silence their voices and efforts at resistance (Darder, Noguera, Fuentes, & Sanchez, 2012). In this chapter, we examine data from a student voice research project, including weekly observations (n = 102) for the school year across three public school classrooms, teacher reflections, and student work. This work is framed by the theory of sociopolitical development, implicating both teachers and students in the process of resistance and liberation. The data we explore captures (1) early conversations between students and teachers about issues of racial and economic injustice, (2) the initial resistance of students to having those conversations, (3) increasing trust between teachers and students supporting engagement with the issues, (4) students’ active resistance toward the issues that impacted them, (5) teachers and students working together to challenge unjust policies – at the school, district, and state level.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the role of the traditional Chinese rhetoric of “conscience” in teachers’ resistance against the drive for accountability that oppresses them.

This paper first introduces increased accountability in the context of Macao and describes its impact on teachers. Following this, it presents a post-structuralist theory of teachers’ resistance as an analytical framework. A case study was conducted to illuminate how teachers employ the rhetoric of conscience to respond to the challenges raised by the prevalence of accountability.

This paper argues that the rhetoric of conscience, as the traditional paradigm, provides new insight for teachers to live a life that is different from the normality that is defined by the discourse introduced by accountability.

This paper sheds light on the role of the traditional Chinese rhetoric of conscience in teachers’ resistance in an era of accountability. In teachers’ lived experiences, the rhetoric of conscience intersects with the dominating notion of accountability and this contributes to a transitional discursive space where teachers’ resistance emerges as they negotiate or struggle with the entangled discourses.

Teachers' resistance to educational reform has been explored, with special attention given to the reasons driving opposition and the resistance practices employed inside school walls. These studies have not, however, examined the agenda setting strategy employed by teachers opposing new policy on the national level, nor has any extensive study focused on the messages or rhetoric characterizing their opposition. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rhetoric and images used in web‐based campaigns by teachers to secure public support for their resistance to the “New Horizon” reform in Israel 2007 teachers' strike.

This study employs a descriptive case study methodology to illustrate the bottom‐up political strategy employed by teachers seeking public support for their opposition to reform. Content analysis of entries and manifestos posted on prominent teachers' weblogs and partisan school web sites during Israel's 64‐day teachers' strike in 2007 was conducted. Texts discussing the reform and its leaders, as well as educational and policy issues were analyzed inductively, divided according to meaning units, and then grouped together into categories.

Data indicate that the media, and specifically the internet, are perceived as major arena for garnering legitimacy and support. Teachers' rhetoric of resistance to reform was found to be characterized by: the use of emotional and rational appeals, the attempt to present teachers as “champions of education”, the use of dramatic labeling addressed at reformist leaders, and symbolic images of political parties.

The paper presents a conceptual model of political processes in the education system. The findings show the agenda setting strategy as reflected in teachers' cross‐level bottom‐up attempts to influence politics. Furthermore, teachers' rhetoric in resisting educational reform shows great similarity to the rhetoric of political campaigns. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Despite repeated attempts to implement gender education in schools, numerous forms of resistance still persist, maintaining the current gender order, especially in Italy. Thus, in this paper, the authors focus on the practices of resistance opposed to gender education in kindergarten.

This study takes a qualitative approach, and data collection was conducted using ethnographic observations, a focus group and an in-depth interview. The authors used critical discourse analysis (cf: Fairclough's three-dimensional model).

As per our findings, teachers' resistance is attributed to “hegemonic masculinity” and “essentialism”. In the case of “hegemonic masculinity”, the discourses emphasise that male feminisation is a threat and female masculinisation is harmless. On the “essentialist” side, teachers' discourses focus on the segregation of genders that justify naturalised gender differences.

This study emphasises the need for specific training for figures as important and authoritative as teachers. In addition to the training of teachers who currently work in kindergarten, it is also necessary to address the issue at the institutional level, adding to the university courses the teaching of specific subjects related to gender.

This paper offers causes for reflection on a profession that has profound implications in our society and about the power of resistance to implementing gender education. The implications are discussed.

Different data sources are used simultaneously to disclose discursive practices of resistance to gender education in Italy.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a way of understanding the resistance shown by teachers to the adoption of some educational technologies.

The Wookie Widget Server is taken as a case study. This has been a long-term development project at the Institute for Educational Cybernetics, located at the University of Bolton, and has been used with teachers in a number of implementations. The efforts to enhance teachers’ adoption of the system are outlined, and an explanatory framework is proposed called “MegaTech and MiniTech” which clarifies the reasons for teachers’ resistance to adoption.

The explanatory framework combines theoretical approaches from Harré’s positioning theory, Heidegger’s concept of “to hand” and Popper’s utopian and piecemeal social engineering. Application of this framework indicates that in deploying the Wookie Widget Server with teachers the researchers were adopting a position of power in relation to teachers. The nature of this power is explored by building on Bateson’s writings.

The explanatory framework and analysis of power provide a tool for analysis of the adoption of educational technologies.

Increasingly ambitious claims are being made for educational technology. This paper recognises the potentially oppressive nature of these technologies, and provides a starting point for a coherent analysis, which enables this danger to be avoided.

The combination of theories which makes up the proposed explanatory framework is new, as is the application to educational technology of Bateson’s writing on power.

The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) led to the highest rate of standardized-state testing in the history of the United States of America. As a result, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) aims to reevaluate standardized-state testing. Previous research has assessed its impact on schools, educators, and students; yet, youth’s voices are almost absent. Therefore, this qualitative analysis examines how youth of color perceive and experience standardized-state testing.

Seventy-three youth participated in a semistructured interview during the summer of 2015. The sample consists of 34 girls and 39 boys, 13–18 years of age, of African American, Latino/a, Jamaican American, multiracial/ethnic, and other descent. It includes 6–12th graders who attended 61 inter-district and intra-district schools during the 2014–2015 academic year in a Northeastern metropolitan area in the United States that is undergoing a racial/ethnic integration reform.

Youth experienced testing overload under conflicting adult authorities and within an academically stratified peer culture on an ever-shifting policy terrain. While the parent-adult authority remained in the periphery, the state-adult authority intrusively interrupted the teacher-student power dynamics and the disempowered teacher-adult authority held youth accountable through the “attentiveness” rhetoric. However, youth’s perspectives and lived experiences varied across grade levels, school modalities, and school-geographical locations.

In this adult-dominated society, the market approach to education reform ultimately placed the burden of teacher and school evaluation on youth. Most importantly, youth received variegated messages from their conflicting adult authorities that threatened their academic journeys.

There is a strong body of research that indicates that teacher quality has a stronger effect on student learning than any other school-based factor. At the same time, most teacher evaluation systems have traditionally failed to distinguish among different levels of teacher effectiveness or to link evaluation results to professional development in meaningful ways. In this chapter, we compare teacher responses in S. Korea and the United States to evaluation policies. We provide initial evidence that teachers and principals in Seoul defined “effective teachers” as those who helped manage their schools in areas such as affairs/planning, curriculum/instruction, science and technology, discipline, and extra-curricular activities. In contrast, the Michigan teachers and principals in the study were more likely to view effective teachers as those who planned instruction to meet student needs and provided evidence of student engagement and learning. In addition, educators’ notions of effective teachers seemed related to their responses to new teacher evaluation policies. In particular, the teachers in Seoul strongly resisted the new teacher evaluation policies while their counterparts in Michigan either supported the new evaluation policies or at least did not actively resist them. These differences seemed related to regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements associated with the teacher evaluation policies in the jurisdictions where the teachers and principals worked.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how perceptions of risk influenced teachers’ sensemaking and actions during a professional learning and development (PLD) initiative where teachers were expected to change their practices.

A risk perception lens, focussed on uncertainty, was used to capture the on-going experiences of teachers as they participated in PLD. The PLD, delivered by one organisation, focussed on developing teacher use and understanding of formative assessment practices. Data for this three-school qualitative exploratory case study of teachers’ perceptions of risk primarily utilised qualitative interviews.

Findings identified that teachers perceived risk and experienced feelings of vulnerability as a result of their on-going assessment and evaluation of the uncertainty in the professional learning context. The perceived risk informed teachers’ responses and actions, ultimately impacting on teachers’ learning.

The risk perception process model developed from the findings and conceptual framework provides a tool for educators to navigate and reduce perceived risk and enhance learning in change.

This research advances the conceptualisation of perceived risk in PLD. It challenges the current concept of teachers’ resistance and instead considers the role of their perceptions of risk, broadening the understanding of responses to educational change.