Published in Iatefl Blogs October 2020
School leaders often face resistance when
introducing a new approach to be adapted by teachers. This was evident when
schools had to abruptly shift to online teaching during the involuntary closure
of schools due to the COVID-19 lock down. While administrators were pushing for
the shift to online teaching, many teachers, who are instrumental for the
success of this shift, resisted it. The stand of either side is justified since
each perceives teaching online from a different perspective.
Administrators need to lead their institutions. In
their attempts to keep up with change, maintain the existence of their
institutions, and perform their duty of educating children, they are required
to act as a driving force to cause change to occur. This is necessary but might
be countered by an opposing force from the teachers. At a first glance,
teachers might be perceived negatively for not wanting the change to occur, but
with careful study, their attitudes are justified and need to be dealt with and
understood with extreme patience and tolerance. A sudden adoption of a new
approach by the school is likely to drift teachers from their comfort zone, and
that can cause them stress and anxiety. The feeling of failure at trying
something new is enough to cause resistance to it. All this can be due to lack of knowledge and
skills and abilities in what the school is proposing.
Change should be planned well for proper
implementation. First, school leaders need to differentiate between resistance
that is caused by the individual’s indifference and resistance that is caused
by anxiety and fear of failure. To deal with the latter, educational leaders
must approach the issue empathetically. Empathizing with teachers means
understanding their points of views, their problems, experiences, feelings, and
above all the stories they have. Those stories can be understood when
conversing with teachers. Conversing empathetically, rather than interviewing
them to elicit answers to questions, is what helps teachers reveal stories
about their experiences and how those experiences have impacted their feelings
and understandings. Such conversations will allow you to know that the teacher
feels uneasy when giving a lesson via a video conferencing tool and how the
mother of one of her students interfered in the lesson unexpectedly and
wouldn’t stop giving answers to the questions asked to the class. During such
conversations, you know that a teacher has problems giving lessons early in the
morning because that is the time her toddler wakes up and wants his mommy
beside him or else he throws a tantrum. Such conversations will let you know
that the teacher feels uneasy during a live lesson because he doesn’t know how
to stop the students from annotating on the screen which disrupts the class,
and they all fall into laughter. These stories give the school leader much
insight into the struggles of teachers, and that is when the driving force of
the administration and the resisting force of the teachers unite into one force
pushing into one direction: adoption, implementation, and change.
Making informed decisions requires that the administration
and other school leaders understand the reasons behind resistance (or
acceptance) of change. Once understood, they can be evaluated and rated to
understand which can be influenced and which cannot. Then it becomes easy to
devise a strategy to enhance the points of strength and tackle the points of
resistance. In the case of integrating technology to teach online, as the case
is now that schools had to close down, the strategy might include a training
agenda to equip teachers with the skills they need, creating coaching groups to
support and mentor those who need assistance, providing resources for online
teaching, creating support groups for sharing stories of successes and disappointments,
and providing the necessary infrastructure for online teaching such as internet
and devices.
Change is a process of unfreezing a certain
situation. It is only natural to experience resistance when initiating this
process. But this resistance is not necessarily out of ill-intentions but may
be due to lack of skills, abilities, and other necessary requirements. Discerning
these needs makes it easier to make informed decisions and devise plans of
action that would achieve optimal results. Once new behaviors are adopted,
implemented, and sustained, the school culture will be functioning with a new
normal. That is change.
