What has become evident and true is that change is constant, it is inevitable, and it is and will always be coupled with resistance. In education, with all the professional developments, trainings and workshops we have attended, one of its common goal is to introduce new plans, instructional materials and strategies. Year in year out, school districts never ran out of innovative ways to improve the educational system. Every administrator’s desire is to be the leading progressive campus, but what it entails is not always easy and practical. Teachers who are typically assigned to learn and implement these changes are faced with the responsibility and the challenge to make it work. As educators, we always try to step up to the challenge. But when the circumstances are just too hard, and the expectations become very unrealistic or even when the timing seems not suitable to adapt yet another change, resistance takes place, and the plans of improving the system is delayed, reconsidered or worst forgotten.
In our campus, some changes have been done to meet district demands and expectations. Some were implemented without any resistance from teachers, students, and their families, but most struggled to even reach step 1. Based on experience, change becomes a struggle when teachers are not given the courtesy to be part of the planning or discussion before implementation. We show resistance when we are not given the flexibility to give our input or have a say on it. Teachers just like any human soul also feel burnt out and having to undergo any sort of adjustment is not always welcome. Some students and families as stakeholders will disagree with change if it means their convenience or comfort may be compromised. Most of us would rather oppose the change because we have the fear of the unknown. Our subconscious mind is already anxious even before the change takes place. This behavior hinders progress. If we continue to be the preventing for change to happen, we are causing our own failure.
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