1. Teachers’ principled resistance to curriculum change: A compelling case from Turkey

2. Outline Reform implementation Teachers’ resistance Contextual background: Turkey Methodology Findings Teacher views on content change Teaching practices Teacher motives for supplementing the curriculum Conclusion

3. Reform implementation Role of teachers Curriculum mediation Factors: Educational level, knowledge, skills, identity, beliefs, age Typology of teacher responses

4. Teacher resistance Definition: A desire and intention to maintain existing practices in the face of changes that teachers consider to be undesirable and threatening. Causes of resistance Typical characterisation

5. Principled resistance Overt or covert acts that reject instructional policies, programmes, or other efforts that contradict teachers’ professional principles Motives for resistance

6. Background information :Turkey Size: 783 000 sq km Population: 76 million Official language: Turkish

7. Curriculum change Rationale for curricular change Knowledge economy Globalisation EU harmonisation process Low student motivation Low international test results Curriculum 2004 Competency based curriculum Student- centred pedagogy Authentic assessment

8. Methodology Fieldwork Turkey (Spring 2009) Sample Pilot schools in Ankara (8) School management, teachers and key informants Interviews 14 head teachers and deputy head teachers 69 classroom teachers

9. Teacher views Acknowledgement of the need for change High content coverage requirements Rote learning Overloading of students Time pressure to complete curriculum Disagreement on what kind of change is needed

10. Welcoming change Children do not need to acquire much information up to grade five The role of education in behavioural and attitudinal change is more important Lessons are easier and more enjoyable Students learn better The role of teacher is no longer imparting knowledge, but teaching children about the ways to seek and attain knowledge

11. Opposing change Content load is reduced too much Too much focus on student activities Quality of textbooks are low Insufficient information on subject matters Lessons are boring and superficial Concerns about academic success Exam dilemma Intensification of educational inequalities

12. Teaching practices The majority supplemented the curriculum with additional knowledge Use of supplementary educational materials Use of old textbooks Photocopy-centred learning Direct teaching

13. Teacher motives for supplementing the curriculum The ‘emptiness’ of the books The myth of research assignments Preparing students for nationwide exams Old habits Parental pressure

14. Conclusion Marginalization of knowledge acquisition Two different types of resistance Conventional resistance Principled resistance Tendency to perceive ‘knowledge’ as diametrically opposed to ‘competencies’ Emptying the content, denying a distinct voice for knowledge in education