Teachers Resistance to Change:Reasons and Strategies to Reduce it from Al Mafraq Borough DiractorateTeachers Viewpoints

The purpose of this study was to identify the attitudes of teachers at Al Mafraq Borough Directorate of Education towards reasons for and strategies of decreasing resistance to educational change, and the relationship of these attitudes with some personal and work variables. A questionnaire was used as the data collection tool in the study. The study found that the most important reasons as why teachers resist change are: loss of the sense of participation in the process of change, the sense of teachers that change is imposed on them by force and by outside parties, their fear of losing their accustomed routines, that change increases their workloads, and the lack of trust between them and the educational policy makers. The study revealed no statistically significant differences on the reasons for resistance to change according to the gender variable, and the existence of differences due to variables of qualification, years of experience, and training courses. The study recommended the need to involve teachers in the process of change, to build bridges of trust and cooperation between teachers and policy makers and to move away from methods of authoritarianism in the implementation of change programs, to conduct training sessions about educational change in terms of its importance, objectives and how to implement it, and to use the system of incentives for teachers who accept and implement change programs.