Tag Archives: Change

Don't Blame the Teachers! Respect the Resistance!

Thursday night I listened to Larry Cuban over at Classroom 2.0. It was an interesting interview, peppered with entertaining comments in the chat. While listening, I skimmed Larry’s blog. I found this comment from this post on his blog that is a nice succinct summary of the bigger picture problem with change in schools:

Do high school structures promote enough time and the classroom climate to support frequent and open use of reasoning skills? Hardly. Take for example, the 4 Ts: Time, Teacher load, Textbooks, and Tests. Read more…

We’ve discussed before the challenges for high school teachers to use VC in their curriculum and they mirror Cuban’s 4 T’s.

I’ve also been reading about change – What’s Worth Fighting For Out There?, Leading in a Culture of Change, and Educational Change Over Time? The Sustainability and Nonsustainability of Three Decades of Secondary School Change and Continuity.

I’ve learned about the big picture of change in education, which vibes with what Cuban is saying. I’ve also learned that it’s important to respect and listen to the resistance. They might be able to see challenges you can’t see. They usually have a good reason for resisting. We need to listen to that! Understand it. Respect it.

So here’s the question for you:

How are YOU respecting the resistance? If you are blaming teachers for not integrating your favorite technology in their curriculum, what are you doing to help them get past the 4 T’s? When’s the last time you really understood and experienced the pressures teachers face? Are you just throwing ideas at them (here’s a great Web 2.0 tool), or are you actually setting up lessons and projects that meet their curriculum goals?