In Search for Teachers' Resistance - Based on Teachers’ Narration

Abstract

Introduction: In the scientific circles of teaching profession, there is a common debate about a deficit of teachers’ professional sovereignty. They have been deprived of their professional autonomy and even have experienced enslavement as a result of the constant authoritarian style introduced in management of educational institutions and their entities. This text attempts to show how teachers perceive their place in the educational space, whether and how they oppose external limitations constraining them.

Research Aim: My aim was to show if and which opposition actions are taken by teachers, who feel under their professional pressure, and which forms of resistance they apply.

Method: the qualitative strategy was implemented in the research. I implemented a free-form interview, also known as the depth one. 19 primary and secondary school teachers participated in the research. A majority of Graham Gibbs’s analytical tools were used in the analysis of the collected results.

Results: the research revealed the interviewees’ confidence about the lack of opportunity to create themselves as teachers and influence the wider educational reality. Apart from the sources they have noticed and the forms of exerting professional pressure, they also indicated a deficit of active acts of resistance aimed at changing their subordinate position.

Conclusion: the investigated teachers presented the actions characteristic for accommodative resistance. Their responses to constantly changing regulations and increasing professional requirements are adaptive and do not contribute to any change of their place.