WORKSHOP 4.3.:
Facing Individual Barriers to Change
Serban IOSIFESCU
Head of Department – Institute of Educational Sciences,
Chairman of the Board - National Association of Trainers
in Educational Management from Romania
ROMANIA
On of the possible results of the self-evaluation process is the need for a specific change within the school. Any change produces resistance from individuals, groups and organization as a whole. The “blocks” which individuals reveal when a change occurs could be:
- Perceptive:
-saturation: it can be difficult to distinguish the relevant information from all the available data and we have tendency not to use all information channels;
-stereotyping: we see what we expect to see and the weak capacity to view the problem from various viewpoints;
-false target: difficulty in isolating the problem: often, we focus on some minor aspects and we don’t see the real problem in our environment; we also tend to delimit the problem area too closely.
- Cognitive:
-ignorance: the lack of a correct information;
-precedence: we tend to repeat the way we solved a problem in different situations:
-inflexible use of strategies: we use, often unconsciously, without prior reflection, the same strategies, but not necessarily to best effect in problem solving;
-using the incorrect language: the mismatch between reality and the language reflecting it;
-substitution: the illegitimate replacement of a problem with another familiar one and, consequently, the use of the old, known, strategies;
-selective retention: we admit only those facts or arguments that fit to our ideas or “theories”.
- Emotional.
-caprice;
-inertia: we prefer only what already becomes familiar;
-subservience and conformism towards colleagues and, especially, chiefs’opinions;
-authoritarianism and dogmatism: the authoritarian individuals do not accept changes coming from outward.
-fear of taking risks and the incapacity to tolerate ambiguity: we feel good only when we face secure things; the incertitude leads to diminished self esteem and to the attempt to find certitude in the past;
-preference for judging rather than generating ideas: when the idea is new and the data are incomplete, we rather tend to find reasons to say “no” than reasons to say “yes”;
-inability to incubate: an unwillingness to “sleep on the problem” often because there is some pressure for solutions.
- Cultural:
-taboos: issues which cannot be discussed and, therefore, cannot be faced;
-tradition and change: traditions are hard to overcome particularly when people do not reflect on tradition and present problems together.
-“intellectualist” prejudices: problem solving is a serious business and humor has no place in this; reason, logic and numbers are good, intuition and pleasure are bad (and all linked with the sex roles: men are logical and women intuitive);
-focus rather then fantasy: our culture trains mental playfulness, fantasy and reflectiveness out of people by placing more emphasis on the value of channeled mental activities.
- Environmental:
-homeostasis: all systems, including the social ones, tend to maintain the extant state of stability;
-lack of support: change is often seen as threatening and new ideas are stopped by ignoring them, by laughing at them, or by overanalyzing them too soon;
-not accepting criticism: those with good ideas can create blocks by not accepting criticism;
-bosses who know the answer: some managers know all and don’t accept ideas from the subordinates;
-“self-realizing prophecies”: the social predictions (e.g. the pre-election polls) have the tendency to be fulfilled – knowing them, the direction of our efforts will be consequently altered.
For the discussion in the present workshop we propose the following topics:
- Which are the most common barriers you had to face in educational changes and reforms ?
- Which are the ways and the means to overpass those barriers ?
- Which are the conditions that allow people too feel comfort (or, maybe, less discomfort) facing the change ?