Dismantling the Trojan Horse: Professionals and Relational Resistance Against Technological Change

Abstract

Occupations face increasing pressure to implement technology in work practices. Such demands are problematic when external actors call for changes that threaten established ways of working and professional autonomy. How can occupations resist such demands for technological change? I study this question by conducting a field level study of technological policy, reform and resistance in the Finnish educational system. Analyzing archival data, I find policymakers and other actors were first successful in framing a need for technological change in the field of education, gathering wide-ranging support for their new policies. Yet, when technological reform supporting the change was implemented, new practices were quickly deemed incompatible by frontline professionals. I find teachers and key stakeholders engaged in the process of relational resistance, a coalescence of stakeholder support and criticism that allows for a profession to push back on the externally imposed change, and ultimately regain autonomy over work practices. In the end, policymakers and elected officials walked back reform discourse, and a new 2019 curriculum downplayed the importance of technology. Overall, this case allows me to explain the processes by which professionals can resist externally imposed technological change, and the role core and peripheral stakeholders play in the process. This study contributes to research in occupations and professions, and technological change at work.