Imposed school change and women teachers’ self-renewal: a new insight on successful implementation of changes in schools

Abstract

Based on life story interviews with five women teachers, the current paper provides insight into the relationship between externally mandated change and teachers’ self-renewal, as well as into the context facilitating this kind of association. Interestingly, the decision of the Ministry of Education to modify the teachers’ area of teaching was given a positive response by the teachers in this study, despite their fear and anger in the initial stage of the mandated change implementation. This response seems to promote their self-renewal, which encompasses the discovery of their latent potentialities, an increase of their self-concept, energy replenishing, professional updating and innovative behavior. Biographical characteristics such as emotional commitment are subjectively connected to their self-renewal. Implications for further research are suggested.