A Secondary Qualitative Data Analysis: Teacher Resistance to Educating English Learners

This study reports reanalyzed findings from three separate studies that examined the impact of professional development on teachers’ instructional change. The commonality among the studies was content area teachers’ resistance to ESL pedagogy, which inspired the current study in its undertaking and analysis of pooled data. The study aimed to more closely examine the effect of teacher resistance on reform efforts and ultimately its impact on English Learners’ (ELs) academic achievement. The reanalyzed findings show that all participants held strong feelings of resentment toward external mandates that required any change to their current teaching practices. This study determined that professional development alone cannot induce true reform for ELs in the classroom as long as teachers are reluctant to transform themselves.