The investigation of the relationship between participating resistance and personal properties of primary school teachers

This research was made in order to analyze the correlation between primary school teachers' resistance to change and their personal characteristics. Research data belong to 200 teachers consisting of 136 female and 64 male teachers working at public and private schools in Beykoz District of Istanbul. Research data were collected through personal information form and two scales ("Reasons for Resistance to Change Scale", "Personal Characteristics Scale (Adjective Checklist)"). Once the scales were applied, the data collected were coded and analyzed in computer environment by SPPS software. It was found that; primary school teachers' resistance to change did not differ with respect to their gender, marital status, field, educational background, duration of employment at the school or their seniority level. With regards to the type of school; compared to private school teachers, public/state school teachers displayed a higher level of resistance due to capacity deficiencies of their schools. With regards to age, teachers between the ages of 20 - 30 displayed a higher level of resistance compared to other age groups, due to their unwillingness to undertake their new roles and duties. Personal characteristics of primary school teachers revealed out no difference with respect to the variables of age, educational background or the level of seniority. With respect to gender variable; male teachers displayed a higher level of self-blaming compared to female teachers. With respect to marital status variable; married teachers displayed significantly higher levels in terms of the sub-dimensions of sympathy, compatibility, self-control, personal adaptation and ideal self, whereas single teachers displayed significantly higher levels in terms of the sub-dimensions of independency and aggression. With respect to school-type variable; public/state school teachers displayed significantly higher levels in terms of the sub-dimensions of compatibility and self-control, whereas private school teachers displayed significantly higher levels in terms of the sub-dimensions of self-esteem and masculinity. With respect to the field variable, primary school teachers displayed a higher level in terms of the sub-dimension of dominance. With respect to the duration of employment in school variable; teachers who were employed at school for 1 to 5 years displayed a significantly higher level of difference in terms of the sub-dimension of showing-off. There was a significant negative correlation between the femininity sub-dimension of the personal characteristics scale and the resistance due to missing information sub-dimension of the resistance to change scale; and a significant positive correlation between the creativity sub-dimension of the personal characteristics scale and the resistance due to fear to get harmed by change sub-dimension of the resistance to change scale. In conclusion, personal characteristics of primary school teachers were found to be influential on their resistance to change, even if partly, and particularly the effects of personal characteristics on change and resistance to change, which are important parts of education, were discussed in detail. Key Words: Change, Resistance to Change, Personality