The Acceptance-Resistance Continuum

Sammanfattning

The development of Artificial Intelligence has rocketed during the past years and the impact it has had in such a short period has been somewhat unprecedented in the modern era. As its part in society is not defined yet, the discussion of it is more relevant than ever. The educational system stands in front of one of the largest changes in recent time and since it has been affected extensively by the new technological advancement that AI constitutes, research in the field is necessary. When it comes to educational change teachers have a lot of power to resist change, problematising decision-making and implementation, which lays the foundation for this study, to gather insights on an important yet overlooked group, crucial for successful change. The purpose of the study is to understand and explore how teachers' perceptions and forces influence acceptance and resistance of educational change with regard to AI implementation. This is done with the aim of answering the research question: "How can the acceptance-resistance dilemma among teachers regarding AI and the related need for change in the school system be better understood?" A qualitative study has been conducted, interviewing 13 Swedish upper-secondary school teachers, using semi-structured interviews, and serves as the basis for the empirical observations and consequently the conclusion of the thesis. When concluding the thesis, three main findings were presented: (1) Acceptance and resistance of educational change are not two distinct opposites, instead, it is a continuum where the degree of acceptance and resistance faced is dependent on the opportunities (driving forces) and threats (restraining forces) perceived. (2) The opportunity and threat forces that affect the placement on the acceptance-resistance continuum are (a) Social Identity Discrepancies, (b) Knowledge Discrepancies and (3) Educational Change Discrepancies (3) Teachers are not resisting change due to a fear of the technology itself, instead, it rather seems that the fear is based on uncertainty, organisational distrust during change and exclusion of involvement in decision making. This study contributes to existing change management literature with a new understanding of what affects teacher acceptance in the context of technological change, specifically AI, providing decision-makers and practitioners valuable insights that can be used for change planning and research within the field.