Ittner, Doris; Hagenauer, Gerda; Hascher, Tina (2019). Swiss principals' emotions, basic needs satisfaction and readiness for change during curriculum reform. Journal of Educational Change, 20 (2), pp. 165-192. 10.1007/s10833-019-09339-1

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Based on an interdisciplinary theoretical approach, this study examines the relationship between school principals’ perceived satisfaction of their basic psychological needs during curriculum reform, their evaluation of the new curriculum’s usability, their emotional experience and their readiness to engage actively in the curriculum implementation. The sample consists of 359 public school principals in Switzerland, who filled out a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using equation modeling. The results indicate that principals are more open towards the implementation when they evaluate the usability of the new curriculum positively. Further, we found that change-related governance policies supporting the satisfaction of the need for social relatedness, fosters principals’ readiness for change, their evaluation of the new curriculum and their experience of enjoyment, the latter of which relates positively to their readiness to engage in the implementation at their school. The results of the present study suggest that not only teachers’ but also school principals’ emotions do play an important role in the context of educational change and that arranging for needs-oriented innovation governance is worth the effort.

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