Abstract
This qualitative research study sought to understand teachers’ resistance to English language educational change in Kyrgyzstan. The participants were six English teachers working in both rural and urban public schools in Kyrgyzstan. Analysis of non-participant observation and post-observation interviews revealed that, despite changes in English objectives following changes in socio-economic and political context after the demise of the Soviet Union, the lock-in practices in English language teaching still persist in Kyrgyzstan. This is because educational reforms have occurred only at a structural level [e.g. the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), State Standards and publishing new textbooks] and have lacked planned capacity building—through targeted professional support and adequate teaching and learning resources—to bring the envisioned curriculum change to the classrooms. The findings indicate that the intended change has not yielded the much-desired outcomes because each element at every educational level is linked ceremonially and loosely, and is decoupled, which provides insights about teachers’ resistance to curriculum change.