Quest for the Use of Calculators at the American School for the Deaf (ASD)

Case 2
Student's Name
Institution
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Professor's Name
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Case 2
Part one
Ms. Inez Figueroa's primary challenge in her new job is resistance to organizational change by her senior colleagues and supervisor. Figueroa is a qualified teacher to handle the special needs students, especially in teaching mathematics. She was hired because of her expertise in teaching mathematics. Her dream is to introduce sophisticated technology to help non-hearing students comprehend, understand, and tackle mathematical problems easily (Nelsen & Valadez, 2012). Therefore, the circumstances confronting Figueroa in her quest to have the calculators widely used in American School for the Dead (ASD) are her urge to ensure the special needs students pass, her expertise and enthusiasm to share her mathematics skills, and the resistance to change by her colleagues and the supervisor.
Figueroa is a qualified mathematics teacher. This is why she was hired to teach at ASD. Her dedication to ensuring special needs students pass their academic tests and prosper in life makes her invoke the use of sophisticated technologies to ensure students grasp most of the content she teaches. As an expert, her primary mandate is to pass knowledge in the best way possible. According to her, the new calculator technology she wants to introduce will be instrumental for the success of her students.
However, Figueroa faces resistance from her colleagues, who do not approve of using the technologically sophisticated calculator. Surprisingly, her supervisor also resists her using the technology to enhance the students' teaching experience. This is despite having been hired to introduce the technology in teaching mathematics. Figueroa needed the support of her supervisor and other senior officials to ensure the success of the implementation of the new program. She is new to ASD and needs to establish her ground by proving what she can do best. This does not happen as soon as she faces demoralization from her seniors. The degree of resistance she receives shows that Figueroa's colleagues and supervisor knew the administration would support Figueroa more than them. Therefore, to maintain the status quo, they resisted the change and dissuaded her from pursuing technology use.
Figueroa faces a cultural obstacle in implementing the technology in ASD. The senior teachers and her supervisor are afraid that Figueroa will break the status quo. Her success in using the technology is likely to make the other teachers feel demoralized. They are resistant to change, which means the new calculator technology is a threat to their workplace image (Ján & Veronika, 2017). They fear a younger teacher will outshine them but cannot admit it. This makes them use excuses like students will have trouble adjusting to the technology fast
Part two
The key stakeholders in the unused calculator case are the hiring committee and ASD top administration, Ms. Figueroa, her senior teachers and supervisor, and the students. These stakeholders uniquely affected the introduction of the sophisticated calculator technology by Figueroa.
The hiring committee and the ASD's top administration dropped out of the picture after assessing and hiring Figueroa. During the hiring process, the hiring committee desired a person who could bring change to ASD, especially in teaching mathematics. Ms. Figueroa had all the qualifications making the hiring team hire her. They expected Figueroa to bring a positive change to the school. However, they expected too much from her by neglecting Figueroa immediately after hiring her. This was a wrong move because making an organizational change needs the support of all the stakeholders. The hiring committee and the top administration needed to constantly monitor Figueroa and ask for a daily or weekly report about the implementation of the calculator technology. This shows that the hiring committee aided in resisting change, although their initial goal was to bring a change in ASD.
Ms. Figueroa is the second stakeholder and is at the core of the case. She was hired to improve the mathematics subject in ASD. Her dream was to introduce the use of sophisticated calculator technology to improve the learning experience of non-hearing students (Nelsen & Valadez, 2012). However, she does not succeed because her colleagues and superv...