School practitioners’ receptivity to reform influences the success of policy implementation. In Taiwan, the Ministry of Education launched a curriculum reform in 2019. To determine how to enhance school agency for the policy, we explored the individual and contextual factors affecting receptivity to the new curriculum. With a survey design, this study recruited secondary school teachers and principals throughout Taiwan as samples. Hierarchical regression models were conducted to examine the effects of individual factors (conceptions of distributed leadership and collective learning) and organizational culture (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and academic emphasis) on practitioners’ receptivity to curriculum reform. Both the main and interactive effects were investigated. The results indicate that respondents who positively conceived distributed leadership and collective learning were more receptive to change. Regarding the three indicators of organizational culture, we found no significant effect of power distance, while the main effect of uncertainty avoidance and the moderation effect of academic emphasis existed. Those who perceived their schools with high uncertainty avoidance levels were more resistant to reform efforts. Besides, a positive linkage between teacher conception of collective learning and affection for change was more evident in schools with less academic emphasis. Our study suggests that school reforms must be understood within the individual and school contexts. The finding about the moderation effect of academic emphasis furthermore signifies the cultural implication in Asian societies.
