This study contributes to an understanding of why the implementation of new curriculum in the teaching of English as a foreign language continues to be unsuccessful in  Indonesia, through exploring teachers’ own conceptualizations of themselves, and their responsibilities and practices as professionals. The study sets out to examine factors that have affected teachers through their formation as learners and as professionals, and considers how these factors influence their beliefs and attitudes towards their practice and their responses to curriculum change in secondary high school classrooms in Indonesia.