This study contributes to the understanding of the pedagogical choice of secondary
school middle years teachers. The findings support the past research which has reported
adolescents having specific pedagogical needs and the difficulty schools have in
changing established teaching and learning practices to meet those needs. Exploration
of social processes and structural influences from this study reveal previously
unacknowledged elements. These elements illuminate the enabling and inhibiting
factors of pedagogical change and point to the school structures which can be developed
to support successful change processes.