Educational Policy Implementation: Adaptation Differences among Secondary School Teachers in Malaysia

Malaysia has undergone various transformations in education since its independence in 1957. The work environment plays an important role in teacher adaptation, so this study aimed to identify the differences in the level of teacher adaptation to change in Malaysian education policy in National Secondary Schools (SMK) and Government Funded Religious Schools (SABK). This quantitative research which used a simple random sampling technique was conducted at the randomly selected National Secondary Schools (SMK) and the Government Funded Religious Schools in the state of Kelantan. A total of 300 samples were involved in answering the distributed questionnaire which was an adaptation of Samale (2016) built on the Measure of Adaptive Performance (MAP) instrument by Lillard et al. (2012) and the Individual Adaptability Theory (I-ADAPT) instrument by Ployhart and Bliese (2006). The findings showed that the level of teachers' adaptation was high and there was no difference in the level of adaptation between SMK and SABK teachers. It is hoped that the results of this study can be used as a reference specifically to school administrators and the education ministry towards improving teachers' adaptation to a very high level. This is important because teachers are the leading implementers of education policy in schools and individuals who can fulfil the aspiration of the Ministry of Education to place education in Malaysia on par with the world-class system.