general, SAC counsellors think that it is better to teach in the ways they were taught. This
underlies the idea that "if something worked for me, the same thing will work for my
students". Actually this is not a feature unique to SAC counsellors. Most teachers,
consciously or unconsciously, put into practice what they were exposed to when they were
students. In fact, this is not a problem; on the contrary, it reaffirms the values of a specific
learning culture. The problem in the SAC is that none of the teachers Ieamt in a self-directed
way, so they do not believe in learning in that way. Self-direction is not part of their learning
culture. In the same way, to change their behaviour would mean a form of denial of the
validity they attribute to their past as teachers. It may seem to them that what they have been
doing and improving in years of constant practice is not valid any more. What is more, they
have been asked not only to change their ways of doing but also their ways of being: in the
SAC, they were told that they were not going to be teachers any more. To cope with this
clear mismatch between old and new perceptions, most SAC counsellors adopted the new
perspective with the mere purpose of going with the trend (for social acceptance) but
rejecting the rationale behind it.
Furthermore, most SAC counsellors think that their idea of a "good student" (self-
motivated, risk-taker, organised, independent and assertive) does not correspond to the
Mexican students. According to them (and they may be right), SAC learners want a teacher-
centred approached class, where the teacher is in control and whose role is to be a passer on
of knowledge and a provider of models to follow. In this sense, they think that the most
appropriate learning situation for Mexican students is to study in a group and with a teacher.
"We get the wrong students", as one counsellor put it.
As regards innovation, SAC counsellors think that the SAC project was an
imposition because they were not consulted to make the decision. In this regard, what I
thought a "desirable, effective and in line with the self-interest of the organisation
concerned" (White; 1988,128) (that is, the Language Centre) actually was a clear imposition
of an outsider through a power-coercive strategy. In Chapter 2, the reader may remember
certain details that I misunderstood (the willingness of teachers) or did not understand at all
(the intention of that aggressive question from one of the teachers). Not having been taken
into account reinforced their feeling that SAC rationale went against some of their
principles. Moreover, some stages in the implementation of the SAC increased their work,
and what is more important, created a sense of accountability. Innovation involves
64