Resistance - or its Absence - in the Implementation of Innovations in the Multi-level School System

Reforms affecting the Abitur are particularly prone to resistance. Therefore, the implementation of the Joint Abitur Task Pools of the German Federal States gave rise to expectations of resistance in view of the varying Abitur examination systems traditionally used by the federal states. The results of a research project presented in this paper, focusing two states, show that the expected internal resistance has (so far) not materialized. This seems to be due to shared legitimation patterns across actors and levels in combination with top-down support mechanisms.