A study was conducted to examine factors that influence the acceptance and rejection of instructional innovations by faculty at one community college and to identify elements in the college environment that influence the teacher's choices of instructional methods. An 8-month participant observation of the instructors was made. An attempt was made to develop a model of the process by which teachers accept or reject innovations. The major finding is that the instructors require autonomy in a psychological and physical work domain which is called here "work space." Faculty subgroups serve, among other things, to protect teachers' work space from administrative interference and from peer interference. Because technological innovations require greater administrative and peer interference than traditional methods do, they are more threatening to faculty autonomy. It was concluded that the more a teacher feels administrative protection of faculty work space, the more positive his response to instructional innovations. Teachers tend to experiment with and adopt technological innovations in groups rather than as individuals because this approach maximizes teacher control. (Author/KM)