In an era of scripted curriculum and high-stakes testing, the latitude teachers have for making curricular decisions in their classrooms has significantly declined. The authors report findings from a literature review of teachers' principled resistance to curricular control. Principled resistance occurs when teachers reject curricular mandates that violate their professional principles. When teachers believe instructional mandates do not meet students' academic and social needs, negatively impact ethnically diverse and low socio-economic students, and are not culturally responsive, they resist. Teachers resist through strategic compliance, strategic compromise, strategic redefinition, and overt and outright rejection. Specific examples of principled resistance are provided to give teachers the tools to responsively adapt required curriculum that does not meet their students' needs.