diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/CHANGELOG.md b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/CHANGELOG.md
index 496d94008..2248ea35c 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+- Django instrumentation is now enabled by default but can be disabled by setting `OTEL_PYTHON_DJANGO_INSTRUMENT` to `False` ([#1239](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/1239))
+
 ## Version 0.14b0
 
 Released 2020-10-13
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py
index a9bd620e7..9ba3bbb91 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/django/__init__.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class DjangoInstrumentor(BaseInstrumentor):
         # built inside the Configuration class itself with the magic method
         # __bool__
 
-        if not Configuration().DJANGO_INSTRUMENT:
+        if Configuration().DJANGO_INSTRUMENT is False:
             return
 
         # This can not be solved, but is an inherent problem of this approach:
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/tests/conftest.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/tests/conftest.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 8797bfc30..000000000
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-django/tests/conftest.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-
-from os import environ
-
-
-def pytest_sessionstart(session):  # pylint: disable=unused-argument
-    environ.setdefault("OTEL_PYTHON_DJANGO_INSTRUMENT", "True")