School Context Matters: Exploring Teacher-School Agency in an Educational Reform in South Korea

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Division K Section 6 Poster Session

Abstract

This study explores how teachers enact their agency in response to a school reform policy in South Korea, by mapping how personal, socio-cultural, and relational elements constitute teacher agency. For this purpose, the researchers conducted a case study where they interviewed six middle-school teachers who are required to implement the new school reform policy. The findings show that teacher agency can be achieved not only by the teachers’ individual abilities, but also through cultural and structural conditions surrounding the teachers. Moreover, the teachers’ collective agency (or ‘teacher-school agency’), through a collaborative teachers’ network and school culture, was found to have significant influence on individual teacher’s agency responding to a school reform policy.

Authors

• Yuri Choi, Seoul National University

• Kyunghee So, Seoul National University

• Jiae Park, Seoul National University