Making the Best of Continuous Change Initiatives: A Story of a Successful Korean English Teacher

Abstract

Lee introduces a highly motivated and experienced English teacher working in a national context in which larger and smaller changes to the English curriculum have been introduced continuously for the last 25 years. Chang is an example of a successful Korean English teacher who has made the best of the continuous change initiatives by the government. Lee identifies the facilitating factors in three aspects. They are personal factors such as high motivation and strong desire to continue her professional development; school factors such as support from management, learners and other stakeholders; and the provision of diverse teacher training programmes. By contrast to her story, Lee demonstrates the limitations of the influence of the government initiatives on the thinking and behaviours of many Korean English teachers for two reasons. The first one is the degree of mismatch between the classroom behaviours and practices and the existing educational and cultural norms. The second one is the ongoing inconsistency between the components of the English-language teaching system.