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Reframing teacher professionalism in the era of postneoliberalism: the paradox of South Korean education reform

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Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean government has initiated education reform in the national curriculum and teacher education. Teacher professionalism is considered crucial to the reform components of developing competencies and agency of students by policy elites at the Ministry of Education. Hence, this study uses the frame analysis method to examine the idea of educational change and teacher professionalism envisioned in the reform. It is found that the reform is framed by the urgent need to prepare for the uncertainties that Korean society may encounter in the post-COVID-19 era by developing capable human capital with strong competencies and agency and reducing societal inequity. To address these problems, policy elites expect teachers to provide student-centered instruction by developing professionalism in technology use to cultivate student competencies and agency. This study demonstrates the irony that while the policy elites call for improving teacher professionalism, it is expected to be attained by diminishing teacher autonomy and agency. Just as schooling is instrumentalized to serve the needs of economic growth and social stability, teachers are instrumentalized in the reform to attain externally determined policy goals, contradicting the original reform emphasis on enhancing teacher professionalism.

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Data availability statement

The datasets analyzed in the current study are available in Figshare through a private link: https://figshare.com/s/896e104e85c88b751c09.

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Sungkyunkwan University,Faculty Research Support Program

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  1. Sungkyunkwan University, Hoam Hall 50902, Sungkyunkwan-ro 25-2, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 03063

    Jina Ro

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Ro, J. Reframing teacher professionalism in the era of postneoliberalism: the paradox of South Korean education reform. J Educ Change (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-024-09507-y

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