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The passing of legislation in July 1999 to legalise Chunkyojo, the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union signalled the culmination of ten-year struggle by teachers to form a representative organisation that could represent them in industrial matters and push forward their agenda for educational reforms in South Korean schools. However the gains, as this article points out, were substantially less than the original goals of the movement. These goals, as this article discusses, were founded on grievances of the movement located in complex facets of South Korean education at its intersection with history, politics and development. The article examines some of the core grievances of the movement emanating from issues of teachers' identities, the role of education in national development, the dominance of the examination system and the industrial relations contexts of school teachers. The analysis confirms that the systemic features which the teachers union movement challenged reside in the social and historical foundations and political constructions of school education in South Korea and indicates that the recent developments are not likely to address these but, instead, signal the emergence of a new phase of conflict between reform-minded teachers and the South Korean government.

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