Why are teachers afraid of curricular autonomy? Contradictory effects of the new national curriculum in South Korea

An Examination of Instructional Autonomy Practices of Science Teachers

“…Teachers with low autonomy showed centralised exams as the main reason for including traditional components in the evaluation process. There is an extensive literature finding that central exams restrict autonomy (Benson, 2010;Crookes, 1997;Dymoke & Harrison, 2006, Hong, 2016Lawson, 2004;Öksüz-Gül, 2015). Teachers with high autonomy were very successful in diversifying the evaluation process and making it student-centred.…”

“…There are numerous studies in which the autonomy concept is discussed in relation with the student, teacher and school dimensions (Bustingorry, 2008;Chan, 2001;Cotterall, 1995;Dickinson, 1995;Ingersoll, 2007;Little, 1995;Littlewood, 1996). It is seen that these studies concentrate on "school and learner autonomy (Little, 1995;Öztürk, 2011), whereas in the last 20 years, the number of studies related to teacher autonomy has increased (Benson, 2010;Benson & Huang, 2008;Burkert & Schwienhorst, 2008;Cakir & Balcikanli, 2012;Dikilitas & Mumford, 2019;Ding, 2009;Dymoke & Harrison, 2006;Hong & Youngs, 2016;Nguyen & Walkinshaw, 2018).…”

“…It is seen that the literature related to teacher autonomy concentrates on conceptualisation studies (Friedman, 1999;Öztürk, 2011;Pearson & Hall, 1993), correlational studies in which relationships are revealed in terms of various variables (Edgar & Warren, 1969;Koustelios et. al., 2004;Kuku & Taylor, 2002;Pearson & Moomaw, 2005), and qualitative studies based on interview data (Cakır & Balcikanli, 2012;Dikilitas & Mumford, 2019;Ding, 2009;Dymoke & Harrison, 2006;Hong & Youngs, 2016). The literature is yet to develop an in-depth understanding of science teachers' autonomy through multiple sources of qualitative evidence, such as document analysis, interviews as well as observations.…”

Etude de la dynamique territoriale d’un curriculum coconstruit d’éducation au développement durable en France

“…Nous nous intéressons, dans cette étude, à l'autonomie de l'école et des enseignants (et leurs partenaires) d'un point de vue curriculaire. Nous désignons ainsi par autonomie curriculaire (Perrenoud, 2002 ;Hong et Youngs, 2016), celle accordée à l'école et à ses acteurs en matière de conception curriculaire.…”

Effects of Local Culture and Teacher Efficacy on Teacher Enactment of Curriculum Reform in South Korea

“…In particular, nation-wide curriculum reforms since 1995 have promoted teachers' autonomy over curriculum, in order to (1) reflect students' various needs and interests, (2) encourage students' creativity, (3) improve the relevance of the curriculum to each school and student, and (4) enhance teachers' flexibility to diversify curriculum (Cho, 2010), in order to counteract Korean students' lack of academic engagement and interest (So & Kang, 2014). Despite the benefits of their enhanced autonomy and efforts made for more than two decades, Korean teachers' perceptions and enactment of their enhanced autonomy have been illustrated as generally negative and resistant in academic work (Hong & Youngs, 2016).…”