Development, Education and the Teachers Union Movement in South Korea, 1989‐1999

Abstract

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.

Professionalism and the reform of teachers and teacher education in the republic of korea & the United States of America

“…We can also consider the issues from a Marxist conflict perspective. This act broke the long held policy of prohibiting civil servants to form trade unions (Synott, 2001). of workers (see Aronowitz, 1973;Braverman, 1974;Derber, 1982;Edwards, 1979;Johnson, 1980;Larson, 1980;Mills, 1951;Oppenheimer, 1973).…”

“…In this case, the focus is on proletarianization, which involves the process by which the work of an occupational group -whether such work is considered manual or non-manual and whether such workers are more or less educated -is altered regarding: a) separating the conception of work tasks from their execution; b) standardizing and routinizing work tasks; c) intensifying the demands of work; and d) reducing the costs (salaries, benefits, training, etc.) When the KTU fought for its legal position as a trade union, the KFTA was strongly against the idea of constructing a teachers' union and rejected conceptually classifying teachers as workers (Synott, 2001). Various authors have discussed how teaching and teachers have experienced proletarianization (Apple, 1995;Connell, 1995;Dibona, 1986;Harris, 1982;Jarausch, 1990;Laudner and Yee, 1987;Smyth, 2000 KFTA, 2004).…”

Teachers Working for Change: Gender equity and the politics of teacher activism in South Korea

“…This suppression provoked protests by teachers and students while intense public debate went on over the different issues. The impact of this dispute was significant in that it focused attention on grievances of the participants within the system (Synott, 2001).…”