The Korean government's policy toward art in schools and educational autonomy has recently undergone major directional changes, with the Ministry of Education (MOE) encouraging individual schools to find their own ways to become more self-regenerating, especially by developing community partnerships through art. This recently published policy…

Background: Communities of practice (CoP) have been proposed as a promising form of continuing professional development for teachers' learning. However, there remains limited understanding of the processes and factors that sustain teacher-initiated CoP. Purpose: This study provides a qualitative examination of a group of internal leaders'…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are increasingly being used in South Korean elementary schools in order to improve student learning and the quality of teaching. This new educational trend is being funded by provincial offices of education but facing some difficulties in implementation and sustainability. School leaders, teacher leaders,…

This study investigated the participation and sense of belonging in the local English teaching community amongst expatriate native English-speaking teachers (NESTs). Participation theory was adopted as a theoretical framework. Several types of data were collected, including individual interviews with 10 NESTs, online open responses with 289 NESTs,…

This study investigates beginning EFL teachers' emotional labor from the perspective of the Activity Theory. Emotional labor is defined as the process of controlling one's emotions and emotional expressions in accordance with the occupational standards for proper emotional expression. Two beginning EFL teachers at Korean junior high schools were…

This study examines the possibility that certain schools may benefit more from culturally responsive leadership than others. We conceptualize culturally responsive leadership as a special form of leadership for uncertainty management. Acknowledging that student diversity usually adds additional complexity to the already difficult task of teaching,…

Student teaching is the culminating field experience in a teacher preparation programme. The purpose of the study was to explore Korean music student teachers' perceptions of their student teaching experience. To collect data for this study, in-depth interviews, observation, and documents were used. The results of this study showed that during…

Native English speaking language teachers who live and work in various parts of the world often express a desire to learn the language of their host country. Without sustained levels of motivation, however, their desires are unlikely to be realized. This article reports the findings of a longitudinal case study of an American English language…

Central to this study is an exploration of the degree to which higher education is perceived as an individual and/or a collective value. Seminal literature supports the notion that colleges and universities are Western institutions. Throughout the Asia Pacific, higher education is expanding in a hybrid form in collectivist societies. This…

This study investigated the willingness of 14 English-speaking EFL instructors living and working in South Korea to invest in practices connected with learning and using the Korean language. A model of investment for the "new world order" (Darvin, R., and B. Norton. 2015. "Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied…

This study intends to identify some key factors in creating and sustaining school-based teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) through a case study of a South Korean public high school. To achieve this, the study identified some essential infrastructure, preparation, and necessary social organization for creating PLCs. The ideal unit and…

Purpose: This paper aims to measure and rigorously compare the perceptions of South Korean university social engagement between faculty and students, two definitive stakeholders identified by stakeholder theory--but considerably heterogeneous, to understand how South Korean campus embraces social engagement in practice. To that end, this study…

Over the last decade, school-based professional learning communities (PLCs) have emerged as a key feature of the education system in South Korea. To understand this relatively new phenomenon in the context of South Korea, we provide a review of research on school-based PLCs in South Korea and an empirical analysis of the Teaching and Learning…

Distance education is expanding in all continents, and the use of video has dominated internet. Synchronous Video Communication (SVC) has not been an option thoroughly investigated and practitioners, who use and design synchronous learning scenarios, are in urgent need of guidance. Distant learners face many barriers, and as a result, they drop…

This study investigated professional learning taking place in a teacher-created online community. In particular, this aimed to explore how teachers at different levels of participation learn in an online community. The results showed that teachers usually began as observers, reading others' postings and using contributors' teaching resources, and…