Possibilities and limitations of teacher participation in curriculum development under a loosely centralized national curriculum: The case of the Korean primary school curriculum

The purpose of this study is to examine the possibilities and limitations of Korean primary school teachers' participation in curriculum development by describing, interpreting, and evaluating the first year experience of teacher-involved school curriculum (SC) making under a loosely centralized national curriculum (NC) context.;Based on a semi-structured interview with 48 informants, a participant observation on three sets of major barriers and an analysis of 56 SC, three sets of major barriers comprised of eight sub-sets which severely impede teacher participation are extracted: (1) a rigid NC (teacher-excluded experience, overdeterminance of the NC, and textbooks influence), (2) an unreasonable school calendar (frequent staff turnover, duplication of curricular work), and (3) a lack of skilled personnel (an individualistic teacher's society, and a lack of curricular literacy). By examining these barriers it is shown that the NC curbs the discretion of teacher participation, leaving teachers one optional course. Thus teachers concentrated their efforts on articulating traditional extracurricular activities rather than subject areas, replacing optional courses with existing school events rather than installing new programs. The school calendar does not allow any lead time for teachers to plan SC collectively. Frequent teacher turnover leads to the discontinuity and duplication of curriculum work. Consciousness of barriers to curriculum development are different by school type: private school teachers with a strong SC tradition and a constant teaching force face the least barriers. Supported by collaborative expertise, research school teachers feel less difficulty in adapting the NC, showing a comparatively high level of confidence in "digesting" the NC into their own SC. Exposed to all kinds of barriers with less external support, ordinary public school teachers express the highest level of barriers. With limited autonomy and facing barriers, teachers often gear their SC to the NC rather than to their own classroom curricula. It has proved difficult for teachers to establish an enlarged participation. However, newly emerging grade-level meetings, teacher research projects, and voluntary teacher study units have a great potential in forming curriculum-conscious teacher pools and building-up a collegiality as a basis for group deliberation in curriculum matters.