The influence of ecological contexts of teacher education on South Korean teacher educators' professional development.

摘要

This research is designed to explore how ecological influences affect South Korean teacher educators' concerns and needs for their professional development. So far, little research on teacher educators has been conducted in South Korea despite the importance of teacher educators' role in preparing future teachers. This research aims to help teacher educators in their professional development, leading to an improvement in pre-service teacher education by discovering how ecological factors influence teacher educators' work.;In my ecological framework I divided the environments where teacher educators Work into the institutional level, national level, and global level. I also included the relationships with student teachers, school teachers, and colleague professors in the framework. I used mixed methods to collect qualitative data to create a questionnaire and then to administer an online survey.;Research findings reveal that Korean teacher educators' concerns and needs are mainly related to institutional concerns. Therefore, institutional assistance for teacher educators' professional development would be most effective and powerful, although multiple contextual assistances are also required.;Additionally, most of the focus of Korean teacher educators' response was more on professional development for research rather than student service and instruction. The culture of the university that favors research than instruction seems one of the major reasons of this result. The institutional teacher educator assessment also affects Korean teacher educators to think that research is an important area consisting of their expertise.;For this reason, more diverse methods and opportunities for professional development are recommended for Korean teacher educators. Reflective practices such as action research and self-study are valuable professional development methods that focus more on practical problem solving for instruction and student service. These professional development methods will help Korean teacher educators improve their competency comprehensively.;Finally, this research shows the increasing influence of global trends in education on Korean teacher educators' professional development. Specifically, global trends influence their research topics and drive their desire for improving English communication skills which is required for the international academic communication.