Curriculum innovation through teacher certification: Evaluation of a government intervention and its effects on teacher development and English language pedagogy in South Korea

摘要

Teacher certification schemes are used in increasing numbers of contexts worldwide, including Korea. Despite their high stakes such as their use in decisions regarding promotion, as well as the related cost, there has been relatively little documentation of their implementation procedures and subsequent impact. This thesis contributes to filling this research gap through documenting the procedure and impact of one such scheme.The aims of the scheme in question, known as the ‘Teaching English in English’ scheme, are developing teachers’ expertise in relation to building students’ communicative competence, promoting English as the medium of instruction, and increasing the quality of English education in Korea. The present research adopts a qualitative interpretive approach and a case study method. The data collected include policy documents and practical documents generated during the certification procedure; interviews with eighteen different stakeholders including the policy makers, teacher assessors, teacher trainers, and English language teachers; and observation of the procedures, including the assessed lessons and teacher training. This study draws on research about language teaching expertise, teacher cognition and development, English language teaching (ELT) innovation, policy enactment and teacher evaluation.The study contributes to understanding of curriculum innovations by establishing a tentative relationship among those factors which were identified as shaping the process and impact of curriculum innovations such as their characteristics, contextual constraints and supports, and the stakeholders’ personal beliefs and identities. It also presents a compexified view of the process and impact of teacher evaluation and teacher development. This study invites all who are involved in education to revisit the meaning of success regarding ELT-policy interventions, draws attention to the need for evaluating their realised process against a well-defined concept of localised ELT expertise, and contributes to our understanding of the requirements underpinning their success and the effect they have on teacher development.