earticle

영어

This paper argues that an unequal power distribution between social classes exists in schools, as in other social institutions and that such power relationships between teachers affect their identities, disposition, and performances. To support this argument, this paper investigates the tension between Korean teachers and native speakers who teach English as a team in South Korean elementary schools. This paper focuses especially on how their discourses conflict or align with each other and how this collision of discourses reflects their identities as co-working teachers. Taking critical pedagogy as the theoretical framework and adopting critical discourse analysis as a methodology, this paper analyzes the tensions between Korean teachers’ identities as the regulators and native-English speakers’ identities as the regulated. Since Korean teachers normally have more power than native speakers in Korean schools, Korean teachers’ legislative identities collide or conflict with native-English speakers’ resistance identities. For data collection, the author performed face-to-face interviews individual with 16 Korean and native teachers (eight teams). In addition, to understand the nature of each team’s collaboration, the author also observed each team’s classroom performance. Based on the analysis of the data, this paper argues that it is not only cultural difference but also the unequal power relationship between teachers that affect the collaboration and effectiveness of co-teaching. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the pedagogic implications of this study.