Numerous international education reports and policies have recently highlighted teacher agency. Namely, the contemporary educational trend repositions teachers as active agents to interpret and creatively implement the national curriculum in their classes in turn promoting the agency of students.
However, “What do teachers think of this educational trend highlighting teacher agency?” questions Wook. This study investigated the interplay between teachers and the surrounding educational ecosystems in the Korean context, an area which has been scantly explored in previous studies.
Drawing on an ecological perspective, this dissertation suggests that teachers interact with different types of spatial and temporal environments in a complex and dynamic way to enact teacher agency. The findings indicate how teachers employ three levels of legitimation to mediate teacher agency: individual, collegial, and sociocultural.
The dissertation highlights the importance of teacher agency in teacher education and provides educational authorities and school leadership with important insights for fostering educational ecosystems to facilitate teacher agency. Moreover, this dissertation illustrates the value of examining and developing the notion of teacher agency in a different cultural environment, such as in South Korea.
The public defence of Wook Namgung’s doctoral dissertation “An ecological approach to teacher agency in the Korean context: teacher legitimation in synchronic and diachronic environments” will be held on 2 February 2024, at 12:00 in Seminaarinmäki H, room 320. Senior Lecturer, Dr. Aisling O’Boyle (Queen’s University Belfast, UK) will act as opponent and Senior Lecturer, Dr. Josephine Moate (Ģֱ) as custos. The language of the defence is English.
Wook Namgung graduated from Korea National University of Education (South Korea) in 2008. He came to Jyväskylä to study and graduated from the International Programme in Educational Science (EDUMA) in 2016. He started his work as a doctoral researcher from the beginning of 2017.
The dissertation can be read at
Further information: Wook Namgung, ngwook00@gmail.com