ABSTRACT
In reviewing the development of teacher unions in fourteen different nations around the world, Cooper (1992b) observed that a common ground for opposing the establishment of teacher unions has been the view of government officials and many members of the public that the distinctive social identities and roles of teachers necessarily exclude them from participation in union-type activities:
The first of these comments is concerned with the general role of teachers in society, while the second focuses on the pedagogical roles of teachers in the school setting. In South Korea, from the outset the government adopted an aggressive posture and argued ‘that teachers are degrading themselves and their profession by calling themselves workers and by organizing a trade union, which is something only labourers do’ (Chunkyojo 1990, 17).
