ABSTRACT
In Korea, the issue of reforming competitive school education has always been at the center of visions of educational reform. Against this backdrop, the school reform practice known as a “learning community” in Japan awakened some teachers’ and researchers’ interests in transforming schools into democratic institutions providing high-quality education in the early 2000s in Korea. Presently, the idea of a “learning community” is widely practiced by Korean teachers and administrators. In this chapter, we will discuss the Korean characteristics of school reform by focusing on how the “learning community” model is supported by various agents in the changing social and political contexts. Particularly since 2009, under the “innovative school” project promoted by progressive superintendents, a type of school reform has gained favor in Korea that involves the active participation of innovative school teachers who have actively employed the “learning community” vision and philosophy to transform teaching and learning. Through reviewing the history and development of school reform as the creation of learning communities in Korea since the early 2000s, we will demonstrate the story of how Korean teachers’ enthusiasm for creating democratic schools has been expressed through active school reform practices.
