This qualitative study examines the professional agency of secondary English teachers in Midwestern South Korea. Specifically, it investigates how secondary English teachers in South Korea understand their professional agency and what mediates their professional agency. The ecological approach in this study recognises that agency encompasses both individual and environmental dimensions and is formed through the constant interplay between the individual and the environment. The dataset for this study comprises 15 semi-structured interviews with secondary English teachers in South Korea. The thematic analysis highlights a significant gap between Korean English teachers’ espoused agency and realisable agency, as well as three levels of legitimation that teachers have to negotiate. These levels are individual, collegial and sociocultural. The findings from this study suggest that the participating teachers censored their own pedagogical behaviours due to their own sense of inadequacy and in response to structural requirements as well as the external evaluation of parents and high-stakes test scores. This study concludes with implications for English teachers in South Korea, theorisation on teacher agency and future research.

中文翻译：

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调查韩国中学英语教师的专业机构

这项定性研究考察了韩国中西部地区中学英语教师的专业机构。具体来说，它调查了韩国的中学英语教师如何理解他们的专业代理以及如何调解他们的专业代理。本研究中的生态学方法认识到代理既包含个人又包含环境方面，并且是通过个人与环境之间不断相互作用而形成的。该研究的数据集包括对韩国中学英语老师的15次半结构化访谈。主题分析强调了韩语英语教师的信奉代理与可兑现代理之间的巨大差距，以及教师必须协商的三个合法性水平。这些级别是个人的，学院的和社会文化的。这项研究的发现表明，由于教师自身的不足感，对结构要求的反应以及对父母的外部评估和高分测验分数，参与教师对自己的教学行为进行了审查。本研究的结论对韩国的英语教师，教师机构的理论化和未来研究具有启示意义。