초등교사의 행위주체성에 대한 생태학적 탐색: 학교자율시간 실행 경험을 중심으로 = An Ecological Exploration of Teacher Agency: Focusing on Elementary Teachers’ Experiences of Implementing School Autonomy Time

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore elementary school teachers’ experiences in implementing School Autonomy Time and to analyze the contextual conditions that facilitate or constrain teachers’ practices from the perspective of ecological teacher agency.
Methods: This study employed an embedded single-case design, treating the implementation of School Autonomy Time as the case and the experiences of eight elementary teachers working in distinct school settings as embedded units of analysis. We drew on in-depth interviews and related documents, which were analyzed thematically. Peer debriefing and member checking were conducted to strengthen the trustworthiness of the analysis.
Results: Participants initially approached School Autonomy Time with reservations, yet their practices took shape in distinct ways—from outward compliance and strategic accommodation to active appropriation. Such differences were grounded in teachers’ professional histories, the educational futures they envisioned, and the cultural, structural, and material conditions of their present work.
Conclusion: The results suggest that teacher agency does not automatically arise from individual competence or willingness, but is achieved within the ecological contexts in which teachers are situated. Therefore, curriculum autonomy policies should focus not only on granting authority to schools and teachers, but also on expanding the practical conditions in which teacher agency can be enacted.