The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of diverse school contexts on teachers' professionalism. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on cognitive features of teachers' professionalism and single-level contextual factors, the presen...
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of diverse school contexts on teachers' professionalism. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on cognitive features of teachers' professionalism and single-level contextual factors, the present study conceptualizes teachers' professionalism as including not only cognitive features (knowledge and skills) but also affective features (attitude and value). Furthermore, the present study explores the effects of diverse school contexts - socio-psychological, organizational, and institutional contexts - on teachers' professionalism, drawn from the McLaughlin & Talbert's conceptions of school contexts.
The data used in this study were derived from the dataset of the 2005 Korean Education Longitudinal Study by Korean Educational Development Institute. The sample comprises 2,655 teachers who teach students in 149 secondary schools. The results, based on a 2-Level Hierarchical Linear Model, show that firstly, teachers' professionalism in terms of both cognitive and affective features vary across schools as well as teachers. Secondly, among socio-psychological contextual factors, the professional learning community influences both cognitive and affective features of teachers' professionalism. Thirdly, several organizational contextual factors (such as learning- centered principal leadership, collective influences on school policies, and administrative affairs) are associated with both cognitive and affective features of teachers' professionalism.