Implementation of Team Teaching: Perspectives from Native English Speakers

The existing literature on team teaching suggest that there is ambiguity of teachers' roles between teachers in team teaching and diverse realities on the implementation of team teaching. This paper explores the implementation of team teaching in Korean primary classrooms from a native English speaker's point of view, focusing on factors which cause diverse understandings and realities in implementing team teaching. Six native speaker teachers from different educational and teaching backgrounds participated in semi-structured interviews. Three themes emerged from the analysis of qualitative data: first, native speakers go through complex identity formation; second, collaboration between native speaker teachers and Korean teachers is not fully realized due to diverse understanding of teachers' roles in team teaching situations and the inherent identity conflicts between native speakers and Korean teachers; and third, dissatisfaction with the national textbook and the lack of role modeling in team teaching have been highlighted as constraints by native speakers. Theoretical and pedagogical implications have been discussed based on the three themes identified by the interviews.