Teacher’s Professional Development through “Affiliated Schools as Community of Practical Research and Learning”

Korean public education is in crisis. So-called ‘School collapse phenomenon’ is worsening along with ever-flourishing private education, school violence, and failure of personality education. Taken for granted educational standards are being lost, and traditional pedagogical paradigm is being negated. Representation and legitimacy of educational research are at risk, while prudent choice and authentic dialogue from educational practice can be found nowhere. In the midst of the crisis, this article is suggesting a variety of ideas to innovate the endan-gered Korean public education. At the center of the ideas is the ‘Affiliated Schools’. Affiliated schools in Korea have a great potential to reform and innovate the public schooling in that they share many characteristics as ‘practical research community’. Therefore, this study suggests organizing a community of practical research and learning, composed of college of education and its affiliated schools, while teachers in the community work as a ‘performer of institutional function’, ‘leader’, ‘learner’, ‘cultural mediator’, and ‘critical reflector’. This study also suggests installing a central agency to diffuse and expand the research outputs and local knowledge from that community and the agency is named as KTCLC, Korean Teacher Consulting and Leadership Center. There is nei-ther a clear solution nor a driving force to overcome the present crisis of Korean education. In the midst of this stalemate, establishing a practical research and learning community can be a seed of hope for endangered Ko-rean public education. Hopefully the teachers, who are leaders, learners, practical researchers, critical reflectors, and cultural mediators, can create and to become a foundation for more just education where every single stu-dent can bring out their best potential possibilities. Then we can dream of the education for hope, to replace this age of pain.