Teacher morale is an significant factor influencing teachers’ job satisfaction and organizational
effectiveness. Despite the importance, the effort to analyze the phenomena of teacher morale in a
Korean setting in a more academic way has been relatively neglected. This study seeks to
analyze major components of teacher morale through which at risk groups of teachers can be
identified for more intimate policy intervention. On-line survey of 7,830 elementary and secondary
school teachers reveals that teacher morale is composed of seven major factors such as
effectiveness of principal leadership, satisfaction on the teaching job, financial reward, educational
status, social status and recognition, peer teachers' cooperation and trust, and workloads and
stress. The general level of teacher morale is not too low; however, the teacher morale associated
with the factors which are external to education such as workload and stress, social status and
recognition, and financial reward tends to be lower. It is also found that the level of teacher
morale showed statistically significant differences based on both personal backgrounds and school
characteristics. The morale of male teachers, teachers with higher education degree,
non-homeroom teachers, and lay teachers is lower than their counterpart. Those teachers work at
private schools, secondary schools, schools in midium cities also show lower morale. Based on
the findings, policy recommendations to raise the morale of teachers at risk are suggested.