This research tries to explore the key actors' perspectives on Korean teachers' activism in the
1980s. By doing this, this research can add more contextualized and direct data to the existing
researches.
According to the key actors' views on Korean teachers' collective movements, this activism shows
a kind of teachers' resistance to construct their collective identity and to complement their moral
duty with their self-incrimination and the refinement of teaching job. It also shows resistance against
to authoritative power based on by illegal government, and reveals teachers' effort to establish new
educational culture which emphasizes nationality, democracy, and humanization of education practices.
Key actors report that they and ordinary resitant teachers produced the redefinition of teachers' work,
renewal of teachers' ethics, the new life-style of students who were suffering from heavy work to
enter the high-ranking university.
According to their perspectives, Korean teachers' collective movement in the 1980s can be
discussed that it showed teachers' self-productive, active, and transformative character of Korean
teachers' resistance. In conclusion, Korean teachers' resistance in the 1980s shows their efforts "to
become somebody", far from “being marginalized and silenced.” The present research can be an good
example that shows teachers’ resistance, and the findings of the research can be explained and
discussed by ‘action knowledge,’ ‘transformative intellectuals,’ and labor process theory.