Developing a Measurement Tool to Explore Korean English Teachers’ Transparency

Abstract

The study’s primary purpose was to explore how English teachers perceive their teacher transparency in Korean secondary schools. Despite the importance of transparency in education recognized by scholars, administrators, and teachers in the US and other countries, the term and the concept are quite new in Korea, and there have hardly been any studies about the topic. Thus, the study began by explaining the term, transparency in education and then developed a measurement tool with reference to the questionnaire from Porshnev et al. (2021)’s and Winkelmes et al. (2016)’s study to define Korean secondary school teacher transparency. Overall, the process of developing a measurement tool includes making survey questions of 16 items based on those made by Porshnev et al. and Winkelmes et al., collecting data, and then analyzing the data from 72 teachers in different subject areas. The result shows that the measurement tool was valid, and the data analysis demonstrated a high level of transparency regardless of the subject area, including English. This study finds meaning in introducing the importance of English teacher transparency, and future research should incorporate data from students and teachers from different cultural backgrounds and analyze the effect of transparency on student learning outcomes. (200 words)