The breakdown of co-teaching: stories from multiple dyads of English co-teachers at different grade levels

Abstract

In order to improve the efficacy of public school English education, numerous countries in East Asia have developed co-teaching programmes that pair local English teachers (LETs) and native English-speaking teachers (NESTs). However, research has consistently unveiled challenges for collaboration between co-teachers. Thus, the aim of this study is to qualitatively examine the sources of breakdowns in co-teaching across various school levels. Data comprises interviews with 13 pairs of co-teachers working in elementary, middle, and high schools in South Korea, and the analysis focuses on the factors associated with non-collaborative teaching practices. The findings show that breakdowns were associated with unclear roles, contradictory directions, uneven workloads, workplace hierarchies, a lack of communication, inadequate training, and a mismatch between the policy and goals for co-teaching. The study suggests that overcoming these breakdowns will require a stronger connection between co-teaching goals and hiring policies, and a stronger commitment to the professional development of co-teaching dyads. Other implications include pairing NESTs with LETs with sufficient English proficiency, mitigating teacher turnover in the education system, developing a NEST curriculum outside of the regular English classes, and finding ways to recognise and include NESTs as legitimate professionals within their schools.