The Dynamics and Stability of Teachers’ Rights Protection Policy After the Seoicho Incident: Focusing on a modified mutiple streams framework

Objectives The purposes of this study is to find out why there was a sharp change in the policy for the protection of teachers’ rights at the central government level after the Seoicho incident, but it remained stable at the local government level, and how the government's agenda-setting (comprehensive plan) was reflected in the policy decision (law revision). Methods The objects of the analysis were policies, laws, notifications and ordinances related to the protection of teachers’ rights, and data collection was carried out by the National Assembly's Bill Information System, the National Statute Information Center, and the website of the Provincial Assembly. The analysis was divided into two stages: policy agenda formation and policy decision-making using a modified multiple streams framework. Results As a result, at the central government level, the notification on student life guidance and the revision of the Five Laws on the Protection of Teachers’ Rights were made rapidly due to the influence of the political circles, the one voice of the teachers' associations, the intensive media coverage, the high interest of the public, and the election schedule of the National Assembly, but in the case of the local governments, the policy was stable due to the dependence of the student rights on the path, political trends such as the distribution of seats in the superintendent of education and local councils, veto points of the procedure for enacting and amending ordinances, and the influence of non-decision-making. Conclusions It was confirmed that the nature of the policy problem and the beliefs of policymakers influence policy changes, and pointed out that it is necessary to consider the adequacy of policy instruments and to clarify the relationship between the roles of the central government and local governments. Lastly, it was confirmed that a modified multiple streams framework is more suitable for cases where the predictable policy window model can be applied, such as elections and budgets, rather than the unpredictable policy window being opened by focus events, as in this case.