The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability and limitations of
the ACF(Advocacy Coalition Framework) for Korean education policy process
based on the three core concepts of the ACF: Advocacy coalition, Belief system,
and Policy-oriented learning. To achieve this goal, we analyzed 8 published
articles employing ACF to analyze policy changes in the area of education. The
results of this study suggest that more thorough analyses should be necessary
regarding (1) the mechanism to form and maintain competing advocacy coalitions
within policy sub-system, (2) the hierarchical structure of the belief system, in
particular the relevance of the concept of secondary belief system, and (3) the
necessity of reconstruction and/or further theoretical sophistication of
policy-oriented learning in the Korean context. In conclusion, even thought the
core elements of the ACF are still valid and considered to be useful in analyzing
educational policy changes in the Korean context, some core assumptions in the
ACF should be re-examined thoroughly in the future by conducting more
follow-up studies based on the limitations of ACF suggested by this study.