This study has been done about responses of the teachers in the process of
free semester system which has been conducted across the country since 2016
and analyzed the responses. As a result of case analysis of two teachers with
different personal backgrounds and school contexts, it was found that the
teachers showed the reaction aspect as a street-level bureaucracy as well as
the main agents of educational activities. Unlike the street-level bureaucracy,
the teachers had a professional identity with the will to change if the students
were happy through learning despite the increased work and hassles caused by
policy changes. In addition, when teachers are provided with the conditions to
guarantee the artistic characteristics of educational activities, they
demonstrated their professionalism and autonomy by devising ‘new teaching
methods’ rather than ‘exam’, in order go attract students’ learning. On
the other hand, when the workload is excessively increased due to the policy,
the teacher shows simplification, avoidance, and responsibility transfer as the
street-level bureaucracy. Teachers seems to be hard to prevent these side
effects only by the sense of duty. In addition, teacher response in the course
of policy enforcement may be different depending on the subject and the
capacity of individual teachers. Therefore, considering these situational
variables, we need to design the policy carefully, and we also invest in
teacher’s professional development for success of policy.