The purpose of this study is to explore what conflicts the master teachers experience in a
school organizations, what are the sources of the conflicts, and what is the structure of the
conflict sources. The conflicts of the master teachers cause discourages the master teachers
and even other teachers, which deteriorate school effectiveness and culture. To dissolve the
conflicts, clear understanding of the reality needs to be preceded. To answer the research
question, 14 master teachers are selected from Gyonggi-do who have experienced conflicts in
a school. The case study method is employed. For data collection, unstructured in-depth
interview is held. The data are processed through 'categorical aggregation', 'theory
triangulation', and 'member checking'.
As the results of this study, there are five sources of the conflicts. First, conflicts are
caused from school climate that the school members are busy in treating administrative
work rather than teaching in a classroom. Secondly, principals are not ready to lead a
school with master teachers. They prefer following routines to reforming schools. Thirdly,
vice-principals and career teachers have a strong sense of rivalry to master teachers.
Fourthly, master teacher system is not well known to school members, which often causes
misunderstanding. Fifthly, the status of master teachers is still unstable in terms of
legitimacy. Based on the findings, school evaluation, teacher training in the school, and
revision in legal statement are suggested for better policy implementation.