The purpose of this study was to examine school teachers’ motivation to resist the teacher pay-for-performance policy and consider its social and educational implications using Axel Honneth’s recognition theory. In order to analyze the types of defamation experienced by teachers in implementing process of the teacher pay-for-performance policy and teachers’ need for recognition emerged in the process of resistance, text analysis was applied as an analytic tool. 54 Policy documents issued by the Ministry of Education and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union were selected and analyzed according to the criteria of relevance, representativeness, authenticity/credibility and time appropriateness. Teachers who resist the policy engage in the struggle for recognition, demanding three kinds of recognitions: first, recognition of teachers’ social values; second, recognition of teachers’ rights to participate in educational policy-making process and to express their opinions through collective actions; and third, recognition of human rights to survive and rights to liberty. The more the government increases the level of punishment and discipline to suppress teachers, who resist the policy, the more the teachers increase the intensity of resistance. Also, stronger the social exclusion and punishment for teachers, the more active is the teacher s struggle for recognition. In order to preserve the essence of education and establish teacher’s identity, teachers who were not able to gain recognition under the current education system suggest a new system of education, which emphasizes on communication, collaboration and trust.