Deconstructing Neoliberalism in Global Citizenship Discourses: An Analysis of Korean Social Studies Textbooks

• In Event: 58.083 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 58.083-15 - Resisting Neoliberalism and Reconceptualizing Golbal Education

Abstract

This study explored the ways in which the official social studies curriculum in Korea promotes global citizenship given the dominant neoliberal ideology in the field of education. Employing critical discourse analysis, this study analyzed middle level (7th-9th) social studies textbook series that have widely been used in Korean public schools. The findings of this study demonstrated the prevalence of neoliberal agendas and the centrality of the nation state in the GCE discourses portrayed in the textbooks. We delved into a discussion on the extent to which global citizenship knowledge, skills, and dispositions became instrumentalized as means of perpetuating the ideas of neoliberal economic values and nationalism while marginalizing social justice and multicultural aims in the official curriculum.

Authors

• Yeji Kim, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Yoonjung Choi, Ewha Womans University