Meanings of Making National Curriculum: The Case of South Korea

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: From Grassroots to Global: Curriculum Reform Across Contexts

Abstract

I investigate motivations, processes, and meaning of making a national curriculum document based on the interviews with 23 key participants of the most recent NC reform in South Korea. Through constructivist grounded theory methodology, I tried to understand why states make official curriculum documents. I situate this paper within the literature on state-written curriculum making. Six patterns of meaning-making were found: (a) preparing the nation’s future economy, (b) fixing the education system, (c) constructing the vision of the nation, (d) setting rules, (e) reproducing hegemony, and (f) providing education services to students and parents. Since symbolic authorization of state-written curricular documents are less studied area in English-language curriculum field, this study contributes to the field with empirical approach

Author

• Soo Bin Jang, St. Mary's College of Maryland