Curricular interstices between Korea and the U.S.: Autobiographical inquiry into decolonizing transnational curriculum studies

• In Event: Decolonizing Transnational Education: Rethinking Curriculum Beyond Western Dominance Toward Multiplex Identities and Representations

Abstract

Curriculum studies is entangled with the local, the national, and the transnational in terms of curriculum conceptualizations and practices, and identity constructions (Durand & Asher, 2023). Transnational curriculum studies examines curriculum knowledge production and circulation in transnational contexts, critiquing the unequal flows of power and knowledge across nation-states (Moon, 2021). Particularly, curriculum studies in South Korea has tended to turn to Western knowledge from the U.S. due to its geohistorical, (post-)colonial context, which can be seen as one aspect of “a crisis in Curriculum Studies” (Gershon & Helfenbein, 2023). This paper aims to examine my lived experiences and identity constructions regarding transnational flows and mobilities in which I have been entangled as an educator in South Korea and a doctoral student of curriculum studies and an international student teaching supervisor in the U.S.
This paper takes up postcolonial, decolonial perspectives: Bhabha’s (1994) theory of cultural translation and hybridity for exploring the complexities of culture and identity; and Chen’s (2010) concept of Asia as method for getting a nuanced, contextualized understanding of (post-)colonial conditions of East Asia related to the unidirectional flows of power and knowledge from the U.S. to South Korea.
I take up an autobiographical approach, given that identities are discursively constructed within a specific context and they are always in-the-making, being open to possibilities of becoming differently (Kuntz, 2024; Smith & Watson, 2010). Specifically, I draw on the following sources: artifacts such as journal entries, photographs, curriculum materials, course syllabi, and assignment papers; memory writing about my curricular experiences; and self-reflexive research journals written throughout this study. My data analysis takes up the recursive processes: flirting with qualitative materials (Kim, 2016); storying and re-storying narratives (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990); and post-reflexing (Vagle, 2018).
In this paper, I discuss the following questions: In what ways my view on curriculum was westernized through curriculum studies in South Korea as a pre-service/in-service teacher and a graduate student? In what ways have I come to move toward decolonizing curriculum studies across South Korea and the U.S.? In what ways have my selves been (re)colonized and decolonized through curriculum studies in-between South Korea and the U.S. and across curriculum theories and practices? Thus, this self-reflexive paper takes up issues central not only to my work as an international curriculum scholar but also to the larger work – including both possibilities and challenges – of decolonizing transnational curriculum studies.
Situating my selves into the (post-)colonial condition of South Korea in which the U.S. has been the singular reference of advancement, this paper could open up a possibility for undermining the imposition of American curriculum conceptualizations upon other parts of the world including South Korea and for dismantling dichotomous forms of reasoning culture and identity in transnational curriculum studies. This autobiographical research may contribute to an opportunity to remedy and repair onto-epistemic colonialism within transnational curriculum studies through postcolonial, decolonial perspectives.

Author

• Dugyum Kim, University of Minnesota