Enacting the National Curriculum with Non-humans: Tracing the Socio-Material Network of School Timetables in South Korea

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Abstract

This ANT-informed qualitative case study explores the enactment of South Korea's national curriculum through the school timetable practices in two elementary classrooms. The study traces how timetables act as mediators that link prescribed policies to classroom realities. Data were collected via classroom observations, teacher interviews, and artefact analysis. Findings reveal timetables are not fixed instruments, but mutable assemblages as a site of power struggle in curriculum enactment. They perform a dual role, accommodating pedagogical contingencies while facilitating institutional surveillance. This struggle isn’t solely driven by human actors like policymakers, school leaders, or teachers, but emerges from the unequal power distribution within human-nonhuman entanglements. This highlights curriculum enactment as a political process within socio-material networks, urging critical exploration beyond anthropocentric perspectives.

Authors

• Jiyoung Kim, Seoul National University

• Kyunghee So, Seoul National University

• Sungwon Cho, Seoul National University

• Taegeun Yum, Seoul National University

• Soohan Lee, Seoul National University