Reimagining Student Agency: A Narrative Inquiry into Korean Teachers’ Struggles within a Neoliberal Education System

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: The Limitations of Reform: Recognizing the gaps in scripted curriculum and transformative efforts

Abstract

This study explored Korean teachers’ efforts to foster student agency within the neoliberal education system. Employing a narrative inquiry method, this study investigated the experiences of two high school teachers who critically reflected on the limitations of recent curriculum reforms that equated student agency with curricular choice and responsibility for academic outcomes. The findings showed that while students were ostensibly making autonomous choices, those choices were, in practice, non-autonomous—subordinated to academic competition under market logic. The teachers sought to cultivate student agency through reflective practices that connected subject content to both individual and collective responsibility. These findings highlighted the need to reimagine student agency in ways that encourage students’ meaningful engagement with themselves, others, and the community.

Authors

• Jisoo Kim, Korean Educational Development Institute

• Kyounghye Seo, Ewha Womans University