From Elitism to Equity?: Discursive Recontextualization of the International Baccalaureate in South Korea’s Public Education Reform

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Contemporary Issues In Education

Abstract

This study examines South Korea’s state-led adoption of the International Baccalaureate (IB) through a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of policy documents, media narratives, and institutional texts. Unlike in other East Asian contexts where the IB reinforces educational elitism, Korea frames the IB as a tool for promoting equity and revitalizing public education. By analyzing how discourses of inclusion, global competitiveness, and pedagogical innovation intersect in IB localization, the study highlights Korea’s strategic use of global curricula to address domestic reform challenges. The findings reveal that Korea’s approach reflects an active policy agency, wherein global models are selectively reinterpreted to align with national priorities, illustrating the complex dynamics of policy borrowing, recontextualization, and the politics of educational equity.

Author

• Hyungryeol Kim, Seoul National University