The Changing Face of Education in Korea: Student and International Faculty Interactions

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Negotiating Belonging in Education: Identity, Power, Peace and Resistance

Proposal

The globalization of higher education has reshaped faculty and student experiences across Asia, particularly in South Korea, where internationalization policies have accelerated the recruitment of international faculty and students. This paper examines the evolving dynamics of international faculty-student interactions in Korean higher education institutions (HEIs) through an autoethnographic lens, complemented by qualitative data from interviews, focus groups, and narratives from comparative contexts in East and Southeast Asia. While national policies have emphasized the quantitative expansion of international faculty as markers of global competitiveness, the qualitative realities of their integration and pedagogical practice reveal tensions between policy ambitions and lived experiences.

Findings suggest that although international faculty in Korea are formally positioned as agents of internationalization, they face challenges of retention due to heavy workloads, linguistic barriers, hierarchical academic cultures, and limited institutional support. Drawing on testimonies from 25 faculty members across multiple universities, this study highlights themes of (dis)satisfaction, identity taxation, expectations to perform or “entertain,” and experiences of both instructional freedom and isolation. The persistence of Confucian heritage classroom traditions, including high power distance and teacher-centered pedagogy, further complicates intercultural teaching practices, often pressuring international faculty toward assimilation or withdrawal. At the same time, student narratives reveal both curiosity and misunderstanding about race, language, and cultural identity, underscoring how international faculty embody visible markers of global diversity within the classroom.

Comparative insights are drawn from studies of Black male teachers in international schools in East and Southeast Asia, which illustrate similar dynamics of tokenism, racialized expectations, and the burden of representation. Such perspectives illuminate how issues of race, cultural belonging, and academic authority intersect within internationalized education systems. This broader lens enriches understanding of how international faculty navigate complex terrains of identity, pedagogy, and institutional culture in Korea, while also situating their experiences within global debates about decolonizing higher education and intercultural pedagogy.

Methodologically, the paper employs autoethnography to situate the author’s professional identity within these dynamics, linking personal classroom experiences with structural and comparative insights. This approach foregrounds how international faculty negotiate their self-image, social recognition, and professional trajectories in contexts shaped by cultural homogeneity and global aspirations. The study also draws on theoretical frameworks including Tinto’s model of academic integration, intercultural competence theory, and critical perspectives on internationalization to analyze the multi-layered interactions between policy, pedagogy, and identity.

The paper concludes by connecting these findings to the global citizenship education (GCE) agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 4.7, which emphasize fostering diversity, equity, human rights, and intercultural understanding. While South Korea has made strides in recruiting international faculty, the sustainability of these efforts requires moving beyond numerical targets to prioritize inclusive institutional cultures, intercultural pedagogical training, and equitable support structures. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to comparative education by demonstrating how policies of internationalization intersect with local academic cultures, shaping the lived realities of faculty and students in transformative yet uneven ways.

Author

• Mary Asekenye Abura, SNU