| The dissertation analyzes systems of reason embedded in discourses of contemporary Korean curriculum reform in order to examine the fabrication of Koreanness. It focuses on the Korean 7th Curriculum, initially embodied in 1995, enacted in 1997, and last revised in 2007. Using the methodological approach of "a history of the present", the discourse analysis was guided by the notions of "governmentality" and "travel". Governmentality considers the principles generated about the "Koreanness" of the child while travel considers the assembly of international discourses within Korean reforms. Four phrases drawn from international discussions of school reform are identified as embedded in the 7th Curriculum reform. They are "education for all", "lifelong learning", "learner-centered education", and "cosmopolitanism". The principles about the child and Koreanness are then textually analyzed by examining the inscription of salvation themes about the nation and child, the comparative qualities and characteristics of the child circulating in the reforms, the hopes/fears expressed, the practices of collective memory/forgetting, and inclusion/exclusion. New images and narratives of the child and the nation in the 7th Curriculum fabricate a child who is self-governing, open, and flexible in the process of globalization. These characteristics simultaneously inscribe Koreanness as unique and homogeneous through the redefined myth and history, which distinguish who is Korean and who is not. The dissertation provides an alternative method to studies of educational reforms in Korea by problematizing and historicizing notions and assumptions of the reforms. |
