A Critical Examination of Global Practices in Korean Society: Creating Socially Just Diversity in English Pedagogy

This dissertation investigates the impact of globalization on educational policy and contemporary social life in Korea. Using bricolage, a qualitative research methodology that encompasses multiple critical social theories, I interrogate the notion of globalization and its practices. I examine current English pedagogy as well as cultural practices that exist in Korean society from a critical hermeneutical stance.;In raising concerns and awareness of the different power stratification within the concept of globalization, I explore the intersection of English education with critical social theories. Being informed by the bricolage of discursive theories, I extend the notion of English learning into human interactions among different groups of people. I interrogate the construction of knowledge and subjectivity and pertinent unequal social treatment depending on one's different socioeconomic, cultural, racial, and linguistic background within the context of English use.;I challenge Korea's excessive investment in English language learning and western ideology pushed by globalization, stressing that the Korean English education system needs an alternative pedagogy---one that better addresses social justice and promotes diversity. In conclusion, I highlight the implications of this study for policy makers and teachers to demonstrate that English education can provide a solution towards socially just diversity within Korea's unique multicultural context when it aims for a "critical global consciousness.";Within the policy goal of achieving globalization, competence in English is excessively promoted in Korea, being considered the dominant global method of communication. However, far from its goal to raise global citizens or leaders through English education, Korean English pedagogy neglects or ignores the non-western range of cultures, races, and languages in the terrain of globalization. Korea's growing multicultural population and its geopolitical location require a global citizenship that is not limited in its global perceptions.