Whom Is the national curriculum for? Politics in the national curriculum system of South Korea

Abstract

Recently, many countries have tried to control the overall quality of national education by employing national standards, striving to provide higher-quality education for all. By introducing a national curriculum, those countries suggest goals, that is, standards that students are expected to reach by certain ages and that teachers are required to meet while teaching. However, one might question whether an education system based on national standards can realize the dream of better education for all. As South Korea introduced a national curriculum in the 1950s and has gone through multiple revisions ever since, it has engaged in abundant discourse on national curriculum system. Hence, a review of South Korea’s national curriculum system can help us understand how tension and controversy work around the national curriculum and how the system can influence schools. This study aims to provide insight into the complicated and sometimes contradictory role of the national curriculum and its impact on actual school settings by reviewing South Korea’s national curriculum reform process over the last 60 years. To this end, the present study focuses on the following two topics. First, it reveals the politics of national curriculum reform by providing historical-sociological explanations of South Korea’s national curriculum reform. Second, it explores how the national curriculum system influences school education.