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A critical investigation into the discourse of educational neutrality in South Korea (1987-2017)
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Kim, Wonseok (2018) A critical investigation into the discourse of educational neutrality in South Korea (1987-2017). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3254419~S15
Abstract
There has been a steady proliferation of discourses concerned with neutral education in South Korea since the democratisation of 1987. The problem of educational neutrality has been raised particularly by conservative forces. This thesis offers a critical examination of the conservative use of educational neutrality. Three inter-connected questions guide the thesis. First, what events and elements are combined in the discourse of educational neutrality in what ways? Second, how do non-discursive practices (e.g. techniques of power) help realise the discourse of educational neutrality? Finally, how do teachers and students resist pressure to be neutral?
In order to address these questions, by drawing on theoretical tools offered by Kim Dong-choon and Michel Foucault, I, first of all, contextualize the conservative use of educational neutrality in relation to war-politics where critical thought and action are punished and regulated in the name of protecting society. I then combine Critical Discourse Analysis with Foucault’s genealogical approach in order to grasp multiple dimensions of the discourse of educational neutrality. The construction of the discourse of educational neutrality is investigated through an analysis of a conservative newspaper’s editorials. The deployment of power techniques in the realization of the discourse of educational neutrality is examined through a genealogical study of how critical teachers’ unions have been regulated and how history textbooks have been sanitised. Last but not least, I explore courageous speech activities carried out by teachers and students. Those speeches, as forms of resistance to the myth of neutral education, serve to introduce a break in war-politics that draws an arbitrary line between what is and what is not say-able and do-able.
The thesis concludes by highlighting that education cannot be reduced to the mere transmission of technical knowledge from teachers to students. Rather, education should take on the task of regenerating critical thought and action particularly in a pluralistic democratic society where different individuals, values, and views coexist not in an antagonistic way but in a harmonious way
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | L Education > LG Individual institutions (Asia. Africa) | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Education -- Korea (South), Education -- Social aspects -- Korea (South), Education -- Political aspects -- Korea (South), Education and state -- Korea (South), Critical discourse analysis | ||||
Official Date: | July 2018 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Sociology | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Lambert, Cath (Catherine Ruth), 1971- ; Blencowe, Claire, 1981- | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 258 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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