Korea faces a unique and complicated situation in becoming multicultural. Modern Korean education has changed several times in response to the contextual shifts which have occurred in the country’s demographic composition. Given the complex social circumstances which exist in Korean society, this paper explores how the social ideologies of patriotism and multiculturalism are presented in Korean elementary moral education textbooks which are currently used. In order to do so, we particularly examine which groups are considered as “others” in Korean multicultural society. With this approach, we aim to obtain a comprehensive understanding of how moral education textbooks reflect current conditions present in Korea.
Keywords: Multiculturalism Korean education Elementary education Moral textbooksApple, M. W. (1992). The text and cultural politics. Educational Researcher, 21(7), 4–11.
Apple, M. W. (2002). Power, meaning, and identity: Essays in critical educational studies. New York: Peter Lang.
Banks, J. A. (2004). Teaching for social justice, diversity, and citizenship in a global world. The Educational Forum, 68, 289.
Banks, J. A. (2008). An introduction to multicultural education (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Barth, J. L., & Shermis, S. S. (1980). Nineteenth century origins of the social studies movement: Understanding the continuity between older and contemporary civic and US history textbooks. Theory and Research in Social Education, 8(3), 29–50.
Cho, Y. (2010). Policy note: Diversification of the student population and multicultural educational policies in Korea. In E. Hannum, H. Park & Y.G. Butler (Eds.), Research in the sociology of education, vol. 17: Globalization, changing demographics, and educational challenges in East Asia (pp. 183–198). Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Choi, C.-. O., & Mo, K.-. H. (2007). Elementary and middle school teachers’ multicultural efficiency in the Province of Kyung-gi. Journal of Curriculum and Evaluation, 11(2), 109–133.
Cruz, B. C. (2002). Don Juan and rebels under palm trees: Depictions of Latin Americans in US history textbooks. Critique of Anthropology, 22(3), 323–342.
Delpit, L., & Dowdy, J. K. (Eds.). (2002). The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. New York: New Press.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Introduction: Entering the field of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1–18). London: Sage.
Eisner, E. (1985). The educational imagination. New York: Macmillan.
Erickson, F. (2005). Culture in society and in educational practices. In J. Banks & C. M. Banks (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (5th ed.) (pp. 31–60). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Field, S. L., Bauml, M., Wilhelm, R., & Jenkins, J. (2011). Folk dress, fiestas, and festivals: How is Mexico portrayed in US primary grade social studies textbooks? Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association. New Orleans, LA.
Fraenkel, J., & Wallen, N. (2000). How to design and evaluate research in education (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Gay, G. (1997). The relationship between multicultural and democratic education. Social Studies, 88(1), 5–11.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.
Hong, W. (2008). Inquiry on the advancement of Korean multiculturalism: Beyond the US discourses. Educational Principle Inquiry, 13(2), 89–113.
Hyun, C. (2007). South Korean society and multicultural citizenship. Korea Journal, 47(4), 123–146.
Jang, I. (2008). Teacher education program and model for multicultural education. Korean Elementary Education Studies, 21(2), 281–305.
Kang, W. (2010). Multicultural education and the rights to education of migrant children in South Korea. Educational Review, 62(3), 283–300.
Kim, J. H. (2010). A changed context of lifelong learning under the influence of migration: South Korea. International Journal of Education, 29(2), 255–272.
Kim, J. H. (2011). Producing the global citizen: Controversiality in multicultural education and neo-nationalism in Korea. Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans.
Kim, S.A., Lee, S.H., Kim, M., Y., & Cha, Y. (2009). Redesigning Korean teacher education in a multicultural social context. Proceedings of the KAME 2009 International Conference, Hanyang University, Seoul.
Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. (2011a). Elementary Moral Education Curriculum. Seoul: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. (2011b). Guideline of textbook authorships. Seoul: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://cutis.mest.go.kr/NTC/view.jsp?gCd=S02&siteCmsCd=CM0001&topCmsCd=CM0004&cmsCd=CM0017&pnum=1&cnum=0&src=&srcTemp=&pageSize=10&cPage=1&no=98.
Larkins, A. G., & Gilmore, A. (1987). Trivial and noninformative content of elementary social studies: A review of primary texts in four series. Theory and Research in Social Education, 15(4), 299–311.
Lee, G. K. (2006). The century of neo-nationalism. Seoul: Seoul National University.
Lee, L., & McMullen, M. (2006). Social ideology and early childhood education: A comparative analysis of Korean early childhood teacher education textbooks written in 1993 and 2003. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(2), 119–129.
Macgillivray, I. K., & Jennings, T. (2008). A content analysis exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered topics in foundations of education textbooks. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(2), 170–188.
Moon, S. (2010). Multicultural and global citizenship in the transnational age: The case of South Korea. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 12(1), 1–15.
Moon, R. J., & Koo, J.-. W. (2011). Global citizenship and human rights: A longitudinal analysis of social studies and ethics textbooks in the republic of Korea. Comparative Education Review, 55(4), 574–599.
Nasser, R., & Nasser, I. (2008). Textbooks as a vehicle for segregation and domination: State efforts to shape Palestinian Israelis’ identities as citizens. Curriculum Studies, 40(5), 627–650.
Nieto, S. (2004). Affirming diversity: the sociopolitical context of multicultural education (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Romanowski, M. H. (2009). What you don’t know can hurt you: Textbook omission and 9/11. The Clearing House, 82(6), 290–296.
Sleeter, C. E., & Grant, C. A. (1991). Race, class, gender, and disability in current textbooks. In M. W. Apple & L. K. Christian-Smith (Eds.), The politics of the textbook (pp. 78–109). New York: Routledge.
Strauss, A. L. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Su, Y. (2007). Ideological representations of Taiwan’s history: An analysis of elementary social studies textbooks, 1978–1995. Curriculum Inquiry, 37(3), 205–237.
Vanhulle, B. (2009). The path of history: Narrative analysis of history textbooks–a case study of Belgian history textbooks (1945–2004). History of Education, 38(2), 263–282.
Wagner, B. K. (2009). Scrutinizing rules for foreigners in Korea: How much discrimination is reasonable? Kyung Hee University Law Review, 44(3), 391–416.
Weber, R. P. (1990). Basic content analysis (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Young, I. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, NP: Princeton University Press.
Zhao, Y., Hoge, J., Choi, J., & Lee, S. (2007). Comparison of social studies education in the United States, China, and South Korea. The International Journal of Social Education, 21(2), 91–122.