Teaching the USA in South Korean secondary classrooms: the curriculum of ‘the superior other’

Abstract

By examining teacher interviews and student survey data through the lens of multiculturalism and post-colonialism, this study investigates how the USA is taught in secondary school social studies in South Korea. Specifically, the study examines the teachers’ goals, the representation of the USA in Korean textbooks and its influence on the instruction, the effect on the instruction by the dominant discourse on the USA in South Korea, and the conceptions of the USA held by Korean students in social studies classes. Our findings show that while the teachers strive to present diverse and complex aspects of the USA and its culture, for several reasons they rarely achieve these goals: the textbooks do not support these goals, the teachers lack relevant knowledge and experience, and administrators resist instruction that challenges the generally positive opinion of the USA among South Koreans. Consequently, the students often end up having complex, contradictory ideas about the USA. Based on these findings, this study argues that educators in Korea (and elsewhere) would benefit from curriculum re-evaluations aimed at helping their students acquire a more refined understanding of other cultures and other peoples, in particular the understanding of the values associated with human equality and diversity.

Keywords:

• secondary
• social studies education
• multiculturalism
• post-colonialism
• the USA
• South Korea

Notes

1. At the time of the survey, the US was engaged in military conflict in two countries on the Asian continent: Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Secondary school in Korea includes both middle and high school students.

3. There were about 7 million students enrolled in Korean elementary and secondary schools in 2011.

4. The fact that the first author is South Korean eliminated both linguistic and cultural challenges in interpreting the data.

5. The real names of teachers are not used.

6. In Korea, because of the limitations on teaching staff and physical resources, most high schools decide which elective courses to offer instead of allowing students to choose the electives. Thus, except in a few instances, students in the same school generally take similar courses.

7. In 2002, for example, the acquittal of two US soldiers for the death of two Korean schoolgirls who were killed by an armoured vehicle caused a massive wave of anti-American sentiment.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Won-Pyo Hong

Won-Pyo Hong is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea;

Anne-Lise Halvorsen

Anne-Lise Halvorsen is an assistant professor of Teacher Education, specialising in social studies education, at Michigan State University. Her work focuses on elementary social studies education, the history of education and teacher preparation in the social studies. She is the author of A History of Elementary Social Studies: Romance and Reality, a co-author of Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students (3rd ed.), and the author of articles in Teachers College Record, Theory and Research in Social Education and The Social Studies.