Taking ’Asia as method’ seriously in decolonizing comparative curriculum studies in South Korea

ABSTRACT

This conceptual article is to problematize Western-centered comparative curriculum studies in South Korea, drawing on research related to postcolonial criticisms of comparative education and curriculum studies, and to suggest a decolonial research imagination for comparative curriculum research in South Korea and East Asia broadly, based on Kuan-Hsing Chen’s idea of Asia as method. To this end, I elaborate on Chen’s concepts of inter-referencing and critical syncretism for decolonizing the compliant research imagination. Additionally, I argue for the shift of the point of reference towards Asia, the extension of curriculum manifestation as a unit of comparison with curriculum conceptualized as a space for constructing cultural imaginary and subjectivity, and curriculum researchers’ onto-epistemological considerations as a comparativist. I conclude the paper with a caution not to dismiss Western contributions to curriculum research in Asia and the possibilities of the existence of resistance to Western-dominant knowledge structure in South Korean curriculum scholarship in the forms of translation and/or hybridity. This study can contribute to decolonizing the intersection of comparative education and curriculum studies that has been Western-centered in South Korea and suggesting a transgressive onto-epistemological orientation for comparative curriculum studies in the contexts of South Korea in particular and East Asia in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Asia as method
• comparative curriculum studies
• postcolonialism
• decolonization
• research imagination

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my advisor, Dr. Nina Asher, for not only giving some helpful comments on this paper, but also encouraging me to widen and deepen my thoughts about postcolonial curriculum theorizing. I also thank the reviewers for their constructive and focused suggestions, which have significantly improved the quality and clarity of this paper.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declared that the paper has neither received funding nor has financial or non-financial interests directly or indirectly related to this work submitted for publication.