Primary School Teachers Global Citizenship Types and Perceptions of Global Citizenship Education: Focusing on Seoul, South Korea

Abstract

Globalization has brought a rapid and comprehensive social transformation at various levels all over the world in the past century, even in the educational discourses. In Global Education First Initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2012, fostering global citizenship was suggested as the third key priority area in order to reach global education goals. The Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2015) have also affirmed the importance of global citizenship in education sector at its goal 4 for all learners to promote sustainable development.

South Korea is well-known for its remarkable economic growth from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, so called the Miracle on the Han River. Plenty of academic works have attributed the success of South Korea to education as a key driver of the miracle. Corresponding to those institutional discourses on global citizenship education (GCED) at the international level, the notions of global citizenship and global citizenship education has permeated into South Korea. Global citizenship education has been actively discussed in South Korea for recent years, but mostly from the top: academia, national institutions, and international organizations. Another notable characteristic of GCED in South Korea is that its implementation has taken place mostly within the domain of non-formal education.

Recently, the Korean government recently tried to adopt GCED into formal education system through the GCED-promoting policies launched by Korean Ministry Of Education (KMOE) and Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE). Corresponding to KMOEs GCED initiative, at the beginning of school year 2015, SMOE selected 10 schools which would set an example of GCED implementation and provided a considerable amount of budget to them. This is officially the first trial to implement GCED within formal education led by the government, which has critical meanings to examine feasibility for further GCED to settle in the South Korean formal education context.

With regard to the backdrop, this study focuses on primary school teachers global citizenship (GC) type and their perceptions of global citizenship education (GCED). This study aims to investigate: (a) their GC types

(b) determinants of their GC types

and (c) relationships among their GC types, GCED perceptions and individual characteristics. In order to address the questions, this study employs quantitative method along with literature analysis.

Through the questionnaire survey and statistical analysis, the study has revealed several significant findings. First, the GC types of the primary school teachers in Seoul, South Korea were mainly classified into 6 types: (a) Global Leader

(b) Indifferent Elite

(c) Non-informed Activist

(d) Incompetent Citizen

(e) Pessimist

(f) Outsider. The teachers showed fairly negative GC types in general, albeit the South Korean teachers internationally recognized high quality. Second, several individual characteristics, such as years of teaching, overseas volunteering experience, knowledge of international education issues etc., turn out to determine the teachers GC types. Third, regarding the primary school teachers GCED perceptions, their perception levels were also low which indicates a significant gap between the institutional drivers' high ambitions and the grass-roots teachers low competence toward GCED. Their GC types were proven to be statistically relevant to their GCED perceptions. In addition, the teachers several individual characteristics, such as their English confidence, multicultural teaching, GCED training experience, ownership of GCED, cosmopolitan conception of citizenship etc., showed a statistically meaningful relationship with their GCED perceptions.

The study later analyzed the reasons behind the findings through a wide range of literature analysis in the multidimensional (political, economic, historical, and socio-cultural) context of South Korea. As a result, the study revealed that the state-led developmentalism, the IMF-led neoliberal rescue measures after the financial crisis in 1997-1998, longstanding Confucianism etc., and ensuing authoritarianism, lack of social citizenship, oppression of teachers political participation seem to have influenced on the teachers GC types and GCED perceptions in South Korea in a negative way. Furthermore, the study presumed that the GCED promoted and implemented in formal education of Seoul, South Korea is likely to manifest rather in the nationalist and neoliberal forms of GCED. Cosmopolitan and world justice/governance components are likely to be insufficient. Particularly, Marxist component seems to be most unwelcome within the South Korean formal education context. This study hopes to illuminate better opportunities for the framing and implementation of further global citizenship education in formal education of South Korea.