Enforcing unwarranted optimism: critical frame analysis on educational digitalisation policies in South Korea

Abstract

Although digitalisation is central to education reform in many countries, efforts to investigate this tendency at the policy level are lacking. In this respect, this study investigates the policy discourse on educational digitalisation in South Korea. The results indicate that policymakers are highly optimistic about the potential of digital technologies in solving several education and social issues and contributing to national economic competitiveness. However, such optimism facilitates the learnification and commercialisation of schooling, and it is not grounded in or supported by any scientific evidence or educational theory. Despite this limitation, the discourse is likely to exert a strong impact on schooling due to the unequal power structure related to digitalisation, which prioritises the pragmatic needs of policymakers from education. Against this background, this study proposes the significance of understanding the political nature of and uneven power relationship in educational digitalisation through a critical approach on its application to schools.