The return of moral education in Korea, an example of educationalization?

Résumé 0

This study analyses the process of the return of moral education in South Korea via the grammar of pedagogical discourse (Bernstein). In South Korea, there are two points of view regarding the issue of teaching citizenship, if one of them positions itself in favour of moral education, the other focuses on citizen participation. Nevertheless in 2014, following the sinking of a liner ship, the Sewol, and the fact that politicians shifted the responsibility of the moral fault onto the crew, a law to educate character was announced, therefore encouraging moral education. In the absence of a precise definition of teaching character in this law, each school organises the curricula in accordance with the empirical meaning given to this notion. Certain activities based on this education therefore intervene in the private domain, using a pedagogy based on authority and one attached to traditional values.