Making sense of ‘student agency’: the subjectivity of the learner in globalized curriculum reform and the case of South Korea

Abstract A notable concept in the global discourse on curriculum reform is that of ‘student agency’. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) introduced this concept in its Education 2030 project, a vision for curriculum—especially the curriculum in schools—in an increasingly uncertain future. Since the introduction of the project, the emphasis on the individual student’s role in learning has grown in global significance. The issues of how to interpret this somewhat unfamiliar concept in the East and how to reflect it in national curriculum policy have emerged as important matters. Within South Korea’s unique education system, the discourse about student agency has exerted a rhetorical power that emphasizes student choice and student voice in Korean national curriculum policy. This article aims to examine how the global curricular vision of student agency has been interpreted in South Korea’s particular context and to criticize the philosophical assumptions embedded in it with respect to the establishment of the individual student’s subjectivity in learning. To achieve this purpose, first I explore the meaning and characteristics of student agency in the OECD Education 2030 project. Next, I examine the dynamics of constructing student identity in Korean educational policies. Finally, I critically review the philosophical assumptions underlying the issue of students’ subjectivity in learning.