New Approach for National Curriculum Policy-Making Research: Discursive Institutionalism

The purpose of this study is to explore the theoretical potential of the Discursive Institutionalism(DI) approach for reinterpreting the policy-making process of the National Curriculum. To this end, the study first outlines the background and key concepts of DI and then examines the characteristics and implications of a Swedish study that analyzes the National Curriculum policy-making process using this approach. Subsequently, it revisits the distinctive features and related discussions surrounding the formation of Korea’s National Curriculum policy and explores the theoretical potential of applying DI to Korean National Curriculum policy research, from both epistemological and methodological perspectives. The findings of the study are as follows: 1) The concept of ideas in DI enables a rich explanation of the recontextualization process through which innovative ideas are adopted and introduced into the National Curriculum policy agenda. Furthermore, policy idea, programmatic idea, and philosophical ideas are serve as an analytical framework for exploring how such innovative ideas are justified and legitimized within the policy recontextualization process. 2) The concepts of coordinative discourse and communicative discourse in DI offer an analytical framework for capturing the discursive interactions among actors involved in the formation of National Curriculum policy. 3) From an epistemological perspective, reinterpreting the formation of Korea's National Curriculum policy necessitates an interactive understanding that explains how institutional contexts influence sentient agents, who, in turn, can also lead institutional change. From a methodological standpoint, DI provides a comprehensive analytical framework for examining the policy process from multiple dimensions.