The centrality of education in South Korea: a cultural analysis of education policy during COVID-19

This paper offers a cultural analysis of policymaking through a case study of education policy in South Korea during COVID-19. It highlights the centrality of education to Korean society and traces its influence in problematising, constituting and enacting policy responses. Analysis of documentary evidence and of interviews with key policy actors identifies two priorities: the need to maintain education provision with minimum disruption, and the safeguarding educational opportunities for all students and applicants to universities. These priorities reflect a culturally embedded and culturally specific narrative of egalitarianism and illustrate the importance of contextualised readings of fairness and merit in understanding public policy. In making this argument, the paper seeks to contribute to current debates in comparative education and education policy studies by adopting a culturally informed, relationship-centred and process-oriented approach that may have been neglected in Western-centric frameworks stressing global policy convergence or global-local dynamics.