Unification Educators and the Enactment of Educational Policy for North Korean Refugee Students in South Korea

Abstract

Educational injustice is prevalent in the education of North Korean Refugee Students (NKRSs) in South Korean schools. This qualitative study critically examines the policies regarding the education of NKRSs, and elicits the views of 18 paraeducators, known as Unification Educators (UEs), who are also North Korean refugees and former NK teachers. They are appointed at schools with more than ten NKRSs to assist NKRSs to ensure a more just education. This thesis concerns the students known as North Korean Defector Students, herein NKRSs. Based on Freire’s (2007) pedagogy of oppression, the NKRSs are viewed as individuals oppressed within the South Korean educational system. The work of Levinson, Sutton, and Winsted (2009) contextualizes the UEs as policy actors who must implement their mandates within the oppressive system. The Ministry of Education policies are reviewed along with prior research on the education of the NKRSs. The present research adopts a qualitative research design founded on Ball, Maguire, and Braun (2011) using in-depth interviews with the UEs to inquire about their practices in relation to the policy stakeholder, i.e., NKRSs and their parents, school administrators, and teachers, and their lived experiences as the primary policy enactors. Through the voices of the UEs, this study confirms that the educational well-being of the NKRSs has been threatened due to the lack of economic, social, and cultural capitals from their family and support within the school system. Likewise, UEs suffer from oppression, and their role as policy actors is limited by bureaucracy and prejudice. The thesis offers recommendations to include UEs in the drafting of educational policy, to improve relationships with the Ministry of Education and with educational staff to achieve educational equity.