From My Expression to Our Expressions: Multidirectionality of Learning in the Globalized Korea

In this article, I examine how globally dominant socialization ideas and practices meet with local concerns in a preschool classroom in South Korea, focusing in particular on children's and teachers’ interactive participation in indigenizing processes. By analyzing classroom interactions surrounding the imported classroom activity called “message center,” the article shows that children, rather than passively adopt teachers’ interpretation of global imports, create their own meanings for them to address goals of their culture‐laden peer worlds. Furthermore, children's own interpretation leads to changes in their teachers’ understandings and enactment of imported practices and values. Findings of this article articulate the agentive role both children and teachers play in socialization landscapes and the dynamism of education in globalized contexts. [socialization, children's agency, globalization, Reggio Emilia, South Korea] Abstract in Korean . , , . ‘ ’ , . . .