James Joo-Jin Kim Center for Korean Studies
Korean Studies Colloquium
Via Zoom
7 pm PDT, 10 pm EDT, 11 am Seoul (Friday)
Reminder: the Zoom link for each talk will remain the same throughout the virtual series. If you would like to request the link, please email Seok Lee (kim-pks@sas.upenn.edu) with your name, affiliation, and email.
Korean education is well known for achieving relatively greater equality in academic achievement coupled with excellence, compared to many other countries. However, there is a growing concern that educational inequality, measured by the achievement gap between children from higher socioeconomic status (SES) families and children from low SES families, is increasing in South Korea. Yet, we know little about how the SES achievement gap has changed over time in Korean society. In this representation, I will address this issue by examining trends in the SES achievement gap during the past two decades (2000-2018) using data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). I will then discuss potential sources of the growing SES achievement gap in South Korea by drawing on recent international comparative research and how educational (in)equality will change over time in the future.