This thesis consists of three case studies on Korean nationalism: the ‘Korean Wave,’ the relationship between technology and nationalism marked by the ‘iPhone fever,’ and ‘Hines Ward syndrome.’ The three cases and the scant attention paid to them are symptoms of both the profound changes in and the ascendancy of nationalism in contemporary Korea. Taking Korean nationalism as a discursive formation, not as a pathology or a necessary manifestation of national sovereignty, this study challenges the dominant concept of the Korean nation as a real entity. To examine these pertinent cases is an indispensable element in this study’s attempt to avoid the essentialized and fossilized understanding of the Korean nation and nationalism. By analyzing a wide range of discourses on the cases, this thesis seeks to capture the multilayered appreciation of Korean nationalism. The Korean Wave has been one of the most predominant discourses in which a set of heterogeneous cultural commodities, the Korean Wave, is represented as a demonstration of the Korean nation’s cultural potential. One of the purposes of this thesis is to deconstruct this naturalized link between culture and place. This study also rejects the deep-rooted belief in the relationship between technology and national development. Technology and science in Korea do not inherently belong to the pure realm of Truth. Technology and science have been reproduced and constructed as a driving force for and/or an indicator of national development, not only by the national elites but also by ordinary Koreans. Whereas Hines Ward as a marker of unstable boundaries of the Korean nation appears to pave the way for the elimination of long standing discrimination against mixed-blood (honhyeol) people, the unquestioned links between race and culture as well as place and identity are still prominent even in multiculturalism as an alternative to the label of honhyeol. Based on these findings, this thesis argues, despite the pronouncement of the popular globalization thesis envisioning the death of nations and nationalism, that Korean nationalism continues to exist as a center of everyday discursive practices. / text

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English as a foreign language (EFL) is quite different from English as a second language (ESL) in many respects. Few EFL studies, however, have been conducted with consideration given to the unique EFL environment. This case study of South Korean elementary EFL was designed to evaluate the previous (1997--2000) and new (2001-- ) curricula and materials based on the researcher's experience and a review of the literature. / This study first suggests communicative language teaching (CLT) criteria appropriate for elementary school pupils who are beginning to learn EFL in Korea, and then evaluates the two CLT-based curricula for the 4th grade based on the suggested criteria. Second, this study aims to examine the two different material sets for the two curricula focusing on spoken language communicative activities. For the material comparison, the Sisayoungasa Co. material set, one of 16 sets based on the previous curriculum, is compared to the new material set based on the 7th curriculum. / Perceptions of the curriculum and material change were considered from three perspectives: three teachers, a policy maker and a researcher. It was revealed that opinions from the three perspectives vary considerably. The study also found that despite the recent attempt to implement CLT-based elementary EFL, there are still deficiencies in the Korean elementary EFL curriculum and materials.

This inquiry explores six Korean students' personal narratives about their living and learning experiences in their study abroad contexts. My goal is to examine the relationships between learner agency and symbolic power embedded in these six students' second language (L2) sociocultural contexts such as school, home and communities. The theoretical framework is derived primarily from Vygotskian sociocultural theory, Bakhtinian dialogic theory, and Bourdieuian critical approach to language practices. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative approach, I examine social, cultural, historical and political forces that influence the ways these students perceive, evaluate and negotiate their challenges and struggles in their social worlds. In a conventional approach to language studies, students are often seen as passive objects to be controlled by task instructions provided by classroom teachers. A growing number of L2 researchers challenge the artificial distinction between language learners and their social worlds. They emphasize that L2 learning should go far beyond mastery of vocabulary and syntax. However, over-simplified understanding of sociocultural influences on L2 practices can stereotype L2 students from the same cultural background assuming they share similar knowledge, beliefs and values. A reductionistic stance of culture has the danger of neglecting the complexity of L2 individuals' different voices and meaning-making processes. I argue that these L2 learners are far more complex than just 'ESL students' or 'non-native speakers'. I collected the participants' narratives for a six-month period primarily through open-ended interviews, including a variety of documentation such as samples of course work, personal notes, emails, and field notes. The analyses of the data suggests that although all six participants share certain commonalities such as being Korean and being educated in a Korean national educational system, they are quite diverse in the challenges they experience and types of symbolic power they perceive, evaluate and negotiate in their different social worlds. While engaging in various L2 literacy practices, they were consciously crossing different social spaces, taking different positionings, and negotiating among multiple beliefs, values and meanings about social relations of power. Their agency to negotiate the complex social relations of power manifests in the ways they invest in achieving different forms of capital, such as 'cheong' relationships as social capital and searching for meaning in life as spiritual capital. The data implies that L2 students are complex yet active social agents. Thus, these students' struggles in their L2 learning processes should be conceived as a complex process of exercising learner agency in their multiple social worlds, rather than be attributed only to cognitive capability or lack of motivation.

<p>This study investigated real life situations which learners in South Korea grade 8-10 learners would prefer to be used in school mathematics. This thesis is based on the ROSMEII (Relevance&nbsp / of School Mathematics Education) questionnaires and interviews, which was used to examine the preferred mathematical learning contexts for South Korean grade 8-10 learners. The study&nbsp / investigates the affective factors that pupils perceive to be of possible relevance for the learning and teaching of mathematic / and is aimed at providing data that might form part of a basis for a&nbsp / local theory of the mathematics curriculum. The standardized ROSMEII survey questionnaire of 23closeended items that relate to some aspects of mathematics on a 4-point Likert-type scale&nbsp / was administered to Korean grade 8-10 learners at the end of compulsory schooling, and mainly 14 to 16 year old cohorts. The data for this study were collected from a sample of 1839 learners drawn from 26 South Korean schools in the year 2009. Interviews were conducted to gauge the pupils&lsquo / preference of the ROSMEII questionnaire contexts and used to validate learners&lsquo / responses. In&nbsp / analyzing their responses, it became clear that, on the average, views expressed were common to all groups of pupils in South Korea (whether male or female, or from the metropolitan, city, or countryside). The clusters of the most preferred mathematical learning contexts are linked to youth culture, which learners are usually and easily engaged with in one way or another. These&nbsp / clusters include the sports, leisure and recreation cluster / planning a journey/popular youth culture cluster the technology cluster / the making of computer games, storing music and videos on&nbsp / CD&lsquo / s and Ipods. The lowest preferred mathematical learning contexts are: an agricultural cluster which focuses on agricultural matters and traditional games (yut). In conclusion, this study&nbsp / suggests that teachers should use contexts that increase learners&lsquo / interest in classroom activities. Therefore mathematics curricula and textbooks which are appropriate to this context must be&nbsp / provided in order to provide more efficient mathematics education. It is imperative that the Korean school system must develop a particular program for nurturing learners&lsquo / mathematical power.&nbsp / Furthermore, mathematics education policy makers must reconsider whether the current education system is appropriate, and also listen to learners&lsquo / preferences when designing appropriate&nbsp / mathematics curriculum and textbooks.</p>

This thesis examines the attempts of the Christian Wolnammin and Christian Saeteomin to construct a catholic community within Younghak Presbyterian Church, Seoul. Both groups come from the same region in the Northern territory, yet have different identities based on the fact that their exodus to South Korea took place during different periods of the last half century. Both before and since their arrival in South Korea around 60 years ago, Christian Wolnammin were socialized in the context of a deep-rooted anti-Communist ideology. In sharp contrast, recent Christian Saeteomin were socialized by Juche (self-reliance) ideology (the official government ideology of North Korea) prior to leaving North Korea in the last decade. The contrasting ideologies cause tension and even hostility between the groups in Youngnak Presbyterian Church, posing significant difficulties for creating a space for mutual fellowship and respect. Members of the two groups did not perceive the extent of differences between them until they met each other in the church. Prior to coming together, both communities desired unification, including the sharing of what they assumed was an ethnically homogeneous identity. The serious misinterpretation of symbols and behaviour patterns caused disappointment and tension. Consequently, examples of exclusion began to emerge in Youngnak Presbyterian Church, with at least some Christian Saeteomin wanting to return home. The present study is a response to their difficulties. It locates, describes and analyses the conflicts, reflects on the place of ideology in Christian practice evident in Youngnak Presbyterian Church, and outlines a route towards a practical and prophetic resolution based on the theological concept of reconciliation and embrace.

Little is known about Korean older migrants and their lives in New Zealand. They are likely to be ‘invisible’ in the community and wider society. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the issue of elder mistreatment and filial piety among Korean immigrant families in New Zealand. The study was designed with a mixed methodological approach that utilised both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data were collected from three sources: key informant interviews with 20 key informants, a structured survey with 50 older people, and in-depth interviews with 10 abused persons. Data were analysed by employing a two-fold analytical approach. In the primary analysis, concept mapping and SPSS analysis were respectively used to analyse the data collected from qualitative and quantitative studies. Major points of the findings emerged from the secondary analysis in which all data were evaluated by utilising the concept mapping method in an integrated way. Elder mistreatment occurred among Korean older migrants who arrived in New Zealand during their old age. The findings of the study have shown how older people manage their experiences of elder abuse and neglect in the new country. Psychological and emotional effects of elder mistreatment have been highlighted in relation to ‘Hwa-byung’, a culture-bound anger syndrome among victims. The concept of ‘anomic abuse’ has been developed based on the experiences and perceptions of older people who faced difficulties with their offspring because of changes in cultural norms and regulations. The concept of ‘filiality’ is presented as an alternative term to ‘filial piety’ reflecting the emphasis on filial love and emotional closeness between generations in the care of older people. The study has provided a filial justice approach to working with older people as a framework to tackle the problem of elder mistreatment in domestic settings in order to promote the human rights, well-being and health of older people. / Thesis available in print.

This thesis examines the work of three Korean contemporary art practitioners: Lee Ufan (b. 1936), Lee Bul (b.1964) and the collective flyingCity (formed 2001). Lee Ufan is a senior Korean sculptor, painter and writer, who, during a long and productive career, has been based in Tokyo and Paris, and is now recognised in Korea, as well as internationally. Both Lee Bul and flyingCity have participated in projects at the Govett-Brewster Gallery for Contemporary Art in New Plymouth, New Zealand. These three art practices demonstrate a trend during the last fifty years from the individual artist working in a studio (Lee Ufan), to the artist moving from city to city making and showing artworks (Lee Bul), to artist collectives, working with community groups in the mode of relational aesthetics (flyingCity).

Languages can differ with respect to the way in which transitive events are realized in transitive situations, resulting in different transitivity patterns. In particular, languages differ in the ways of linking the semantic notion `agent' with the grammatical notion `subject'. Based on a cognitive-functional approach, this study examines some differences between English and Korean with respect to the questions of how far and in what ways the linguistic realization of transitivity can be varied in terms of the semantic extension of transitivity from prototypes, variation in verb transitivity, and agency in transitive constructions. As for language-specific factors that characterize the difference in transitivity between English and Korean, it is proposed that English is more permissive than Korean in the way non-prototypical agents are realized as agentive subjects, resulting in a wider range of the semantic extension of agentivity from prototypical transitive constructions.Different linguistic preferences involving constructing some entities as a main causative factor (i.e., non-agentive subjects vs. agentive subjects) play a significant role in the conceptualization of transitive events, thereby leading to differences in the coding of causation in transitive clauses between the two languages. In English, the concept of agency can be more easily extended to include inanimate entities than it can be in Korean. Accordingly, English extends the notion of agent to a wider range of situations than Korean, hence allowing non-prototypical agents to be construed as agents. More specifically, the semantic features of prototypical agents in English (e.g., intention, result, responsibility, etc.) can be freely extended to inanimate causative situations in a greater degree than in Korean.A general typological difference between English and Korean in terms of competing notions of agentivity is that compared to Korean, English is freer in assigning a large number of different semantic roles to subjects without requiring concomitant morphosyntactic changes such as passivization (or intransitivization); English tends to overtly express agency, focusing on individual entities (both animate and inanimate) in transitive events, while Korean is reluctant to verbalize non-agentive elements, covering up their inanimacy by means of indirect expressions based on a result/effect clause and relying on different structural strategies (i.e., passive structures, lexical intransitive verbs, and inchoative forms).Finally, it is suggested that different linguistic manifestations in the notions of agency and causation between English and Korean lead to the varying degree of cognitive categories that structure the way in which the language speaker perceive and interpret transitive events, hence resulting in contrasting construals of agentivity (i.e., agent/cause/process-oriented expressions vs. result/effect-oriented expressions) in the expression of transitivity. / Department of English

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