On 9th November 2022, the Korean Ministry of Education announced that they would delete the term ‘sexual and gender minorities’ on the new curriculum. Disregarding the fact that it is of utmost importance to visualise and familiarise the existence of LGBTQ+ in protecting the students’ rights, the Ministry chose to wait and see the discrimination ongoing in school with no particular measure.
English Translation: 동치
Translation review: Juyeon
Writer of the original text: Miguel
Review and amendments to the original text: 권태, 보꾸, 희중
In Korea, students go through nine years of compulsory education in an elementary school and middle school, and many of them also go on to high school for another three years of education. A lot of the Koreans spend twelve years in school throughout their childhood and teenage years. Yet last month on 9th, Ministry of Education released a plan where they decided to cross out the ‘sexual and gender minorities’ in 12 years of education.
The Authority Feared Identity Confusion
The controversy is on the “Amended Curriculum of 2022.” If the plan gets approved, it will work as a guideline for class and authoring textbooks in elementary schools from 2024, middle/high school from 2025. The planned curriculum will erase the terms ‘sexual and gender minorities’ and ‘gender equality’ off the social studies, morals, and health care studies textbooks, substituting those terms into the vague ones as ‘minorities suffering from sexes and more,’ ‘prejudice against sex,’ ‘ethical dilemma regarding sexual discrimination,’ etc.
Jang Hongjae, an official in the Ministry of Education, said that if stated clearly in a curriculum, the term ‘sexual and gender minorities’ is going to confuse adolescents whose identity is yet to be established, and foster the concept of the ‘third sex’, which makes it clear that the decision was made to deliberately erase the LGBTQ+. The authority is accused of regressing even more as it already has a history of omitting LGBTQ+ drawing up a sex education standard of national level.
A School Where There Is No Queer
A current curriculum was revised in 2015, and we are still unable to find any traces of LGBTQ+ in school. According to a study, five textbooks used in Social Studies and Culture did not include any LGBTQ+ related contents. (Lim, Park & Mo, 2022) Only one textbook from high school briefly addressed LGBTQ+ contents, but the book is barely used in class anymore.
Dding Dong, LGBTIQ Youth Support Centre, and Ichae, a joint legal service, pointed out a poor condition of insufficient LGBTQ+ education in school in a report issued in 2022. They found out there is no LBGTQ+ content specified in education related laws, and National Human Rights Plans of Action (NAP) deleted the contents in 2012. The lack of contents applies the same to a gender sensitivity education aimed at teacher-to-be graduates, and only some local governments including Seoul, Jeonbuk, Chungnam, etc. state the rights of LGBTQ+ students in an ordinance of students rights.
The bigger trouble is the following consequence of the government’s stance to avoid using the word with an excuse that there is not yet social agreement.
National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) published “A Factual Study on Discrimination Accompanied by Sexual Identity and Orientation” which discloses a hidden scene of school. 79 out of 100 teacher respondents answered that they never had an education regarding the rights of sexual and gender minorities. Moreover every one of teacher respondents in service said their schools do not have neither any prevention on discrimination nor any policy protecting the rights of LBGTQ+.
The Course Curriculum as a Tool to Protect
One thing the Ministry said is right. The adolescence is and should be a period to establish various identities including sexual one. That being, it is of much importance that the curriculum clearly states the LGBTQ+ issues as one explores the possibilities of identifying oneself and learns to get along with others. Rainbow Action Against Sexual-Minority Discrimination South Korea pinpointed the role of education as “support strengthening the ability to respect each other’s diversity and engage in a relationship on an equal level” for the same reason.
NHRCK’s report in 2014 says 92 percent of 200 queer students experienced closeting themselves out of fear of getting bullied and discrimination. A response saying that they would not consult their teacher after a harassment on the matter of their sexual orientation followed at the rate of 87.5 percent, most of the reasons being ‘afraid that they might not understand and convert my identity.’
What queer students need for their positive school life is the teachers to support them. At the same time, we also need a clear curriculum and policy to back them up. One teacher from the same survey by Dding Dong and Ichae told that it is hard for teachers to lead a LGBTQ+ rights education alone. A teacher who tried to educate their students on the issue faced too many hateful attacks, and a certain hate group is actually guilty of protesting at school and bombarding the school with complaint calls.
The LGBTQ+ people who want to be a teacher are on the same page. Three queer women said in an interview that they want to become a teacher who communes with the queer adolescents, but the curriculum without LGBTQ+ is a challenge. (Shin, 2019) That being said, teachers always come up against opposition and their job even gets threatened because of the conservative school.
The Best Way to Get Our Rights Secured: Be Seen, Be Familiarised
Korea Women’s Development Institute (KWDI) reported on 29th November that in a survey of around 4000 middle school students, about 78 percent of them answered the education on LGBTQ+ is needed. Students already are aware of the diverse society, and they want to learn about it. One following research called into question the reality where there is no queer in textbooks, and feared that “it might have a bigger effect by not existing.” (Lim, Park & Mo, 2022) The issue is of great social importance, and that being omitted in textbooks will eventually lead to a distorted and narrow mindset on the society.
Of course, just mentioning the word ‘LGBTQ+’ is not going to fix all the problems but the bigger trouble is the following consequence of the government’s stance to avoid using the word with an excuse that there is not yet social agreement.
A lot of other countries have brought the issue into the schools. “The best way to get the rights and enhance it is to be seen and be familiarised. It is nonsense that the classroom never talks about gender.” A remark by one Spanish teacher would apply the same to Korea. As the new curriculum is not yet fixed, we will be looking at and delivering any updates.
English Translation: 동치
Translation review: Juyeon
Writer of the original text: Miguel
Review and amendments to the original text: 권태, 보꾸, 희중
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