Chapter 7: Challenges and Opportunities for Citizenship Education in the Changing Society of South Korea

Korea is a country that has experienced rather radical change in a relatively short time in modern history (Chung, 2010). During the period from 1910 to 2010, Korea transformed herself from one of the poorest kingdoms in the world to a democratic republic that ranks 11th in global economic development, has the fourth highest foreign exchange reserve, and enjoys one of the most developed IT infrastructure systems and facilities that produces steel, high-quality ships, automobiles, high-tech electronic goods including memory chips and smart phones.

Korea has experienced serious ups and downs politically that can be divided into four distinct periods: (1) the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), (2) the authoritarian dictatorship period (1948–1960), (3) the military rule period (1961–1979), and (4) the democratization period (1980–2010).