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Seri Yoon, Waseda University, JapanAbstract
In 2018, South Korea implemented mandatory coding education in primary and lower secondary schools as part of a national education reform. While this policy is often celebrated as a forward-thinking strategy aligned with SDG 4.4, which aims to increase access to technical and vocational skills, it also reflects the country's unique industrial and economic structure, heavily shaped by export-driven conglomerates and a coordinated market economy model. Using a qualitative method, this study draws on policy documents, national curriculum guidelines, government reports, and economic development strategies to examine how South Korea's coding education policy reflects the structural characteristics of its coordinated market economy. Through document analysis interpreted within the Varieties of Capitalism framework, the research explores the institutional logic behind vocational education policy formation and its implications for the realization of SDG 4.4. By adopting Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) as a framework for analyzing education policy, this study contributes to a more structurally grounded understanding of skills development, strengthening the case for aligning educational reforms with broader socio-economic systems. It further contributes to global education discourse by questioning the uncritical adoption of high-tech vocational models and encouraging more context-specific strategies that reflect each state's economic and institutional configurations toward achieving the shared goal of SDG 4.4.
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Conference: ACE2025Stream: Educational policy
This paper is part of the ACE2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Yoon S. (2026) Beyond Coding: Reframing Vocational Education Through South Korea’s ICT Education Policy and the Varieties of Capitalism Framework ISSN: 2186-5892 – The Asian Conference on Education 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 795-806) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5892.2026.60
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5892.2026.60
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