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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 26, No. 0, pp.363-379
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 28 Feb 2026
Received 03 Nov 2025 Revised 12 Jan 2026 Accepted 12 Jan 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.26..202602.363

When Technology Speaks for Education: Uncovering Ideologies in South Korea’s AIDT Policy Discourse

Mun Woo Lee
Associate Professor Department of English Language and Literature Yonsei University Oesol Building, Yonsei-ro 50, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 03722, Tel: +82-2-2123-2325 munwoo@yonsei.ac.kr


© 2026 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study examines the ideological underpinnings of South Korea’s Artificial Intelligence and Digital Textbook (AIDT) policy discourse. While digital innovation is often presented as a neutral and inevitable force in educational reform, critical scholarship highlights that policies are always ideologically situated. Drawing on policy documents, media reports, and government statements, this study employs an integrated methodological approach that combines text mining and critical discourse analysis (CDA) to uncover how the AIDT policy discursively constructs technology, teachers, and education. The analysis identifies three interrelated discourses: technological determinism, which frames technology as the autonomous driver of educational change; standardization and managerialism, which position AIDT as a tool for centralized control and uniform content delivery; and invisibility of the educational field, which marginalizes teachers’ agency and local school contexts. Together, these discourses reveal how AIDT is framed less as a pedagogical tool than as an ideological and managerial project, aligning education with neoliberal and technocratic agendas. By analyzing the discursive construction of educational technology policy, this study advances critical perspectives on EdTech governance and highlights the need to re-situate technology within social, linguistic, and educational contexts.

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Textbooks (AIDT), educational technology policy, technological determinism, standardization and managerialism, teacher agency, critical discourse analysis

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