Exploratory content analysis: Whiteness in Korean middle school science textbooks

Science textbooks, as one of the main tools for school science education, contain knowledge and practices valued by Western epistemological culture. As those who (will) live in a world expanding from the westernized to the multicultural, students, regardless of their cultural/ethnic backgrounds, should be supported to critically understand and use science. This study, using Whiteness as a conceptual tool, examine whether and how textbooks present science in ways to support Korean students' critical and cultural understanding of science discipline. Drawing on an exploratory content analysis of four kinds of Korean middle-school science textbooks, I identified and discussed three features of the textbooks' presentation of science: 1) scientific phenomena relevant to Korean students' lives; 2) English prevalence in scientific conceptualization; and 3) epistemic Whiteness. Collectively considering these features, I inferred Whiteness assumption underlying the textbook discourse. Implications were offered for classroom-science teaching and teacher education in South Korea.