Toward Culturally Sustaining Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) Textbooks: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Linguistic, Cultural, and Racial Ideologies Across Earlier and Revised Editions

Abstract

This article critically examines Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) textbooks published by major Korean universities and widely used around the world. Using critical discourse analysis and a culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) perspective, this article analyzes how earlier and revised textbooks represent language, culture, and race, and whether these representations align with CSP principles. Findings reveal that although revised editions introduce more nationalities and visibly diverse characters, the underlying racial logics of the earlier editions remain unchanged, where whiteness remains the default Western norm, Korean ethnonationalism persists, and racialized hierarchies are reproduced in subtler forms. Similarly, cultural representation remains static. Despite the inclusion of contemporary examples, culture continues to be framed as fixed, homogeneous, and nationally bounded, with little attention to hybrid, diasporic, or learners’ lived cultural practices. In terms of language, despite minor gestures toward multilingual awareness in the revised editions, the textbooks continue to privilege standard Seoul Korean while erasing regional, diasporic, and hybrid varieties, thus reinforcing a monolingual ideology that marginalizes learners’ diverse linguistic repertoires. Together, these patterns illustrate the persistent dominance of monolingual and monocultural ideologies in materials intended for linguistically and culturally diverse learners. Through a CSP lens, this article underscores the need for more inclusive KFL curricula that fully reflect and sustain the diverse linguistic, cultural, and migratory experiences of contemporary KFL learners.