@article{ART003354721},
author={성시원 and 장인철 and Lee Borimna},
title={The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents},
journal={The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea},
issn={1226-4822},
year={2026},
volume={34},
number={2},
pages={331-378}
TY - JOUR
AU - 성시원
AU - 장인철
AU - Lee Borimna
TI - The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents
JO - The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea
PY - 2026
VL - 34
IS - 2
PB - The Sociolinguistic Society Of Korea
SP - 331
EP - 378
SN - 1226-4822
AB - This study examines how social actors are discursively recontextualized across South Korea’s AI Digital Textbook (AIDT) policy, an educational initiative that has sparked public debate. Drawing on van Leeuwen’s concept of recontextualization, this study analyzes six policy documents released between 2020 and 2024, tracing the trajectory of redefining stakeholders’ roles throughout three phases of policy development: the Incubating, Introducing, and Developing AIDT. The analysis reveals that each phase repositions four actors—the government, teachers, EdTech companies, and students—to legitimize the policy agenda. The government shifts from designer to central authority to supporter, while maintaining structural dominance throughout. Teachers are progressively recast from aides to policy actors to autonomous classroom innovators, a discursive move that transfers institutional responsibility onto individual professionals. EdTech companies are elevated from peripheral service providers to innovators embedded within public education infrastructure. Students, despite being invoked as the policy’s primary beneficiaries, remain passive objects across all phases. Central to this recontextualization is an “education ecosystem” discourse, which absorbs tensions between public and private interests and between top-down governance and teacher agency through the language of mutual benefit and professional empowerment. This study argues that this ecosystem discourse functions as ideological naturalization to legitimize EdTech companies as actors in public education.
KW - AI in education;AI digital textbook;Critical Discourse Analysis;EdTech;recontextualization;education policy
DO -
UR -
ER -
성시원, 장인철 and Lee Borimna. (2026). The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 34(2), 331-378.
성시원, 장인철 and Lee Borimna. 2026, "The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents", The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, vol.34, no.2 pp.331-378.
성시원, 장인철, Lee Borimna "The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents" The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 34.2 pp.331-378 (2026) : 331.
성시원, 장인철, Lee Borimna. The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents. 2026; 34(2), 331-378.
성시원, 장인철 and Lee Borimna. "The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents" The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 34, no.2 (2026) : 331-378.
성시원; 장인철; Lee Borimna. The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 34(2), 331-378.
성시원; 장인철; Lee Borimna. The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea. 2026; 34(2) 331-378.
성시원, 장인철, Lee Borimna. The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents. 2026; 34(2), 331-378.
성시원, 장인철 and Lee Borimna. "The Recontextualization Trajectory of Social Actors in South Korea’s AIDT Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AIDT Policy Documents" The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 34, no.2 (2026) : 331-378.
