Enacted curriculum of private English kindergartens in Korea: Cases of three play-based English kindergartens in Seoul

In South Korea where English is highly valued for one’s academic and career success, the English immersion programmes offered by private English tutoring institutes (English kindergartens) have become a popular alternative to general, Korean-medium kindergartens. In contrast to the highly prescriptive policy governing general kindergartens, the policy for English kindergartens allows for autonomy regarding their curriculum. Several existing studies, however, have pointed out the negative impacts of such free rein on children’s balanced development in English kindergartens, due to its strong emphasis on English proficiency develop-ment. This multiple-case study, however, reveals that it is the lack of flexibility that causes these consequences, which is brought by another policy that governs the English kindergartens, i.e. private institute regulations. Guided by policy enactment theory and drawing on policy documents published at the national and institutional levels and the interviews with the directors of three English kindergartens, this study documents their practised curriculum and illustrates how unintended and unpredicted tension between policies inadvertently shapes the curriculum in play-based English kindergartens. It also shows how the directors navigate through the policy restrictions to realise their educational ideals. The chapter concludes with suggestions for the government on handling the parental aspiration for early English education. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.