ABSTRACT
Although there is growing awareness of the importance of subaltern studies (see, e.g., Bhabha, 1994),1 most analyses of resistance, subjectivity, and identity-especially those that have been most influential and wish to make theoretical as well as empirical contributions-have been developed out of research on predominantly “Western” industrialized nations. While this has led to considerable insight, it has often smuggled in assumptions about the meaning of actions that are grounded in the historical experiences of these nations. This has generated a limited understanding of the importance of historical specificity, of conjunctural relations, and of the ways in which class, gender, and race/ethnic experiences take on specific meanings in different contexts. By focusing on one of these “different contexts”2-South Korea and its recent moves to institute career education and to have more students identify as manual workers-we wish to show how such historical and institutional specificities work to produce particular forms of resistance, subjectivity, and identity. In order to do this, we shall have to go inside schools and get much closer to the signifying practices of students and the educators who interact with them.
