Institutionalizing environmental education in South Korea: an examination through a historical new institutionalism approach

Environmental education (EE) is shaped by national institutional arrangements, yet its long-term development at the institutional level remains underexamined. This study examines the historical institutionalization of EE in South Korea. Drawing on historical institutionalism, it analyzes documentary sources through a framework distinguishing structures, institutions, and actors. The analysis covers three periods defined by two critical junctures: the enactment of the Environmental Education Promotion Act in 2008 and the declaration of carbon-neutrality in 2020. The findings show that global environmental and educational discourses were selectively translated through Korea’s developmental-state governance, centralized curriculum system, and economic policy priorities. Professional and civic actors pursued influence largely through state-mediated channels such as legislation and curriculum reform. After 2008, this pathway became self-reinforcing through statutory planning, Ministry of Environment-centered responsibility, budgetary routines, and stable policy classifications. Post-2020 reforms expanded educational responsibilities, actor participation, and monitoring mechanisms, but layered new arrangements onto rather than displaced the established pathway. Korea’s EE is therefore extensively formalized but unevenly embedded across environmental and educational governance. The study contributes to comparative understanding of how national EE systems translate global models, reproduce institutional paths, and undergo gradual reconfiguration.