Teaching security beyond borders: the DMZ as an educational landscape

In civic education, the sense of security brought into discussions informs how students engage with public issues and make decisions. This study foregrounds interpreted security as a critical force in shaping civic responsibility and collective identity. To explore how security is narrated and curated through educational practice, the research turns to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as a site where competing meanings of security intersect. Adopting environmental security as a connecting thread, this study examines how national, environmental, and human security are interwoven in the educational framing of the DMZ within its unique geopolitical and ecological context. By engaging with the DMZ in curriculum, this research discusses how security might be addressed beyond the boundaries of limited in-group interests to confront the shared insecurities of diverse lives and communities.