Education in Korea Essay

2012

Acta Koreana , 2018

In the age of global flows and transborder scholarship, where does Korean culture begin and end? Who is included and excluded? And who gets to decide? This special issue aims to critically engage the notion of Korean culture and reflect on what has been at stake in producing knowledge about it, from within Korea and from outside, for Koreans and for non-Koreans.

Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management, 2017

Confucian cultural traditions in South Korea have fueled a passion for education that has driven learners to excel in literacy and mathematics. At the same time, it has led to extreme competition that may not be economically viable long term. Cultural norms emphasizing conformity have also prevented widespread acceptance of creative learning styles and diverse opinions. Within this article, Korean educational issues are explored in relation to both past cultural traditions and contemporary trends. Analysis suggests that new hybrid models of leadership and education should be utilized to honor past traditions, while simultaneously cultivating the democratic skills needed in today's global society.

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2019

The encounter between Confucianism and western learning is often portrayed as a confrontation between Confucianism, associated with passivity and hierarchy, and the western philosophical tradition, connected with independence and rationality. This bifurcating tendency is pronounced in the historiography of nineteenth-century Korean history, when Koreans established western style schools and published modern textbooks. This article is neither a defense of Confucianism nor an endorsement of the western model, but a proposal to reexamine this dichotomization that is predominant in current scholarship and the assumption that the two were irreconcilable. A comparison of Korean readers demonstrates that the process of the incorporation of western ideas was less one of linear progress based on the displacement of Confucianism than an amalgamation of different ideas and values. Thus, from a more broadly defined Confucian framework emerged a new sense of civil duties that allowed intellectuals and government bureaucrats to discuss nationalism, citizenship, and the public sphere.

2020

Shim Tae-shik, Woo Eungsoon, and many others who helped me during my period as Humanities Korea research professor. I continued to bene t from my connection to RIKS a er I took up my position at King's University College, when they frequently o ered me a place to study during summer research trips to Seoul. I nished the writing of my book during my stay at the Kyujanggak Institute, in-. I thank especially Sem Vermeersch and Kum Heekyung for their help and assistance. Other scholars who have provided me with vital feedback during conferences and other occasions include

INContext, 2024

Contemporary Korean society is often described as dynamic, a view shared by both Koreans and foreigners. This perception contrasts sharply with Korea’s historical image as backward and stagnant. To understand this shift, we must explore whether Korean culture and society have fundamentally changed or if we had a misconception of Korean culture. Some attribute Korean dynamism to the “bbali-bbali” (hurry-up) spirit, a cultural trait. Others point to Korea’s rapid economic transformation over the past seven decades, which fostered a strong work ethic and a can-do spirit. However, these explanations raise further questions: Why are Koreans so driven by the “bbali-bbali” mentality? What underpins their work ethic and dedication to economic growth? This paper aims to provide a social scientist’s perspective on Korean cultural dynamism, focusing on the Korean character, social structure, and social mobility.

Asian Social Science, 2010

The cultural contexts of South Korea and the United States are vastly different in many ways. The purpose of this study is to examine the origins of these differences, the implications on the present-day societies, and to try to determine any trends for the future. The differing philosophies upon which each society was founded have caused Korea to become an exceptionally high-context society, while the United States represents a significantly lower-context society. While the GLOBE Study results for these countries confirm much of what we would expect of low-and high-context societies, this study concludes that the results indicate that South Koreans seem to be ready to cast off some of their traditional ways and embrace a more egalitarian society, and that the two cultures' acceptance of similar idealized cultural values will lead to a gradual convergence of even such drastically divergent cultures.

Korean Confucianism was firmly rooted in the Chinese Classics. Moreover, Korea paid close attention to developments within Chinese Confucianism over the centuries, and, as a result, Korean Confucians debated many of the same issues Chinese Confucians debated. However, that does not mean Korean Confucianism was a carbon copy of Chinese Confucianism. Koreans made Confucianism their own and felt free to use the tools Confucianism provided to address issues that were of particular interest to them. One of those issues, particularly salient during the Chosŏn dynasty, was the contradiction between the assumption of human moral perfectibility and the recognition of human moral frailty. A related concern was the psychology of self-cultivation. Koreans delved much deeper into moral psychology than Chinese Confucians normally did. They did so out of a desire to find a way to overcome the human moral frailty that Chinese Confucianism told them should not be a major problem, but Koreans recognized as a strong barrier to developing the ability to consistently think and act appropriately. The search for an explanation of human moral frailty, motivated by a desire for a way to eliminate frequent moral lapses, lies behind many of the twists and turns in Chosŏn dynasty Neo-Confucian thought. In exploring those twists and turns, I will pay particular attention to the 4-7 debate, the horak debate, and the appeal of Catholicism in the late 18th century. I will end with a discussion of the Confucian elements in Tonghak thought, and how that relates to the problem of human moral frailty. Before I do that, however, I need to briefly discuss a point of tension at the heart of Confucianism from the beginning, a tension that Koreans showed particular interest in and sought to resolve in distinctively Korean ways. That tension is the tension between the assumption that human beings are innately virtuous and the recognition that consistently acting virtuous is not always easy. We need to note that the Confucian assumption that virtue is innate is not the same as saying that acting virtuously is easy, as least not at first. The statement that virtue is innate in human beings is simply another way of saying that all human beings are capable of developing a virtuous character, and virtuous habits, through their own efforts. It doesn't mean that human beings are born acting virtuously. It simply means that they don't need external assistance, such as help from a god, to become virtuous. All they have to do cultivate their natural virtuous tendencies. This is clear even in the A nalects when Confucius makes clear his belief that virtue is definitely not something far away and unobtainable. Confucius states, of supreme virtue, " Is Goodness