Reconceptualizing kindergarten education in South Korea: a postcolonial approach

This article examines the relevance of postcolonialism in early childhood education, with special reference to the kindergarten education system of South Korea. Most of the research on Korean kindergarten education has conceptualized it as preparing children for their later schooling and helping them learn the moral and social values most desired by society. In order to problematize such a monolithic conceptualization of kindergarten education, this article intends to reconceptualize it by analysing Korean kindergarten education in the context of its postcolonial condition. Using a postcolonial framework and Foucault's concepts of power and discourse, this article provides significant insights into reclaiming kindergarten education as a historical, cultural, and discursive product. With a specific focus on different conceptions of “readiness” as an example, how kindergarten education in Korea has become hybrid through postcolonial experiences is further elaborated.     

A comparison of higher education reform in South Korea and Germany

In this article, we compare two recent university reform projects: the Korean Brain Korea 21 project and the German Universities Excellence Initiative. We describe and compare both projects’ goals, selection processes, and preliminary outcomes. While the Korean project is characterized by a relatively high level of political intervention and can be seen as mainly a human resources development program with clearly defined strategic goals, the German tradition of university autonomy is also reflected in the reform project analyzed here. The project goal is more vaguely defined for the German project, but lies mainly in the field of research capacity building. Another key difference is the time horizons in both projects and the resulting incentives for publication and chosen research projects: while the Korean projects are evaluated on a yearly basis, the German projects have a longer time horizon for evaluation. A preliminary evaluation shows that both programs have succeeded in increasing publication output in the respective countries. However, an analysis of the quality of the new publications by, for example, their citation numbers, remains to be done in the future.     

战后韩国职业技术教育立法的发展轨迹

经济的发展要求职业技术教育与之相适应,职业技术教育立法是促进职业技术教育发展的有力手段。战后,韩国十分重视职业技术教育的立法工作,职业技术教育的立法经历了从初始、发展,到充实、完备的发展历程,职业技术教育的立法有力地促进了韩国职业技术教育的向前发展。     

The education of academically gifted students in South Korea: Innovative approaches in shadow education

Shadow education contributes to the learning and academic careers of Korean students. It benefits, in particular, gifted students who are strongly motivated and who outperform their peers academically. In this study, we explored the innovative characteristics of shadow education curricula for gifted students in terms of curricular programmes, methods, and teaching-learning materials. Also, we explored how shadow education practices meet the academic abilities and needs of students. Informed by a literature review and qualitative research methods, the results reveal how common shadow education is; effects of shadow education; and innovative elements used in shadow education for gifted students in Korea. Overall, we found that shadow education plays a crucial role in gifted education; it is a necessary component for understanding academic excellence among students in Korea. The findings are helpful for teachers, curriculum developers, and policymakers as they explore how public schooling can help to support strongly motivated and academically advanced students.     

Neoliberal practices amidst social justice orientations: global citizenship education in South Korea

Abstract

Global citizenship education (GCE) positions itself on the global arena as a transformative social justice oriented educational curriculum that addresses the political, social, economic and cultural inequalities brought about through colonisation and neoliberalism on the global and local levels. Through an exploration of the discourse, design and delivery of GCE in the young nation-state of South Korea, we argue that, in fact, GCE reinforces and maintains the hegemonic ideals of global capitalism; core-periphery global and local relationships; and dichotomous views of poverty and inequalities. We argue that these approaches reflect South Korea’s geopolitical realities, but that attitudes towards GCE in South Korea also reflect its cultural norms and values towards working together towards a common good. Ultimately, we call for a more nuanced approach to GCE scholarship in which we move away from theoretical divisions to practical applications of social justice that work within increasingly capitalist/neoliberal interests for a more inclusive world.     

Traveling with MI education in a turbulent sea: stories of South Korea

The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which multiple intelligences (MI) theory has been disseminated in search of its meaning, effectiveness and possibilities over the last decade in Korea. There have been a great number of Korean practitioners who have properly applied an ideal of MI theory in their local context. Western readers will be informed of how actively these educators participate in the grass‐roots reform process. A traditional or teacher‐based image of Oriental education culture may have to be redefined, at least in the current Korean educational context. In doing so, the authors reviewed related literature and research articles written by Korean scholars and practitioners as well as conducting in‐depth and focus‐group interviews nationwide to represent voices of Korean MI educators at school level. There has been substantive evidence that most students guided by MI instruction demonstrated better achievement in several subject areas; students typically labeled low achievers in traditional classrooms became better self‐regulated learners, showing higher self‐esteem. Finally, the Korean research community experienced the emergence of a new collaborative research culture in which MI educators are fully acknowledged as curriculum designers and researchers able to gain insight into culturally appropriate classroom practices. The authors end this paper reflecting on a future hope that the Korean research community will continue, both critically and collaboratively, to examine MI theory to make it more applicable in establishing culturally relevant pedagogical insights.     

The Diffusion of Disability Rights Policy: A Focus on Special Education in South Korea

This article examines the development of South Korean special education policy and suggests that different strategies of policy diffusion influenced the design of the policy at different times. Historically, South Korea relied on external pressures and influences, particularly US law and UN guidelines, to develop much of its human rights law, including special education. This article suggests that development of democratic infrastructure in South Korea led to improvements in the legislative development process in relation to current special education law, and this led to legislation that better identifies and addresses the needs of children with disabilities.     

Global citizenship education in South Korea: ideologies,inequalities, and teacher voices

Guided by neoliberalism and post-colonialism, this article takes the case of global citizenship education (GCE) in South Korea to explore social studies teachers’ experiences and their everyday voices in teaching GCE. The findings demonstrated a number of barriers that teachers confront and the entrenched ideologies behind these hurdles, which contributes to the marginalisation of GCE. By drawing scholarly and policy implications that consider the complicated global/local nexus of GCE within dominant Eurocentric and neoliberal discourses, the study adds to existing research on teachers’ GCE practices from different societies and expands upon the critique of Western-centric, neoliberal perspectives embedded in GCE.     

Equal access to early childhood education in South Korea using the Geographic Information System

While the importance of early childhood education is well documented, scant attention is afforded to the access to institutions for early childhood education. Uneven distribution of institutions for early childhood education in segregated metropolitan areas can cause inequality of educational opportunity. By using the Geographic Information System tools, this paper investigates the extent to which both demand and supply in early childhood education is geographically balanced across Seoul, Korea. The analysis finds that kindergartens and daycare centres authorised by the government are evenly distributed across Seoul according to the demand. Yet, market-oriented English kindergartens are disproportionately concentrated in the southern areas of Seoul where families with higher income levels are clustered. These findings suggest that because market-driven institutions for early childhood education are not uniformly distributed corresponding to the demand, home residence according to parents’ income and occupation creates a type of educational inequality.     

Enhancing computational thinking skills in informatics in secondary education: the case of South Korea

Educational technology research and development - The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching–learning process of informatics education in South Korea, where an informatics...     

The developmental history of labor education in South Korea from a sociopolitical and economic perspective

Although there is a considerable body of research regarding the relationships between the sociopolitical and economic transition and its implications for the education system in South Korea, there is little known about how sociopolitical and economic factors affect labor education practice in South Korea. The premise of the study is that the development of labor education is driven not only by workers’ needs but also by the state's policy to increase productivity while keeping the labor movement and political expression under control. Since many educators often overlook the importance of labor education by excluding it from adult education, very few studies have been conducted to identify the relationship between sociopolitical and economic factors and labor education in South Korea. The purpose of the study is thus to examine the effect of particular combinations of social, political, and economic forces on the development and expansion of labor education in South Korea during the period between the 1960s and the 1990s. The results of the study can be compared with studies of other countries that underwent a similar pattern of political and economic transformation.     

Teachers' beliefs and technology acceptance concerning smart mobile devices for SMART education in South Korea

Teachers' beliefs are a major factor in the effective use of new technology in teaching and learning. Recently, smart mobile devices (SMDs) such as smartphones, smart pads and tablet computers have been responsible for introducing broad innovations into the education field as Self-directed, Motivated, Adaptive, Resources-enriched, Technology embedded education in South Korea. Teachers' beliefs and technology acceptance concerning SMDs in South Korea can be either a facilitator or a barrier to the use of SMDs in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors of teachers' beliefs concerning SMDs, and to examine teachers' technology acceptance of SMDs in their lessons. To address these goals, 378 primary and 390 secondary teachers participated in a survey with a 25-item paired adjective questionnaire and a 12-item technology acceptance questionnaire. A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and multiple regressions were applied for the statistical analysis. The results indicate that teachers' beliefs were consistently revealed the five factors of immediacy, interest, interactivity, instability and inconvenience. Regarding the effect of the technology acceptance of SMDs on teachers' beliefs, the factors of instability, inconvenience and interactivity strongly related to the perceived usefulness and ease of use of SMDs. This finding indicates that teachers' beliefs that SMDs are unstable or uncomfortable can be the main barrier to the use of technology in the classroom.     

Special education in Romania

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to give a closer view of the realities in special education in Romania, as part of the general reform in the educational system. It outlines the most important features of the past that have led to the present problems which Romania has to face, and presents the main categories of disadvantaged children in the context of social protection guaranteed by the present laws. Where available, data with respect to the years 1991 to 1993 are given.     

Special education in Finland

ABSTRACT

Finland shares with its Nordic neighbours a broadly common orientation to provision for pupils who have special educational needs. Over recent decades, the country had invested substantially in this area, especially through the supply of specially qualified teachers. Recent legislation has moved the system more definitively towards provision in the ordinary school but there can be tension between, on the one hand, the demand for appropriate education in the child's local school, and on the other hand, economic stringency and demographic reality.     

Special education in Turkey

The quality and the prevalence of education are the major indicators of the development of a society. It is a kind of human right to every person living in the society to be educated in a sufficient way. The education of the disabled people, a social reality in Turkey, is not sufficiently carried out. This paper aims at the education of the disabled people in Turkey. In order to mention about the education of the disabled people, this paper also mentions about the general characteristics of the disabled. The service of special education has not reached all the disabled, and the disabled and their families are not aware of the importance of the education. Only 90 thousand out of over one million disabled children receive the education. Disabled children continue their training in five groups： the sight impaired, the hearing impaired, the orthopedic impaired, the mentally impaired and children with long-term illness. Raising awareness is very important for all of the Turkish people. So a social education is necessary in order to deal with this problem.     

当代韩国的中国学

分析了韩国的中国学研究发展历程及特点,认为韩国与中国同属汉字儒家文化圈,加上历史传统与地缘上的密切联系,全面认识和了解韩国的中国学研究历史和现状,总结韩国的中国学研究方法和特点,对于开拓国内学者的马克思主义中国化研究视角和方法有着积极的意义。     

Special education in Jordan

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief background about special education system in Jordan and particularly describes the present types of programmes and legislation provided within the country to students with special needs, as well as integration movement. Jordan has historically provided a limited number of educational opportunities for individuals with disabilities, but has recently demonstrated a movement toward a more comprehensive educational system that includes students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Nevertheless, special education in Jordan still faces many problems and challenges. Barriers to implementation, as well as recommendations to improve special education services in Jordan are also discussed.     

Special education in Pakistan

The aim of this research was to examine the type of activities as well as the challenges faced by befrienders supporting persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Twenty-nine volunteers befriending an equal number of families with children with ASD participated in this study. Content analysis was applied on visit logs (n = 465) completed by befrienders during a nine month period, supplemented by thematically analysed evidence derived from semi-structured interviews with befrienders at the end of their volunteering experience. In agreement with our expectations, findings indicate a variation in the type, number and location of activities as well as the challenges of befrienders, depending on the level of ability of persons with ASD. Befrienders in both groups were mostly involved in leisure activities, had greater social interaction with the high functioning autistic group and carried out more structured 1:1 activities with individuas with low functioning autism. Interestingly, befrienders in both groups did not differ significantly on their reported challenges. The implications of this befriending service as a means of social support for families with persons with ASD are discussed.     

Special education in Macedonia

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an overview of educational opportunities currently available for young people with disabilities in the (former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia. Information about Vygotsky's theory of defectology is presented, and its influence on the current service delivery system for persons with disabilities is described. Since independence in 1991, a series of reforms, some initiated by the signing of international declarations, have been introduced into mainstream and special education. The challenges posed by these reforms are discussed in the context of the need for East‐West partnerships based on mutual understanding and respect