Thoughts: Global Citizenship Education in South Korea

Moon, Rennie J., and Jeong-Woo Koo. 2011. “Global Citizenship and Human Rights: A Longitudinal Analysis of Social Studies and Ethics Textbooks in the Republic of Korea.” Comparative Education Review 55(4): 574-599.

I’ve been reading this on my lunch breaks at work (but not aloud, because people give you funny looks). Maybe if it sounds interesting, you’ll decide to read it as well, or, ask questions so that you don’t have to read it. J This is by no means a critical review; I just thought I’d share (it being the holiday season and all).

The gist of the article is that civic education in S. Korea has shifted from a nation-centric theme to one with an increased emphasis on global citizenship. They conclude that this is largely a result of textbooks becoming “more learner-centered, encouraging students to become self-directed, empowered individuals in a global society.” (574) to be honest, their results make sense and seem like a perfectly ordinary conclusion to me. It’s all the little things that add up to this along the way that I find intriguing.

            Their first step is laying the foundation that mass-schooling everywhere is used to promote a strong national identity. So far, I agree. They then argue that the growing global human rights movements are influencing education systems as they focus on the inherent worth of human life. This creates a sense of “membership in both subnational and supranational groups within and beyond the state.” (575) human rights movements really are nothing new if you think about it. It reminds me of the parable about the Jew, the Samaritan, and what it means to be neighbors (if you haven’t heard this one, let me know and I’ll tell you the grand tale). Anyway, Moon and Koo are basically saying that the importance of human rights means that children are being taught about people beyond their physical, ethnic, and cultural borders- people as people and people as individuals. In order to teach about individual worth, you need to foster the individual student. Hence, student-centrism. My favorite part of their review/argument/intro comes a few sentences later when they add the qualifier that, of course, when you are discussing the growing priority of human rights, you can’t forget that there are global and local influences. This is my favorite because they’re alluding to the different “camps” in CIE- the neo-institutionalists and, well, the non-neo-institutionalists (a.k.a. culturalists). I smile because they are pretty much saying, “Yeah, we know you’re going to pick apart this next part, but that’s not the point of this paper, so we’re not going to discuss it anyway.” I went to a conference last spring where the leading scholars in this field had a virtual battle over their respective theories. There is something truly scary about an angry academic.

            I like Moon and Ku’s reasoning as to why they chose S. Korea (primarily history, culture, government, and geography). I can picture how this study would turn out soooooo if they chose someplace like, say, Canada. The reason behind studying S. Korea as opposed to neighboring countries is that it has not needed to develop a strong national identity due to transitionalism. In this sense, S. Korea has used civics classes (in the past) to promote national identity, but it has not needed to create it.

            That was just the intro. In the background for their study, they point out something I had never noticed but which totally makes sense.

(totally proud of myself for creating this in Paint- please excuse the typo)

They ask three questions: “(1) When and to what extent do global citizenship themes appear in south Korean civics textbooks? (2) How do school textbooks discuss these new themes, and in what ways is this content learner-centered? (3) What internal and/or external factors help explain the changes?” (578) Moon and Koo offer several propositions, and no, these are not the kind of propositions that just came to mind.

Prop #1- “global citizenship themes will increase in response to cultural trends in the global institutional environment.” (578)

Prop #2- while global citizenship themes will continue to grow, “collective traditions and corporate society” aren’t going to magically disappear.

Prop #3a- “the level of student centrism in the content and design of ethics and social studies textbooks will

Prop #3b- “textbooks become more student-centered over time.” (594)

Prop #4- “Both global and local factors influenced the adoption of global citizenship education in South Korea.” (579)

When I first read these propositions, I wasn’t really paying attention, so I thought they had created five possible answers to their questions. I’ve never claimed to be the brightest bulb in the box. J

Next, they go about proving these props and explaining why they chose certain textbooks and methods. The methods make sense ( a mixed methods approach by classifying themes, coding keywords, interviews, averaging the number of keywords per page, etc.). I did have a couple of issues with the individuals they interviewed (7 academics, 13 people from NGOs, and 8 government officials). It would have been more comprehensive to see actual teachers included in the number, but I can cut them some slack since this was a top down approach looking solely at the creation and content of teaching material and not the implementation. Their choice of textbooks was already defined by the sheer fact that the government sponsors the textbooks (they do mention the Seventh National Curriculum which allows for some leeway in this), as opposed to the U.S. where textbook publication is a private industry. It is of interest to note that they chose to examine social studies and ethics textbooks rather than history textbooks. To me, this is an especially important distinction to make. I really wish they would have included history textbooks in their study, as these others will have a predetermined bias towards the authors’ propositions. I would probably make the same choice they did, for reasons of time and feasibility, but what if Michelangelo had decided to only paint grown up humans and left out all the little cherubs? The painting would be incomplete, much like this article. (ok, That was probably the worst example ever, but you get the picture- pun intended).

Rather than describe all their results and using lovely graphs and tables as proofs that they did not sit around one day drinking coffee and writing whatever they felt like, I think the following quotes sum up or make great observations about what they learned.

·         “…rather than framing democracy as a global value, the primary intent of Korean civics text in the 1980s is to decry North Korean values in order to legitimate the South Korean national collective ideal.” (585)

·         “The observed patterns suggest that national citizenship themes are not as prevalent as before, making space for the inclusion of new citizenship themes.” (587)

·         “The fact remains that mention of global citizenship-themed words are not as frequent as their national counterparts and that mentions of all global citizenship-themed words are close to only one mention in every five pages. However, their sudden increase in coverage may imply a fundamental change in the nature of civics education in Korea.” (587)

·         “Elements of student-centrism appear regardless of the type of content. Global and national citizenship themes in recent texts incorporate both content and pedagogical methods that legitimate the interests, choices, and perspectives of the student.” (589-590)

Before concluding, Moon and Koo explain the factors they believe lead to this thematic shift in textbooks. These include, but are not limited to, the Presidential election of Kim Dae-jung, his emphasis on human rights, the formation of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK), and international standards. Finally, they point out that all of their propositions were correct. They also make certain to clarify that global citizenship and nationalism do not cancel each other out and can coexist peacefully. I wonder if it’s a little too early to make that conclusion, but I suppose only time will tell.

Happy Endings

I read an article the other day, about how Global Citizenship is being taught in S. Korean Social Studies textbooks, and it made me want to share a few of my profound thoughts and opinions. Then I skimmed over the newsfeed on my Facebook page and had a minor, inferiority-complex attack based on the uber intelligent and diligent postings of my friends and cohorts. Therefore, I decided to write about something a bit fluffier- those moments in Korean dramas when nothing goes as it should and you seriously wonder why the writer(s) had to seriously screw it up in the end.

Example 1- Assorted Gems- I thought Ruby would end up with Kyle. Instead, she ended up with the same guy from the beginning. Granted, his character matured enough, but I thought hers did as well. Therefore, shouldn’t she eventually end up with the one who makes her a better person?

Example 2- Lovers in Paris- I’m all for open endings and ambiguity- at least I can tell myself it ended well. To complete the show with "oh, and by the way this beautiful love story was a figment of her imagination" is either poor writing on the part of the writer or someone trying to hard to be artistic and meaningful. If you’re going to tell a fairy tale, it should remain one until the end.



This is where it should have ended. Oh well. 

 

Example 3- Sign- I loved this show, but having the main lead sacrifice himself needlessly in the end for the sake of justice was upsetting – especially as it caught me by surprise and I ended up bawling in my living room at 3 a.m. (I had the same sort of reaction in NCIS when Kate died).  If he was such a smart man, couldn’t he have figured out another method?

 

 

At least the other couple lived.

"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."    - Orson Welles

Hope

Last year about this time I had a conversation with my professor on a book we were reading, Kafka's The Castle, and he asked a question about a few of the characters (possibly the assistants) that has stuck with me. It had to do with imperfection and how without the faults there is no room for improvement. It got me to thinking about how I have hope in situations that are imperfect. There is no need for me to grow or stretch myself if I already have or am what I want to be. Lately, I've been working with people who are satisfied with their lot and life and have no ambition. In a way, they remind me of my grandmother, who is perfectly content to kick the bucket any old time, because she thinks she has finished everything she wants to do. I hope (there's that word again!) that when I reach antiquity I still have interests and desires. I'm all for learning new skills at whatever age, because it brings life and hope. There was hope in The Castle for X to reach it because the bureaucracy was fallible, If it had been perfect, there would be no point in attempting to enter. Just a thought...or three.

Bride of the Sun (Episode 1)

I think I love this drama for all of the reasons why I shouldn’t. It’s definitely not exploring new territories, it looks and acts like the daily drama it is, and it hasn’t been subtitled yet. Basically, there are going to be birth secrets, inappropriate relationships, an abundance of female histrionics, and all in a language I can’t understand*. I have already watched the first twelve episodes.

This show gives some of my favorite supporting actors more time to shine. It doesn’t really have a mainstream actress or actor, but contains characters by people I have loved in their previous incarnations. The young love interest, Jung Eun Woo, of the main girl is played by the dude from H.I.T.- the ultra professional cop who rode his bike to work J, and the main girl, Jang Shin Young, is the boy band manager from I Am Legend. I always sort of wished she would end up with the has-been rock-star composer guy. I loved him. Anyway, the real reason I am watching this is for the old man, Han Jin Hee, who marries the young heroine. That sounds really sleazy and sad all at the same time as I write this, but how can I not love him? He’s the dad from The Greatest Love (and about every other Korean drama ever). I do miss his Hyun Bin homage of a sparkly tracksuit, but I am certain I will adapt to his more mainstream look as the show progresses. Oh, and the restaurant manager from 49 Days plays his sidekick/secretary (who I’m thinking may be evil, but not entirely sure at this point). It’s a good thing that this drama is so blatant in its acting as otherwise I am certain I would never figure out what’s going on. Then again, I may never (which is half the fun).

The plot of the show seems pretty straight forward. A hardworking young girl’s life goes to rack and ruin, a lonely, but extensively rich old man rescues her from certain doom- probably working as a hostess somewhere (although we haven’t gotten that far yet)- and she moves on up as his trophy wife.

·         These recaps are totally subject to conjecture based on body language and background music as my understanding of the Korean language pretty much consists of Oppa and other nomenclatures.

Episode 1

We begin by meeting our plucky heroine, Kim Hyo Won, as she does all sorts of odd jobs with a cheery smile designed to make us fall in love with her resourcefulness and positive stance on life. However, all is not perfect in her sunny world as we soon see from her interactions with a sick little brother. At home, Hyo Won visits with little bro who seems just as cheerful as she is. She chats with mom, who comes off a little ditzy, and dad, Maeng Sang Hoon, enters. Dad is the obedient servant/secretary to the Chairman in My Princess, but in this he is an unemployed father whose future is beginning to look up.

Next morning, Hyo Won heads off to her new job at a resort/water park with her friend, who may also be related- so I’ll refer to her as Cuz in the future. They stop their tour of the facilities to gape at the costumed divers performing at a waterfall looking thing. On a side note, I had a friend of a friend who used to do performance diving in college, and the looks the two girls give the main diver is totally the same as the looks girls used to give him. This is the moment where our heroine gets a good look at Choi Jin Hyeok. He confidently acknowledges the crowd below and leaps to his certain death. Well, it would be certain if we didn’t know that he was a diver, performing at waterpark, and not the kind of guy to kill himself in front of a multitude of small children. He may be wearing eyeliner, but it doesn’t seem to be a psychological statement.

Enter a confident, beautiful woman with a gun. She, Lee Ye Ryun, is the daughter of our yet to be met future old bridegroom. She kinda scares me…and the guy in charge of the guns- Kim Sung Oh. I have no idea if he plays a bigger role in this drama, but he made me laugh in Secret Garden as Hyun Bin’s secretary and made me cry as the serial killer in Sign. Anyway, Ye Ryun totally has issues. She works in the office of this large resort under the supervision (possibly?) of Cuz and where Hyo Won will also work as a new employee. Speaking of Hyo Won, she is walking around the park carrying a box of stuff while Cuz runs by like she really, really has to go… and be in the line of employees at the building entrance to greet the arriving CEO, Lee Kang Ro. He yells his subordinates; therefore we know he’s gruff and intimidating. People skills are probably not his strength.

Meanwhile, Hyo Won is still wandering around with her box. It turns out she needs to get a badge from the men’s locker room. Lo and behold, who should be changing and not respond to her repeated calls to determine if the room is clear, but our sculpted diver. We know he is sculpted because our eye widen just as hers do to see him in only a towel. Unlike our heroine, we do not avert our eyes or scream. Well, maybe a slight squeal. She talks hurriedly and he teases. Ah, what a nice smile. She maneuvers her way around him with her hand shielding her eyes from his partial nudity. And now we know she is a good girl. She grabs the badge and slinks back around him, all the while keeping her eyes protected from the prettiness. He just smiles and continues to put on lotion. But then, she gets angry at the absurdity of the situation and confronts him. So, now we know she has gumption. They banter back and forth in the early stages of “getting to know you”. Seriously, has he put on enough lotion yet? She clumsily runs away.

Lee Kang Ro, Lee Ye Ryun, and Park Tae Ho (the secretary/second-in-command guy) meet in daddy dearest’s office to discuss something that does not please Ye Ryun. If we had a drinking game for the number of times she smiles, we would be stone cold sober for a very long time. She leaves, and Kang Ro and Tae Ho continue to talk. There’s an Egyptian looking statue balancing a plant stand on its head in a corner of this office. I want it. The guys give off a vibe that they have known each other for a very long time. There are probably not any secrets between them.

Cuz enters the room dramatically, frazzled under the stress that the CEO brings to his employees. Both girls head off to the local fortunetelling booth at the park. The cards Hyo Won chooses pique the interest of madam fortuneteller and we gain a sense of murkiness foreshadowing Hyo Won’s future. Before the last card is revealed, Hyo won purposefully refuses to see it. She may like the idea of not knowing what the future holds (and I guess I do too as I am watching this drama by choice) but I bet in a few episodes she’s going to wish she had peeked. The girls run off, and mysterious music plays in the background as the camera focuses on the lone un-turned card.

Finally, we meet the Other Woman. At least, I think she is. I’m fairly certain she is Kang Ro’s ex-wife and the mother of his children. I’m not entirely certain that they are divorced at this point, but theirs is not an amicable relationship. She is the epitome of the wealthy elegance of women of a certain age. One glance reveals that she liked to look well, eat well, and live pretentiously. She gives off an aura of superiority and is not the kind of woman I enjoy meeting- unless, she is unequivocally on my side. She is also going to be the antagonist in this series (I’m not sure if Ye Ryun is going to be actively evil like her mother, but she has her own story line, so we’ll see). I so love the moment when cold ex-wife and cold ex-husband pass each other in the hall followed by their respective underlings and a daughter following behind. I think they only have two daughters, but there might be three. Other daughter, who lacks a backbone, follows the mother. There’s a dinner scene following this with both daughters eating with the mother. They clearly live with her and not daddy. Also, other daughter- who is the oldest- has a little boy, but no husband within sight. Ye Ryun is upset about something, her mom blows her off with a smug smile, and older daughter complains about something. I think they’re discussing daddy. Other Woman looks totally elegant holding her silver chopsticks.

Hyo Won clocks out of her first day at work, smiling effervescently at her colleagues but scowling at Choi Jin Hyeok (diver boy) as she leaves. She’s a bit clumsy as she trips whenever he’s around. He thinks she’s cute, but she finds it painful. She makes it home with a smile on her face, while her dad greets her at home and gives her spending money. It’s this point that really hits my heart, ‘cause he is totally a dad at this point. He doesn’t have much money and he just went on a job interview, so obviously things are tight at home, but he just wants to take care of his little girl.

Kang Ro remembers a time at the river with ambulances and police. There is a distraught woman along with his wife. I’m not sure what is going on, but I’m positive this is when their relationship became doomed. I think his wife is responsible for someone’s death. He wakes up from his car nap/flashback to see Hyo Won running to her second day at work. This is his first glimpse of her, and while it’s not love at first sight or anything, we can tell that he’s fascinated by her joyful approach to life that is missing from his own. He keeps an eye on her as he drives by (thankfully he’s being chauffeured or I would predict a tragic car accident in the near future), and catches a glimpse of her again as she cleans and frolics in the waterpark with Cuz before it opens for the day. Cue happy music followed by foreboding music as he stares at her in the final scene.     

Eternally Shining

I have been wanting an anonymous place to share my thoughts, so I broke down and started a blog. The things that run through my mind are always related to one another, however, the thread that connects my thoughts is tenuous at best. Hence, the name of this blog as Meanderings. The address eternallyshining refers to the poem by Alexander Pushkin entitled Thoughts.

If I walk the noisy streets,
Or enter a many thronged church,
Or sit among the wild young generation,
I give way to my thoughts.
I say to myself: the years are fleeting,
And however many there seem to be,
We must all go under the eternal vault,
And someone's hour is already at hand.

When I look at a solitary oak
I think: the patriarch of the woods.
It will outlive my forgotten age
As it outlived that of my grandfathers'.

If I dandle a young infant,
Immediately I think: farewell!
I will yield my place to you,
For I must fade while your flower blooms.
Each day, and every hour
I habitually follow in my thoughts,
Trying to guess from their number
The year which brings my death.

And where will fate send death to me?
In battle, in my travels, or on the seas?
Or will the neighbouring valley
Receive my chilled ashes?

And although to the senseless body
It is indifferent wherever it rots,
Yet close to my beloved countryside
I still would prefer to rest.

And let it be, beside the grave's vault
That young life forever will be playing,
And impartial, indifferent nature
Eternally be shining in beauty.

The translation of this poem is from www.pushkins-poems.com which I totally recommend for those that love Russia, poetry, or Pushkin (preferably all three).