1. The Object of the Study
The establishment of the sense of value has been of constant concern among the intellectuals in Korea and people of some sense feel that something must be done toward the ideal realization of it in Korea society for fear t...
1. The Object of the Study
The establishment of the sense of value has been of constant concern among the intellectuals in Korea and people of some sense feel that something must be done toward the ideal realization of it in Korea society for fear that the nation should be led astray by the conflicting senses of value. Since the disorder of the sense of value naturally leads to the disorder of the view of education, which is part of the former, it necessarily follows that the latter must also be definite. It is of general agreement that the view of education is in the state of disorder and conflict in Korea. It differs by the regions, ages, and religious backgrounds of each individual. What, then, 몬 brought it to such a state and what is the nature of it?
The view of education of both parents and children, especially that of parents toward their children, is determined chiefly by parents’ value system, which has in turn been formed by the historical as well as cultural background of each individual parent. Thus, it often happens that the educational line of the Government and the public view of education often clash with each other. This presents one of the gravest problems not only to the education in Korea but also to the future of the nation.
Such a problematic concept of education needs to be investigated and dealt with. It needs investigating both from the factual and theoretical view points. Thus the aim of the present study is to investigate the conflicting view of education in Korea ad to contribute to and provide for the theoretical basis for the establishment of the view of education.
2. The view-points of the Study
In order to achieve the proposed object of the study successfully, the view-points of the study must be settled prior to the method. The proper understanding of the problem and the background of it depends upon how we approach them, the perfect study being impossible in practice. This is to say that there is a limit or restriction to any study. The following is the statement of the three principal view-points of the present study.
a. The sense of value is resistant to change and is to be understood as that which has been handed down to us and piled up for generations of time in our deep mind. To state in terms of culture, it is the production of a series of unconscious processes unaffected either by external stimuli or influences. The sense of value viewed in this way really dies hard.
b. There are the type of the senses of value or views of education which is unconsciously permeated into our mind and stays there and this type has nothing to do with either reason or intelligence and is to be understood as the result of custom or some special inner drive. Logically speaking, there is no room for and kind of superstition. Yet it has always occupied a part of our mind and sometimes prevents us from thinking or acting logically and this is to be understood from deep psychological or psyco-analytical point of view. With this assumption in mind the problem has been attacked in the study.
c. A third type of the sense of value has something to do with anthropology and especially with cultural anthropology. The impossibilities in terms of rational and intellectual judgement sometimes turnes out to be possible in our daily lives. A Christian frequenting fortunetellers is an instance of this type.
On the assumptions stated above, the main emphasis of the present study has been laid on the treatment of the historical and cultural backgrounds and sources which led to the formation of parent’s way of thinking senses and their senses of value, character, attitude, and the view of education has been of more concern than the study of the parent-child relationship.
3. The Methods of the Study
To attain the object stated previously, the problem has been approached in three ways. First, on the assumption that our sense of value is based on the historical tradition and logical thinking, the main points of educational trends and ideas have been traced in the hope of determining the inevitable consequence of our view of education. Secondly, a group both of urban and rural people were questionaired periodically for the past ten years to find out their view of education and also to study the trend of their mental processes of change. This was necessary in order to determine whether or not our assumption that the sense of value is resistant to change is true or not. Thirdly, the foreigners residing in Korea were also questionaired to obtain the information for the deep psychological and anthropological understanding from the cross-cultural point of view. This was necessary to fine out the processes of the formation of the view of education both in the homogeneous and heterogeneous cultural environments. Thus it took ten years for the present study to be completed.
4. The Theoretical Considerations
The writer hesitates to claim that Korea culture has developed on the basis of any systematic higher religion. The original cultural background may be traced back to Shamanism. Geographically situated among the Asian Powers, we have always been preoccupied in how to preserve the status quo and how to live peacefully free from the attacks of the neighboring Powers rather than trying to expand ourselves beyond our boundaries. This situation has naturally rendered the nationalistic character to be obedient to the Nature and the behavior of the people tends to be gentle and obedient.
Climatically belonging to the cold-temperate zone, Korea has clear divisions in the four seasons and the varied experiences with the four seasons has led the national character to be artistic and fanciful. Korean language reflects the feudalistic class system and has such a varied forms of speech ranging from the honorific to the humble forms. This may, in turn, be said to have contributed to the class consciousness of the people and, consequently, to the longevity of the particular social system. The introduction of Buddhism induced the national character to enjoy the static rather than the dynamic. The subsequent introduction of Confucianism preached the virtue of feudalistic ethical code. The latter did much for the firm establishment of Yangban system while contributing little to the national progress, which requires a daring and united spirit. It also caused the national character to be disinclined to change rather than rendering them to be initiative, adaptive rather than self-assertive, family-centered rather than community-minded and submissive rather than daring. Much more recent introduction of Christianity added confusion to the value sense of the people.
Politically, the occasional reformation by the different dynasties brought about the social unrest. It so often happened that the political ruler had religion under their control also that a different religion was forced upon the whole people by a different ruler. The state of unrest occasionally subjected the nation to foreign invasions and drove it to the brink of losing the land. In view of all these factors, we can locate the source of difficulty in keeping on a consistent line of the sense of value and, consequently, the value of education in Korea. We are at a loss to define Korean culture as distinct from any other culture and all those factors added up to the confusion.
Such conditions had a negative influence on our efforts to establish the sense of value as well as the view of education, which were subject to the different rulers and foreign influences and the unbroken line of constancy of which was hard to be established. Abstract qualities were placed above the concrete actions. The pattern of behavior and actions tended to be formal and unreasonable instead of having a direct bearing on the economic progress and natural conditions.
5. The Factual Study
In order to support the theoretical basis, sample groups both of the major urban and rural people were questionaired for the years 1963-1973, the result of which was of utmost significance for the study.
a. In comparing the questionaired data collected from the major cities ten years ago with those collected during the subsequent years, we could gather little or no evidence of change in the view of education during the years. The question item which turned out the highest per centage of responses in the 1960’s was “to bring up an adaptive person in any situation”. So was the response in the early ’70’s. the second highest response in the 1960’s was “to bring up a useful man,” and so was the response in the early ’70’s.
b. From among the sub-items under “to bring up an adaptive person in any situation”, “a person of adaptive ability in any change” showed the highest response. Next came “a person of ability to cope with problems as they arise”. The result in the early ’70’s was the same.
c. Farmers’ response was different from that of urban people, that is, there proved to be a regional difference in the view of education. While the urban people showed the highest score on the question item “ to bring up an adaptive person in any situation”, farmers highest score came on the item “to proved for the foundation on which to succeed in life”.
d. The item with the highest score was less than 20 percent of the total number of responses and some 10 per cent on both sides, the result of which may well be interpreted that there is no representative current of the view of education.
e. On the whole, the conflicting view of education was apparent in cities as well as in the country, and our assumption that the senses of value and education are still in the state of turmoil proved to be true.
f. Generally speaking, the view of education reflects family-centered egoism of the people, and nationalism or the spirit of public service seems to be made light of. Yet the statistical survey shows farmers to be more nationalistic and public-minded than city dwellers.
g. Korean people both in cities and in the country show a strong tendency to be realistic and adaptive.
h. Though there appears to be a slightly different views by the different age groups the difference is not clear-cut.
j. The female sex tends to be more positive than the male sex. Yet, the view of education shows no clear difference between the two sexes.
g. There is a little difference in the view of education among different religious backgrounds, but the traditional culture rather than the religion seems to have a decisive effect on the view.
k. There is a slight difference in the view by different vocational backgrounds but they are not decisive factors either.
6. Cross-Cultural Study
In an effort to clearly define and understand Korean view of education, the views of education of Japanese, Chinese and Indians, who are said to have a common cultural heritage as we have, were compared with that of Koreans. Furthermore, American view of education was compared with that of Koreans in an effort to find out some contrasting points since America belongs to a heterogeneous cultural zone.
Above study revealed some significant points to us. First, Japanese view of education is similar to that of ours except that their per centage of responses was slightly more concentrated on one item than ours. Chinese view is also similar to our view and their per centage of responses showed a slightly higher concentration on one item, which is to be attributable to Confucianism, their native ethical code, and the consequent enforcement of the ethical standard.
Indians, for all the predominancy of Buddhism and Hinduism, over the vest nation, are also inarticulate in the view and are similar to Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese in this respect. Diversities of the local languages or dialects may be attributable to their mental disunity. Secondly, American people showed a contrast in that their response tended to concentrate on one item of each question, which means that they have a definite system of the view.
7. Conclusion
There is no denying the fact that Korean view of education is still in a diversified and conflicting state, which both the theoretical study from the historical point of view and the factual investigation has made clear.
On the whole Korean people tend to be not only family-centered, egoistic, adaptive but also realistic, while they lack in the cooperative sprit and are less public-minded and still less nationalistic.
The sense of value which has been deeply rooted in the mind is hard to change once it has settled and ample support to the assumption has been given both in theory and with factual data. In conclusion, the complete understanding of the basic sense of value and view of education cannot be hoped for without the help of the deep psychological and anthropological study. Moreover, cultural backgrounds play a decisive role in the formation of the sense of value and view of education and in order to trace the cultural tradition, both historical and cross-cultural study is imperative. Since one of the most influential factors contributing to the formation of a cultural tradition is the religion native to a country, it is to be emphasized that we should have a spiritual guide for our future education.