This study started from exploring the problem consciousness and alternative curriculum that students' satisfaction with school life is decreasing even though education is changing in the direction of focusing students. The need for change in society c...
This study started from exploring the problem consciousness and alternative curriculum that students' satisfaction with school life is decreasing even though education is changing in the direction of focusing students. The need for change in society continues to be raised, but it is not easy to change the firmly established education system. Therefore, education and operation of alternative schools that can change the education system relatively flexibly have attracted attention.
Most alternative schools aim for ‘small schools with local communities' and are operated as curriculums that contain unique characteristics of schools. However, information on the curriculum, which contains the characteristics of alternative schools, is mainly shared only within the school, and information obtained outside the school is limited. Therefore, this study attempted to examine in detail the curriculum of ‘Jeju Sali' of Byeopssi School among unauthorized alternative schools, analyze its characteristics, and examine its implications for school education.
‘Jeju Sali', an unauthorized alternative school, is a curriculum that has been in operation since 2013. Students of Byeopssi School will attend the main school of Byeopssi School in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do, until eighth grade, and then spend ninth grade at Byeopssi School Jeju Academy in Sunheul Village, Jocheon-eup, Jeju-si. ‘Jeju Sali' is a curriculum that allows learning to occur in the process of living with peers, communicating with local communities, and working beyond the meaning of dormitories that only solve accommodation and meals by matching places of life and education. Schools provide students with an environment where they can be psychologically independent of their parents, and in the process, they help them explore their own essence and career paths after graduation.
In this study, qualitative case studies were conducted to examine the curriculum of Byeopssi School ‘Jeju Sali', and to obtain new insights from it, and the research period was from July 2021 to May 2022. The study participants were 12 students, principals, and homeroom teachers participating in the ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum of Byeopssi School, and data were collected through various literature, direct observation and participation observation, and interviews with study participants. The collected data were searched for patterned topics through labeling according to the educational content, and the topics and subcategories were confirmed through a categorization reconfirmation process.
The ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum of Byeopssi School showed a unique form in which life became an education in which life and work were included in the curriculum. In ‘Jeju Sali', which starts with the youth's participation choice, adolescents took the lead in the planning and activities of the curriculum. In ‘Jeju Sali' teenagers were responsible for running a one-day curriculum, which is more important than the annual plan, and they were leading the change in schools by presenting the role and structure of Jeju Bachelor of Science needed by students and graduates. Six characteristics could be derived from this ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum. First, ‘Jeju Sali' was a curriculum in which learning took place in life and work, and second, ‘Jeju Sali' was a curriculum that made families recognized and understood as independent beings while learning a life of emotional independence from parents. Third, ‘Jeju Sali' allowed growth through the exploration of others and oneself in all processes of education, and fourth, farming from this school connected communities and schools, recognized the need for nature protection, and practiced nature-friendly life. Fifth, ‘Jeju Sali' allows teenagers to stay if they need school even after completing the one-year course ‘Jeju Sali' to solve the problem situation in the learning community composed of peer groups. Finally, the ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum allowed accidental encounters to lead to another learning, and new learning led to an unexpected path in life.
Based on the characteristics of the Byeopssi school ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum, the implications that could be considered in the general school curriculum were as follows. First, schools were able to reduce the gap between schools and society by creating an environment in which teaching and learning occur in life, not an imitation or simple experience of reality. In the ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum of Byeopssi School, life and contact were created around agriculture, and a structure in which families, schools, and society were connected was realized. Second, in the curriculum of Byeopssi School's ‘Jeju Sali', the peer-centered learning community induces honest self-exploration in a close relationship and promotes the experience of growing with the community. Third, in the ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum of Byeopssi School, the school is a learning place to promote the growth of the learning community and individual, and the curriculum based on various relationships played a role as a stepping stone to connect the school and society. Fourth, various devices set up for students' leading participation in the ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum of Byeopssi School contributed to expanding the scope of participation beyond the school to the community. Fifth, in the curriculum of ‘Jeju Sali' at Byeopssi School, teachers were not only playing a role in conveying knowledge, but also preparing an educational environment so that they could discover and correctly express students' potentials and tendencies.
Through this study, it was found that the need for structural change in schools and the need for roles and devices of schools to put students at the center. In addition, it was possible to confirm the effect of the learning community composed of peers and the role of teachers. However, this study has limitations because it was conducted based on limited time and cases. If further research is conducted on how teenagers evaluate the ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum at Byeopssi School after leaving Jeju Bachelor's Degree and how self-exploration and learning in the curriculum are expressed in another environment, there is room for more comprehensive disclosure of the Byeopssi School's ‘Jeju Sali' curriculum.