This study is a narrative inquiry into the educational experiences of one secondary school teacher who taught youths of North Korean background for three years at Hanadul School, located within the North Korean Refugee Resettlement Office. Using the n...
This study is a narrative inquiry into the educational experiences of one secondary school teacher who taught youths of North Korean background for three years at Hanadul School, located within the North Korean Refugee Resettlement Office. Using the narrative inquiry method of Clandinin and Connelly(2000), six themes from the participant’s narrative were accounted: Motivations and reasons for applying to be a teacher dispatched to Hanawon Hanadul School, experiences of educating Hanadul school students as a turning point in the teacher's life, the participant's efforts and thoughts about the meaning of the 12-week training period at Hanadul School, the participant’s concerns about issues of student life education and identity among Hanadul school students creating a culture of division, cohabitation as a factor for secondary school dropout among adult learners, and guidance directions for secondary school advancement in three different tracks, and the reasons and methods the participant provided and used to connect with the North Korean defector network. Through these, three meanings from the participant’s narrative were constructed: recovering the ontological meaning of the secondary school teacher through youths of North Korean background, recognizing the need to change the education system for them, and hoping for a change in the way youths of North Korean background and defector networks are perceived and connected in South Korea. This study led to further reflection on the motivation and purpose of educating youths of North Korean background and highlighted the importance of connecting people and their lives.