This study examined the background of the birth, establishment and educational contents of the Folk high schools from the Korean liberation to the early 1950s. Since the liberation in 1945, Korean society has not been able to expand regular school fac...
This study examined the background of the birth, establishment and educational contents of the Folk high schools from the Korean liberation to the early 1950s. Since the liberation in 1945, Korean society has not been able to expand regular school facilities and restructure its education system in the political and economic turmoil, but educational enthusiasm from below has steadily increased.
As a way to assist in regular school education, Folk high school was established to provide middle school education and it was able to meet some of the demand for education. Folk high schools provided middle school education for those who did not go to middle school with in various circumstances, but it was an educational institution that did not gain recognition for giving middle school education. However, Folk high schools provided learning opportunities for those who missed out on learning experience. Also, Folk high schools were able to give their students to be exempted from taking some subjects of the high school entrance examination. Focusing on the 1960s, previous studies pointed out that Folk high schools provided opportunities for secondary education to the socially disadvantaged and contributed to the supply of industrial manpower. However, the previous studies did not deal in depth with the background of the Folk high school. The Folk high school, now translated as ‘Higher Civic School’ was born in January 1948 under the name of the ‘Folk High School’ during the U.S. military rule. ‘Folk High School’ is based on ‘Folkehøjskole’, a Danish free school. Folk high school modelled its operation after Folkehøjskole. It was an educational institution to raise ‘civilians’, which could be achieved to be through education.
In this thesis, the process of establishing the school, the form, the finance and the operational process were examined through checking the application form document for the establishment of the Folk high school. Through the oral speech of those who attended the Folk high school, the educational experience was examined in detail. The results of this study are as follows.
First, the full text of the Folk high school regulations, announced on January 13, 1948, was discovered and analyzed for the first time. Before this study, the assumption and analysis on Folk high school was possible only with the Folk school regulations announced in May 1946 and the Education Act enacted in December 1949. Through this, it was possible to analyze the appearance of the first Folk high school in detail and to confirm the flexibility of the Folk high school regulations.
Second, the early Folk high schools provided the equal level of the regular middle school education to those who missed out on their learning opportunities. At that time, the Folk high school students did not differ much from the regular middle school students in the curriculum, and they paid the same amount of academic tuitions. Those who graduated from Folk high schools were approved to be able to have the qualification for regular middle school graduation or have opportunities to go to advanced schools, while, after mid-1950s, it was not permitted.
Third, the Folk high school was the places which public power engaged in. Administrative authorities were directly or indirectly involved in the establishment and operation of schools, which tended to be strengthen over time. Early Folk high schools could be operated similarly to regular middle schools, but after the Korean War, the Administrative authorities tightened its control over Folk high schools, which came to be second-rate school.