과도한 교육열해소를 위한 단위학교의 노력 = An Approach to Solve The Educational Zeal Problem in Individual Schools

국문 초록 (Abstract)

과도한 교육열의 해소를 위해, 정부는 지난 50 여년동안 다양한 교육정책들, 특히 입시정책들을 내놓았다. 그러나 이러한 입시제도의 변경만으로는 교육열 문제가 해결되지 못했다. 교육제도의 변경이 아니라, 교육에 대한 한국인들의 가치관의 문제로 관심을 돌려 볼 필요가 있다. 일거에 한국인들이 지닌 가치관을 변경한다는 발상은 실패할 수밖에 없고, 다양한 가치관들 중 한국인들이 공유하고 있는 가치관을 모색하는 노력이 필요하다. 이를 위해 국가가 또 나설 것이 아니라, 단위학교에서 가능한 방안을 찾아보아야 한다. 특히 학부모들의 참여를 통해 가치관의 공유 문제에 접근할 수 있을 것이다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Korean government have tried to solve the educational zeal problem during last 50 years. However, the problem has never been solved. Changing admission policies alone could not solve this complex problem. If education is concerned with values, it follows that the management of schools cannot avoid these issues, and that it needs to be aware of, and be ready to examine the values. It is simply not possible to consider school management without considering the values underpinning it.
People want schools to serve the individual aspirations they have for their children. Schools are to provide their children with credentials that they can cash in for further goods such as jobs, income, status, power, and things. Those who make educational policy and who are consumed with the concern that schools create productive individuals to secure Korea's competitiveness may encourage us to think of schools in this way. Competitiveness does not generate shared aims or projects. In public schools, the education provided is instrumental to private and individual purposes. Even if there is some common learning, there is no common educational project, no shared life. People who agree that a good education is one that leads top good jobs and high income are not bound together in any common educational project, despite this agreement. Indeed, they may be separated by a conceptions of education that requires them to compete with one another for positional goods. Hence, mere agreement on values apart from common ends and shared projects does not forge community.
In contrast, communities are united by shared values. Constitutive values are required. Constitutive values generate a sense of being in something together. These shared goods define the nature of a good education for members of the community. They are the source of moral coherence. They may help form the identity of members of the community. They form the basis of inclusion from the group. Hence, we must ask whether there are constitutive values that all can share and that could, therefore, be the basis of schools that are both communities and inclusive.
If we want schools to be real communities, we will have to privatize schooling. And if we are unwilling to privatize schooling, we will have to accept public schools that are unlikely to be communities. We might instead explore the potential of the middle ground. We can build more free associations and hence more space for constitutive values into public schools. We can emphasize constitutive values that are thick, but vague.
Not only do the children change, but so do the parents, the teachers, the prevailing educational values. For building educational community, principals should raise concerns regarding parental involvement in school decision making. Principals should provide environment that encourage all members to participate in decision making and truly share educational values.