Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Hyejin Yoon
Koreans have considered education as a main route to achieve an upwardly mobile lifestyle for
themselves and their family. OECDs annual educational index shows us about Koreans passion
for education; the percentage of university and graduate school completion ranks at the top
among members of OECD. By virtue of graduating from a top-tier university, people can reach
high status and hand down their social success to their descendants. Consequently, in the
psyche of Korean students, studying hard and competing with class mates who may be rivals
was deeply ingrained. I grew up in this competitive educational environment and my parents
hoped for me to realize a dream which they had once but did not fulfillentering a good school
their perspectives to the world were trustworthy. It is because I was born and grew up in
Korean Confucianism in which respect for elders is an important value and not showing filial
piety is considered as one of the worst sins. I was trained to absorb existing perspectives and
The fair and unbiased measurement of students progress and knowledge is required in
Korea in order to prevent conflicts among people, so standardized testing such as multiple
choice exams, has been perceived so by people without consideration of students who
struggled to perform on standardized tests. Based on the social consultation, the objective
tests were accepted commonly in the education field, so I was trained to select the only one or
two correct answers among five multiple choices over my school years. There was always a
right/correct answer. The only thing I could do was memorize knowledge that teachers
presented and practice solving questions based on the conviction that If I failed to get a right
answer in the college entrance exam, I would have lagged behind in career competition. This is
a national exam in Korea where businesses start their work one or two hours late to relieve
traffic congestion and while the English-language listening section is being given, planes pause
their takeoffs to reduce noise. I had better know the "right" answer!
While taking part in the class, Ways of Knowing, I have had opportunities to study world
critical inquiry and I could identify that my way of knowing was similar to the positivists one.
My conviction regarding reality was same as the positivisms ontology: there is a single absolute
reality and truth to any phenomenon or situation regardless of people perspectives and
opinions. So, I believed that I could approach reality by using my innate common sense or
reason (Descarte, 1637, p. 5). Like Descarte (1637), I thought that human beings had innate
abilities to discover objective realities and I tried to maintain a clear distinction between reason
and feeling, and personal experience and fact. Also, I thought I could be close to the objective
truth by systematic inspections. Repeating the cognitive process of doubting, I supposed that I
However, when I encountered Kuhn (1962) through his book, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, I could realize that knowledge did not progress in a linear way, but rather it
periodically went through big changes called paradigm shifts. According to Kuhn (1962), a
scientific revolution occurs when people experience anomalies. The anomalies cannot be
explained by the existing worldview from which the existing interpretations come. It is a good
explanation for my experience. When I was a student in a teacher education program, I had
learned and contemplated a lot of knowledge with regard to the nature of human beings by
means of examining Western and Eastern educational psychology. At that time, I was
motivated to explore peoples inner world, mind, because I believed that the accumulated
However, ironically, the more I had studied about peoples mind, the more mysterious human
beings were to me: at times, I confronted difficult situations related to my students bad
behaviors that I could not explain with existing theories and knowledge, because it was beyond
solution to the problem that I could not explain with my former knowledge. Constructivism
understanding the relationship between objects and culture. In other words, even though
people observe same phenomenon, they are prone to interpret it based on their own value
systems which were formed by cultures intervention. Bruner (1996) contended that people
that the child is born into a culture and formed by it (p. 6). People construct knowledge in
their own unique context--a set of values, skills, and way of life (Bruner, 1996, p.3). This is in
By virtue of composing and sharing narratives, we can escape from a dogmatic point of
view, examining critically ones own self and then we reconstruct existing perspectives and
create new ones. It is unlike the conviction that humans illuminate the separately existing truth
transparently like a mirror. Since the truth is perceived in a different way based on individuals
cognitive frameworks such as life styles, concept systems, and value criterions, there is no
absolute perspective away from history, culture, and social situation. I categorize my present
way of knowing in this way. In addition, Clandinin and Rosiek (2007) said lived and told stories
and the talk about the stories are one of the ways that we fill our world with meaning and enlist
one anothers assistance in building lives and communities (p. 35). In the light of their
argument, knowledge was narratives that were unique to individuals and were generated in
relationships among people and between people and their environment. Therefore, I can say
that the exploration of narrative is a good way to understand peoples experiences, especially
my future students and myself. It may be possible to present a new direction toward reforming
In my country, Korea, there are a good number of studies regarding education. Most of
the research has made suggestions with numerical evidence. Before coming to the US, I also
experiment, and statistics, because I believed the numerical evidence was objective and
reliable. However, at the end of the course, I begin to have doubt about the quantitative
approach to research concerning teaching and learning: how can we express peoples minds
and values in numbers? Now I know that as a researcher I need not only the quantitative
perspective in order to grasp a large general surface picture but also the qualitative point of
view as to see an in-depth picture. I would like to be a researcher who will contribute to
improve the quality of teacher education in Korea by comprehending teachers narratives and
Reference
Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education. United States of America: Presidents and Fellow of
Harvard College.
Clandinin, D.J. & Rosiek, J. (2007). Mapping a landscape of narrative inquiry: Borderland spaces
Descartes, R. (1637). Discourse on Method and Related Writing. London: Penguin Group.
Kuhn, S. T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Dear Jin, WOW! WOW! an excellent final reflection that is both comprehensive and exploratory. I can see that
your expansion of knowledge included a lot of self-connection to readings and research, which is what perspective
building is all about. Your engagement in each of our readings, your connections made with each one, and your
genuine in-class sharing all served as evidence of your learning. Remember all of this as you propel through the
program - research needs anchor points, and you have them! Bravo on a fine semester for which you have earned
a solid A. :-) Felicitations!