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The Movement for Authorizing the Private Secondary School and Colonial Modern Education Field in Korea during the 1920s and 1930s

  • 중앙사론
  • 2010, (32), pp.149-199
  • Publisher : Institute for Historical Studies at Chung-Ang University
  • Research Area : Humanities > History
  • Published : December 1, 2010

장규식 1 Park Hyunok 1

1중앙대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

Colonial modern education field in Korea was interwoven by diversified education agents concerning education policy such as Goverment-General of Korea, school managers, students, and so on. Along with the Second Chosun Gyoyukryong (Ordinance on Education of Korea, 1922), which formulated a hierarchical education system in the direction of common school (Botong Hakgyo: elementary school) - higher common school (Godeung Botong Hakgyo: middle and high school) - college - university, the secondary school education system consisted of two sides, institutionalized middle school (Godeung Botong Hakgyo) versus non-institutionalized school (Gakjong Hakgyo). Here the status of private secondary school was aligned within the policy. The norm to determine the authorized status chiefly depended upon whether it adapted to colonial education system. Reorganizing the education system similar to that of Japan through the Second Chosun Gyoyukryong (1922), Goverment-General of Korea made a strategy that divided schools into two groups in terms of institutional and non-institutional education. The strategy was to discriminate non-institutionalized schools by inflicting some loss to them, while they offered various opportunities like advanced academic course and jobs to the institutionalized schools. As a reaction to this ‘divide and rule’ strategy while it gave gradually rise to excessive valuing of academic background, there had appeared a movement promoting authorization of the private non-institutionalized school. The movement for authorizing the private secondary school stemmed from an allied strike of students developed into two directions; one was an attempt to rise to formal higher common school and the other was to authorize the degree school offered. Whereas the secular private school wished the former, the mission schools, especially managed by the presbyterian denomination, led to the latter. If the mission schools were authorized to be higher common school, they could not offer bible study in their education program. In this sense, the presbyterian schools preferred the status of the designated school (Jijung Hakgyo) which could offer degree at the same time maintaining an independent status to have Christian education program. It is necessary, thus, to understand such the difference in authorizing movement not on the basis of bipolar opposition between colonial education and national education, but among three, colonial education, national education, and Christian education. Authorizing the private school within the dominion of colonial education system, however, does not imply carrying the Japanese occupation fully on the educational field of colonial Korea. It was because the managers of private schools also tried to make room for national or Christian education, despites limits. Therefore, we can conclude that the modern education field of colonial Korea was the place where ‘assimilation’ and ‘differentiation’ were pursued together.

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