An Autoethnographic Study on School Community of an Alternative School in South Korea (abstract only)  

Oleh:

Lee, Jae Eun ; Hahn, Dae Dong

Jenis: Article from Proceeding
Dalam koleksi: The International Symposium on Social Sciences (TISSS) and Hong Kong International Conference on Education, Psychology and Society (HKICEPS) at Hongkong, December 2013, page 1049-1050.
Topik: a sense of community; unauthorized alternative school; autoethnography
Fulltext: Hong Kong-Conference 189.pdf (218.97KB)

Isi artikel

This is an autoethnographic study on school community of an alternative school, focusing on a sense of community of students. I had been a homeroom teacher for grade 6 and 9, teaching Eng. grade 6, 7 and 9, and a chief counseling teacher from Aug. 2007 to Feb. 2012 in Dschool. D-school is an unauthorized alternative Christian school for six to twelve graders, started in 1998. In 2011 D-school took a school consulting by ‘Christian School Education Research Center’ to evaluate and analyze school system, curriculum, and satisfaction of students, parents, and teachers, and etc. Especially, students’ satisfaction level about school life was very high. Life-satisfaction of high school students was 83.8% and middle schoolers’ 60.6%, it is much higher when we compared with 2009 source 25.6% of normal public school students’ in Korea. It was 44.9% of average life-satisfaction of adolescent on OECD report in 2009. In particular, students’ satisfaction level on educational contents and curriculum operation was very higher than what teachers expected. Also high schoolers’ satisfaction was higher than that of middle schoolers’. Teachers were the most encouraged group by result of school consulting at that time. For ten years after 2000, the increase rate of Korean youth suicide became the second of OECD members, 46.9% was increased. According to previous studies, a sense of community of the adolescents had a direct influence on their life satisfaction and school adjustment. Thus ‘School Community’ was emerged as school reform in Korea. On the other hand, there are papers about conflicts among values within schools which pursue strong educational communities. It is difficult to emphasize community and personality in same time. Thus, in the school life, the balance between them is important. According to the KEDI report on the alternative schools(2009), the alternative education movement began mid-1990s in Korea, there were twenty-nine ‘Alternative Education Specialized Schools’(the public school type), and more than one hundred unauthorized alternative schools in Korea at that time. It is hard to assume how many unauthorized schools exist, however, since 2000s the demand has increased and alternative schools with a variety of characteristics have appeared. The previous report says, in all four comparison area, such as school-life, curriculum instruction, evaluation, and school facilities, students who are from alternative schools had more affirmative perception than normal public school students in Korea. D-school is located in rural area, South Korea. In 2012, there were 23 classes from 6th through 12th grades, 305 students (162 boys and 143 girls). Full time teachers were 45, among 85 staffs. All students live in dormitories and 99% of teachers live on the campus. D-school’s vision is clear and shared with all members to be one school community. The school consists of small sized classes, each class has less than 15 students, it is called a strong learning community based on Christian faith, and most of teachers are highly committed to the schooling. As a teacher for five and half years in D-school, I think these following aspects help creating a sense of community of D-school students. First, the vision of school and philosophy based on Christian community is clear for all community group members. Every Monday assembly, school song which expressed school vision is resonated, in each subject and classes applied it in many ways. For example, in sports games the school slogan and catchphrase became team names. This is able to increase a sense of belonging. Second, all of students involved in many small groups like a spider’s web. There are many opportunity to be a small group leader, discuss various issues, and help others. Each class is less than 15 students; in a dormitory each student attends an independent student organization. In addition, there is a ‘School family system’ which every student must belong to since anyone has entered D-school. This is the most famous system among students which they could share their lives, care others and feel the unity emotionally. Third, there are a variety of curriculums, both formal and informal. Generally, in alternative schools in Korea, the standardized curriculum was not respected. As D-school is an unauthorized alternative school, the curriculum is more flexible. Each subject area has its own educational contents and methods. There are more than 20 extracurricular programs for all graders; for example, the spring & fall festivals, sports activities, mentoring, chapel, bible study, outreach for serving, etc. Teachers organized team members for each program and operated well, so satisfaction of program is high. Fourth, the communication is the key issue to increase a sense of community. D-school has several communication ways and they are used well between students, parents, teachers and school leadership. In particular, there are lots of meetings for parents, such as Whole Parents Camp every semester, class parents meetings, grade parents meetings, etc. D-school has a dormitory system, most of parents are far away, and however, they attended festivals, school events, regular and irregular meetings. School leadership repeated that parents have the main role of education, also, parents showed an enthusiastic attitude to educate their children. School homepage on the internet is one of the most useful tools and it is very active. Teachers have lots of meetings to communicate well. Living on the campus enables for teachers to participate in several meetings. Many meetings do not mean a good communication; however, through meetings members can understand many things about others and decision making process. Therefore, meetings can be good communication fields. Fifth, students had many opportunities to participate in decision-making process about parts of school management. As a learning community the school members learn together and grow through dialogue and interaction within personal relationship. D-school had a democratic structure for decision-making to make learning more effective and change their real lives. It takes lots of time to gather all members’ opinions and discussions goes forever sometimes, but most of teachers and school members agreed that it is valuable and important. More chances for developing responsible citizenship were given to high schoolers. Eleventh graders are school students’ leaders and they had many kind of responsibility for school activities. This is the reason that the school life satisfaction of high schoolers is higher than middle schoolers. These are aspects to create a strong sense of community of students through my experience in an unauthorized alternative school in Korea. Even though most of schools don’t equip with dormitory system like D-school, there are elements what can be applied in other schools. I hope that most of students are able to satisfy their school lives through learning community sooner.

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