Abstract
This essay will discuss the general orientation of Korean religious education and some of the problematic issues that are related to its position within the current Korean educational systems. It will focus especially on four critical aspects pertaining to religious education as found today in the Republic of Korea (we will not consider the situation of religious education in North Korea because it is so difficult to get accurate information). The first section will begin to identify the contemporary ‘communicational dilemma’ of religious education in Korea and its roots in the lack of a proper understanding of religious education from a non-confessional academic perspective. The second section will place the problem in the context of Korean religious demography as it pertains to the necessity of religious education and the conventional image of religious education within schools. The third section will enumerate a number of critical issues and analyze their impact on the direction of religious education policy since the establishment of the government’s equalization educational policy in 1969. The fourth section will critically examine a number of constitutional issues as they bear on the question of where compulsion exists in current religious education.
Highlights
This essay will discuss the general orientation of Korean religious education and some of the problematic issues that are related to its position within the current Korean educational systems
As is to be seen, the present situation of religious education (RE) is such that it is caught between two perspectives: a confessional perspective that only focuses on teaching a particular religious world view and passing on their judgments; and, a non-confessional perspective that tries to provide a comparative understanding of religion and religions
The non-confessional perspective is emerging as a curriculum that transcends the parochial religious perspective
Summary
In Korea, full-fledged modern religious education (RE) programs, as we find these in Europe and. Many stakeholders in schools and many scholars in the pedagogical field have confused the present orientation of current RE with a “membership” kind of education that belongs to the mission or the beliefs of a particular religion. This confessional model of RE continues to be apparent in Buddhist and Christian mission schools and in some schools that belong to New Religious Movements. RE and it needs to be implemented creatively within the pluralistic context of religions in Korea It requires the Korean educational system and educators to move beyond a confessional practice of RE to communicate and collaborate with one another. My discussion does not cover the situation of RE in North Korea because it is beyond my expertise and outside the boundaries of verifiable data
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