The Formation of the Nation-State and Education Policy in Modern Korea (1876~1910)

Abstract

This study examines the correlation between the formation of the nation-state and education policy in modern Korea (1876-1910). Modern education in Korea was begun as a part of the efforts for nation building. This study also focuses on the difference of the goals in modern education between King Gojong(高宗) and Kaehwapa (開化派; Enlightenment Party) in the process of modernization reform, and how Gojong and Kaehwapa each understood the concept of nation. Gojong and Kaehwapa thought that modernization was important to deal with internal and external crises, and tried to achieve it by national education. Gojong aimed to train skilled technical manpower by modern education and pursued the goal that anyone could gain expertise through industrial education and work as professional bureaucrat regardless of his status. Kaehwapa was also concerned with the cultivation of modern manpower, but their focus regarding education policy was a little different from Gojong’s. Kaehwapa thought that the most important aspect in the process of establishing a modern state was to limit the power of the monarch and to make people responsible for their own governance by giving them the right to vote. Kaehwapa put an emphasis on nation building and public intellect for the right to vote. However, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese imperialists established the Residency-General in Taehan Empire (大韓帝國), and began to launch colonial education. As such, Korean national education, which started to form modern people and nurture talented people for the nation state in Korea, was replaced by education under Japanese colonial rule.