Korean Education Research Articles

The Faults of Neoliberal Education: Examining International Students’ Experiences within Korean Higher Education

The overwhelming negativity towards neoliberalism has focused on policies that have reduced academic life to strictly corporate terms and how the customer education model has led to the demise of civic and democratic values. Following Western universities' models, Korean education has adopted the same values and policies, inheriting the subsequent issues and problems that lie therein. This paper continues the call for resisting neoliberalism by exposing its negative impact on the acculturation experiences of international students in Korea. The study participants used transactional language to describe their feelings of marginalization and invisibility and the impoverished ways their host university treated them. Utilizing a qualitative case study methodology set within the framework of neoliberalism, this paper documents how neoliberal policies have been ideologically ingrained in Korean higher education. It highlights the necessity of reforming current policies to deter acculturative stress. It is hoped that the findings inspire resistance to the neoliberal ideology that Korean policymakers have subconsciously followed.
 
 Received: 23 December 2023 / Accepted: 19 February 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024

독일 학부모 교육활동 분석을 통한 우리나라 학부모 교육의 방향

Parental education in Korea is understood as a consultative process that provides parents with the knowledge they need to raise their children, and it is difficult to find participatory parental education activities that prevent or resolve various conflicts. The death of a Seo Yi elementary school teacher and the assault on Yang Cheon-gu elementary school teacher in 2023 prove that the relationship between teachers and parents needs to be redefined in Korean education. Given this need for research, the purpose of this study is to analyze German parent education activities and gain implications for the direction of parent education in Korea. The research questions to achieve the purpose are: First, what are the macro, meso, and micro systems of parent education activities in Germany, where cooperation between parents and teachers is well established? Second, what is the direction of parent education in Korea? The research method was a literature review of parent education activities in Germany and the collected data were analyzed based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory. As the results, this study suggested for Korea that the legal basis for parental education should be improved in the higher law, parental education autonomy should be guaranteed, a win-win partnership between teachers and parents should be promoted, and parental empowerment should be supported in order to activate parental education participation by public-private cooperation to ensure children's well-being.

학교행정가와 교사 간 교장리더십 인식 차이에 대한 예측 요인 탐색

Historically, investigations into principal leadership have been predominantly focused on the perspectives of teachers. However, criticism has surfaced, contending that studies exclusively focused on teachers' viewpoints inadequately capture principal leadership in an objective manner. Consequently, there is a growing call for a thorough evaluation of leadership that encompasses the perceptions of both school administrators and teachers. To address this issue, this study employed the random forest technique on the 1st year data from the Korean Education and Employment Panel II. The objective was to discern factors predicting variations in the perception of principal leadership between school administrators and teachers. Subsequent to this, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), school fixed effect model, and school random effect model analyses were conducted employing variables identified for their substantial predictive power through the random forest analysis. This approach facilitated an investigation into principal leadership factors influencing differences in self-evaluation. The findings indicated that positive perceptions among teachers regarding the relationship between the principal and teachers, the conduct of school affairs meetings, teachers' competency, and the efficacy of the school management committee were associated with a reduction in the divergence in the perception of principal leadership between school administrators and teachers. Conversely, a more favorable perception among school administrators concerning the relationship between the principal and teachers, the operation of the curriculum council and student council, and the competencies of teachers in the school resulted in an augmented difference in perception of principal leadership between school administrators and teachers. Based on above results, this study aims to diminish the perceptual gap in principal leadership between school administrators and teachers. Recommendations encompass encouraging teachers to perceive themselves as active members and leaders within the school organization, cultivating an awareness of their roles and responsibilities, and actively participating in problems-solving processes. Furthermore, it is proposed that school administrators should objectively acknowledge their school's functioning and relationships with its members, making concerted efforts to enhance communication within the school community.

자유학기제가 진로성숙도에 미치는 단기･장기효과 분석

This study aimed to analyze the short-term and long-term effects of the free-semester program on career maturity. For this purpose, this study conducted fixed-effects and difference-in-differences analyses along with descriptive analyses using second- through eighth-wave data from the Korean Education Longitudinal Study (KELS). The results of the descriptive statistics analysis showed that in elementary school, the career maturity of the group who had not experienced a free-semester program was higher. However, from the first year of middle school, the career maturity of the group who had experienced a free-semester program tended to increase. The difference between the two groups, however, decreased in high school. The fixed-effects and the difference-in-differences analyses showed that the effect of the free-semester program on career maturity was significant in middle school but not in high school. This confirms that the short-term effect of the free-semester program is positive, but the long-term effect is insignificant. Based on the above findings, this study recommends reconsidering the timing of the free-semester program or implementing additional career programs in high school.

대졸 청년층의 성공적 노동시장 진입 영향요인 분석

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors influencing the employment outcomes that indicate successful entry into the labor market for college graduates. By doing so, the study aims to derive policy implications for future higher education.
 Methods To achieve this, data from the 5th to 12th surveys of the Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2005 (KELS 2005) were utilized, tracing the experiences of students from the 1st year of middle school in 2005 until 6 years after university graduation. The Korean Education Longitudinal Study investigates intellectual and moral growth, development, and educational experiences of students from middle school entry through high school graduation, tracking them up to the age of 28, including their initial career acquisition processes, graduate school enrollment, and more. The dependent variable in this study is the employment status of participants collected in the 12th survey. Logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the independent variables influencing this dependent variable.
 Results The analysis revealed that, except for gender, personal characteristics of students had no significant impact on employment prospects. Factors such as passion for education, academic achievement in the middle school stage, type of university attended, metropolitan area university enrollment, major GPA, and collaborative skills were identified as positively influencing the likelihood of employment.
 Conclusions The findings of this study highlight that the desire for education and academic achievement during the middle school stage, as well as the type of university attended, metropolitan area university enrollment, major GPA, and collaborative skills during the higher education stage, contribute to the increased likelihood of successful entry into the labor market for the young population who have completed higher education.

Study on Regional Cultural Literacy for Korean Education : Focusing on Locality of Busan

The purpose of this study is to propose the necessity of cultural literacy education in the Korean language focusing on the Busan region, and to suggest the direction of its educational content composition. To achieve this goal, we analyzed three monographs and one lecture related to studies pertaining to Busan with the aim of designing the framework for cultural literacy education targeting foreign exchange students in Korean education. As a result, we devised educational elements reflecting the locality of Busan based on various places in Busan over a 13-week period. We also made recommendations on how such locality can be implemented in cultural literacy education in terms of attitude, knowledge, context, and practical use.

수학학습 정의적 영역을 이용한 대학 이공계 전공 예측 기계학습 분석

This study developed and analyzed models to predict the selection of STEM majors in college based on the affective domain characteristics of students during their middle and high school years, using data from the Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2005. Instrumental motivation, intrinsic motivation towards mathematics, self-efficacy in mathematics, and beliefs about intelligence were used as independent variables for prediction based on the data from the second grade of middle school and the first grade of high school. Logistic models, Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) models, and Random Forest models were applied, and the optimal prediction model was sought by comprehensively considering various indicators. In the case of using the data from the second grade of middle school, the MLP model showed superior predictive power compared to other models. In the case of using the data from the first grade of high school, all models did not show good predictive power. The model based on the data from the second grade of middle school was deemed to have practical applicability. These results suggest that while the affective domain regarding mathematics is an important factor in the choice of a STEM major, more diverse variables and complex models are needed for predicting majors during high school years. Additionally, while recognizing the limitations of machine learning models, more theoretical discussions are needed on the relationship between major selection and the affective elements of mathematics, and it is hoped that various prediction models will be developed and used in actual practice.

학령인구 세대의 대학원 진학 결정 요인 분석

This study explores the influence of college students' socioeconomic background, characteristics of their home university, undergraduate educational experiences, and interaction terms of the main variables on their decision to pursue the graduate degree. The sample was constructed by linking the results of the KELS(Korean Educational Longitudinal Survey) 9th four-year college student survey and the 10th to 12th graduate student survey (N=1,566). On this sample, cross-sectional analyses, independent group t-tests, and binary logistic regression analyses with graduate school enrolment as the dependent variable were conducted. The analysis shows that parents' willingness to pay for graduate education, graduation from a public university, high grades in major courses, major-aptitude match, home university location - governance type interaction term have statistically significant positive effects on the decision to go to graduate school. Additional binary logistic regression analyses were conducted on various student groups with different characteristics. Based on the results, the main variables are discussed and policy implications are presented.

대학생 자퇴의향 분석

Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore differences between first and second year of college students' dropout intention related to university characteristics, student characteristics, and students' social and economic conditions, along with Tinto's student integration factor.
 Methods The National Assessment of Student Engagement in Learning data collected by the Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI) in 2021 were used. The number of participants were 28,353 students of four-year universities. A logistic regression analysis was conducted.
 Results First-year students attending universities non-metropolitan area had a higher intention to dropout, but second-year students attending universities small size in the metropolitan area also did. Dropout intention was lower when first-year students were in the medication field, and for second-year students when they were in the social sciences, engineering, medicine, or arts and physical sciences fields, compared to those in the humanities. For both year students, when active or collaborative learning and self-evaluation of basic learning abilities was high, the dropout intention was low. Additionally, the first-year students, extracurricular activities and high inter-action with peers lowered the dropout intention.
 Conclusions Dropout intention differs depending on the first and second year of university, and based on the re-sults, the need for financial and administrative policy support from individuals, universities, and educational au-thorities to prevent dropout and equal educational opportunities

Exploring the predictors affecting the sense of community of Korean high school students: application of random forests and SHAP.

Adolescence is a stage during which individuals develop social adaptability through meaningful interactions with others. During this period, students gradually expand their social networks outside the home, forming a sense of community. The aim of the current study was to explore the key predictors related to sense of community among Korean high school students and to develop supportive policies that enhance their sense of community. Accordingly, random forests and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were applied to the 7th wave (11th graders) of the Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013 data (n = 6,077). As a result, 6 predictors positively associated with sense of community were identified, including self-related variables, "multicultural acceptance," "behavioral regulation strategy," and "peer attachment," consistent with previous findings. Newly derived variables that predict sense of community include "positive recognition of volunteering," "creativity," "observance of rules" and "class attitude," which are also positively related to sense of community. The implications of these results and some suggestions for future research are also discussed.

남성 보호자의 관여가 학업영재 고등학생의 학업성취에 미치는 영향

This study aimed to investigate how academically gifted high school students perceive the involvement of their male guardians and its impact on their academic achievements. It particularly examined the cognitive aspects of self-directed learning, referred to as cognitive regulation strategies, as a mediating factor in this relationship. The study analyzed data from 250 second-year students in science high schools and academies of science (and arts), obtained from the Korean Education and Employment Panel Survey II. The results suggested that the involvement of male guardians positively influenced students’ academic achievement, and this effect was fully mediated by cognitive regulation strategies. These findings offer insights into how gifted students in a performance-oriented educational system internalize and utilize exogenous resources provided by their male guardian to enhance their academic success.

역량(Competency)과 웰빙(Well-Being)

This study is aimed at exploring how competency-based educational experiences at high school and eudaimonic welling in adulthood affect subjective well-being. To achieve the objective of the study, we examined the data collected from the fourth to twelfth-round surveys of the 2005 cohort (from the first year of high school to the age of 28; 2008-2020) conducted by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) as part of the Korea Education Longitudinal Study. In specific, we leveraged the data from the fifth and sixth-round surveys (2nd and 3rd grade) focused on high school experiences and those from the nineth, tenth and twelfth-round surveys (when respondents are 22, 24, 28 years-old) focused on post-graduation experiences. For analysis, we carried out multiple regression analysis using the SPSS statistics program.
 Key findings can be identified as follows. First, competency-based educational experiences for self-management and social competency at high school had a positive effect on subjective well-being in adulthood. Second, the level of eudaimonic well-being with regard to self-acceptance, positive relations with others, and social contribution played a significant role in enhancing the level of subjective well-being. Third, autonomy and personal growth, two variables of eudaimonic well-being, contributed to improving the level of subjective well-being in the tenth and twelfth-round surveys, when the respondents were about to graduate from their colleges or seeking or having a job. As these variables are assumed to be related to career in adulthood, eudaimonic well-being with regard to autonomy and personal growth appears to be critical to enhance the quality of life at the time of college graduation.
 Put together, these findings suggest that the level of subjective well-being in adulthood can be enhanced when students develop their competency for self-management to go beyond education limited to cognitive achievement and make their own decisions for learning and career, thereby improving the level of autonomy and personal growth. Moreover, it is necessary to pay more attention to competency-based educational experiences for enhancing social competence. Emphasis should be put more on well-balanced and holistic educational experiences that help students build positive relations with others and contribute to future social development as a member of society.

한국교육상담학회의 활동 방향 탐색: 한국교육상담학회의 활동과 학교상담 관련 학술논문의 주제를 중심으로

This study aims to explore the direction of the Korean Education and Counseling Association(KECA)'s activities as an academic organization for counseling in education. For this purpose, an analysis was conducted on the academic activities of the KECA from 2020 onwards, as well as an analysis of the topics of papers published in major academic journals on educational counseling from 2013 to May 2023. The research results revealed the following. Firstly, the KECA has been publishing academic journals and organizing academic conferences since 2020. They have also been developing the curriculum for subjects such as 'Guidance and Counseling' and 'Understanding School Violence.' Through these activities, the association has established itself as a professional group of experts which study counseling from an educational perspective, taking into consideration the school system. As a result of analyzing papers published in related journals over the past decades, the subjects and targets of school counseling, school counseling methods and effects, school counseling research trends, school counseling systems and legalization studies have been underway. It can be seen that school counseling in Korea has a strong tendency to apply the knowledge and skills of counseling to schools rather than studying counseling based on schools. In order to implement sufficiently working school counseling in the school system, it was found that research on the field of counseling operating in the school system needs to be conducted more actively.

한국의 지식 공유형 교육 ODA 정책 내러티브에 관한 비판적 담론 분석

This study examines how education ODA policy narrative has been delivered in the form of policy transfer through the Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) from South Korea to partner countries and further explores what kind of education policy discourse is being formed in the process. To this end, a critical discourse analysis was conducted on 33 policy advisory reports of KSP projects in the education sector from 2005 to 2021. The results can be divided mainly into three dimensions. In terms of textual practice, the KSP reports deliver a tacit message that Korea's education policies and systems are superior to those of partner countries by repeatedly using specific vocabulary or reinforcing contrasting metaphors when describing the current educational state of Korea and partner countries. At the level of discursive practice, the forms of description tended to be particularly bureaucratic and stereotyped, simply listing information according to a consistent structure. Moreover, the content of the reports, in general, was characterized by lacking consideration of the different social contexts of the partner countries. In terms of socio-cultural practice, it was confirmed that the situational context in which the report was planned and written ─ as well as the political stance of the Korean government had a significant influence on the formation of the policy narrative. This study examined the trends, characteristics, problems, and limitations of Korean education ODA analyzed in previous studies from a new perspective of discourse formation and dissemination through critical discourse analysis of policy narratives. On that basis, this study suggests considerations essential for Korean education ODA to create a narrative with its own originality and expertise.

중학생의 부모 지원 군집에 따른 학업성취도 및 진로성숙도의 차이: 자녀와 부모의 군집 비교

This study investigated whether there were differences in the clusters of parental support perceived by middle school students and by their parents, and whether there were differences in the levels of academic achievement and career maturity based on these clusters. Data from the 4th year (2016, N = 6,677, 50.7% female) of the Korean Education Longitudinal Survey (KELS 2013) was used to identify clusters and examine the differences in academic achievement and career maturity among the clusters. Four clusters were identified from the student data: emotional-focused support (33%), low emotional support (22%), overall low support (30%), and overall high support (30%). For the parent data, four clusters were also identified: academic- and emotional-focused support (39%), leisure-focused support (19%), overall low support (24%), and overall high support (18%). These findings confirmed differences in the perceptions of parental support between children and their parents. In both the child and parent clusters, overall high support exhibited the highest levels of academic achievement and career maturity. Notably, among the child clusters, there was no significant difference in academic achievement between overall high support and emotional-focused support. This suggests that the emotional support provided by parents, such as encouragement and expectations, plays a positive role in academic achievement. Furthermore, it was observed that parental suppor tin any form (e.g., leisure activities) had a more positive effect than low levels of support.

자동화 머신러닝(AutoML)과 SHAP을 적용한 청소년의 다중시민성 유형 및 설명 변인 탐색

This study aims to investigate the typology of multiple citizenship among Korean adolescents and the predictive factors in the global era. The study analyzed data from the 6th wave of the 2013 Korean Educational Longitudinal Study and utilized latent profile analysis to explore the typology of multiple citizenship. To identify the predictive factors determining multiple citizenship, an automated machine learning algorithm was used to find the most performant model. SHAP (Shapley additive explanations) techniques were then applied to provide interpretable explanations of the machine learning results. The key findings are as follows. First, in the latent profile analysis, the multiple citizenship of adolescents was categorized into “high multiple citizenship,” “moderate multiple citizenship,” and “low multiple citizenship.” Second, the results of automated machine learning showed that gradient boosting exhibited the highest performance among machine learning techniques. When predicting the key variables related to adolescents’ multiple citizenship through machine learning, it was found that communication competence emerged as the most important predictor, followed by cognitive information processing skills, awareness of cultural and artistic activities, independent career maturity, educational experiences involving cultural diversity and international issues, gender, and relationships with teachers and peers. Based on these results, this study provides policy recommendations and implications for effective civic education for adolescents.

학교-직장 이행기 청년의 직장만족도에 대한 잠재계층 분류와 영향 변인 탐색

Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore the types of job satisfaction and factors that affect young people during the school-work transition period.
 Methods In order to analyze the type of job satisfaction of school-work transition young people, we explored how many optimized types of school-work transition young people can be classified according to their response patterns and examined the effects of variables such as gender, self-concept, happiness, life satisfaction, freedom of life and social characteristics such as work value judgment and social status on type classification. To this end, a three-step approach to potential class analysis was conducted using data from 2,672 young people in the fifth year of the Korean Education and Employment Panel Survey (KEEP) who are wage workers in their main jobs.
 Results First, it was found that young people during the school-work transition period for job satisfaction were classified into four potential classes, which were named “high job satisfaction,” “medium job satisfaction,” “low job satisfaction,” and “very high job satisfaction.” Second, as a result of exploring variables that affect the classification of potential classes, it was found that the higher the variables of self-concept, good and favorite work, value evaluation of one's work, and current social status, the more significant the impact.
 Conclusions This study is meaningful in identifying the characteristics of the classified group in consideration of the job satisfaction of young people during the student-job transition period and exploring variables that significantly affect group classification.

청소년기 학교적응 프로파일의 전이 양상 및 영향변인 검증

The purpose of this study is to identify the latent profile classification of adolescents’ school adjustment and the transition patterns of latent profiles after school-level transitions, to explore the variables that affect them. To do this, we applied latent transition analysis with 3-step approach to Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013 data from the 3th and 6th wave (7th and 10th grades). The main results are as follows. First, four latent profiles commonly appeared across the 7th grades and the 10th grades: ‘average-level adjustment group’, ‘high-observance of rules average-level adjustment group’, ‘high-level adjustment group’, and ‘low-level adjustment group’. Second, as a result of examining the transition patterns of latent profiles for school adjustment, the overall rate of maintaining the same group was the highest. Third, the higher academic self-concept, social self-concept, self-management, parent-child interaction, interactive teaching methods, teachers’ enthusiasm and achievement pressure, the higher the probability of belonging to a latent profile with relatively higher mean of school adjustment in the 7th grades. Fourth, the higher individualized teaching methods, interactive teaching methods, teachers’ enthusiasm and achievement pressure, the higher the probability of belonging to a latent profile with relatively higher mean of school adjustment in the 10th grades. Fifth, academic self-concept and self-management had statistically significant effects on the transition of latent profiles. Based on the findings, implications for improving adolescents’ school adjustment were discussed.

‘입시위주 교육’에 전제된 ‘교육’ 개념의 비판적 검토 -한국교육개발원 종합보고서 <입시위주 교육의 실상과 대책>을 중심으로-

This study, as the first phase of the “Educational Concept Analysis Project for countering ‘education for the entrance examination’”, critically examined the concept of ‘education’ presumed in the Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI) research report that dealt with the current situation and countermeasures of education for the entrance examination. The problematic issues associated with the concepts of education can be classified into four separate categories. First, the concept of education assumed in the KEDI report was revealed to consider education as merely a means for school entrance or preparation for school entrance and have a distorted perspective on the subject of education, based on the common sense that all aspects within schools constitute education. Second, the KEDI report, by reducing education to the external contexts, specifically within the realms of psychology and sociology, concealed educational phenomena, inevitably resulting in confusing the context. Third, in this report, issues were identified where education was defined only in relation to the results that education is expected to bring out. This approach defers the construction of the conceptual system and the value of education and leads to the divergence in causality and contradictions between concepts. Fourth, while the report emphasized the importance of the “essence of education” and its “intrinsic value” as an alternative to overcome the shortcomings of education for the entrance examination, it paradoxically renders the argument empty due to the neglect of a clear understanding of the conceptual system of education. The issues outlined above originate from the confusion between entrance-centric schooling and education. While entrance assessments and educational phenomena should be distinctly demarcated within the school context, the report is deficient in establishing the requisite conceptual boundaries and theoretical underpinnings necessary for their coexistence. Addressing these limitations is a challenge that must be overcome through the supplementation of appropriate theories distinguishing education from entrance examinations.

인과적 타당성을 위한 도구변수 분석법: 교육 연구에의 활용 가능성 탐색

Instrumental variable (IV) analysis is a statistical approach that enables valid estimation of causal effects, even in non-experimental settings where randomization is not possible. Despite its potential utility, IV analysis remains underutilized in Korean education research. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the fundamental principles of IV analysis and its applications. Specifically, the paper employs causal graphs to provide a more intuitive explanation of the key assumptions and mechanism underlying IV analysis. In addition to providing theoretical explanations, the paper explores the applicability of IV analysis in the context of education research through examining randomized encouragement designs, perceived construct studies, and treatment noncompliance. By doing so, this paper aims to facilitate a better understanding of theoretical foundations and practical considerations when applying IV analysis in education research.