Practice In South Korea Research Articles

Educational Administration as national capacity building: towards South Korea becoming a creative learning state

This philosophy paper proposes that a primary purpose of Educational Administration, as a field of study, research and practice in South Korea, becomes national capacity building. It does this by evaluating the current scope of Educational Administration against the need for a new national education policy to help South Korea make the transition from being an economic success to become a creativity-driven knowledge society. It examines the current policy dilemmas to point to the need for a national reform process. It recommends an independent presidential commission to (a) consult all interest groups using a Green Paper–White Paper–Blue Book process, (b) draft a fresh Education Act for consideration in the National Assembly and (c) prepare a detailed, budgeted and fully funded implementation programme. It indicates how researchers and scholars in the field could make significant contributions to such a national policy-making and implementation process. Finally, it recommends that the field adopt a comprehensive approach to capacity building in order to integrate professional development, organizational development and legal and regulatory development in the administration of education with wider government reforms in public administration as South Korea becomes a creative learning state.

Developing an action learning design model

As the number of organizations implementing action learning increases, both successful and failed cases also increase in action learning practice in South Korea. Existing studies on action learning have listed key success factors of action learning at the program level or at the team level but have not paid sufficient attention to the program design process itself. The purpose of this study was to show how to develop a design model of action learning that incorporates a step-by-step decision-making process and that provides design principles necessary along the way. This design model will present the importance of contextualizing the action learning process by asking ‘highly required’ questions and help raise the level of successful implementation of action learning programs.

A critical cultural inquiry into insider issues in South Korean art education

Over the past decades, many art advocates have argued for the intrinsic value of learning in the arts. Nevertheless, the arts continue to struggle to find a secure place within the school curriculum. Concerned about the arts’ impact on classroom practice, this paper aims to cast light on diverse realities constructed by art teachers as insiders in marginal contexts. This will be done by reviewing a critical cultural inquiry into art education practice in South Korea. Two interpretive analyses of individual teachers’ life stories have disclosed the practitioners’ relationships to established power dynamics between the dominant practice and a developing alternative practice network within the system. The discussion focuses on the inherent contradictions and opportunities identified within the context of Korean education. This paper provides cultural resources for conscious professional transformation of practitioners and contributes to broader discussions on the socio-educational status of art in education.

New technologies in robotic surgery

The development of the robotic systems has made surgery an increasingly technology-driven field. Since the introduction of the first robotic platform in 2005, surgical practice in South Korea has also been caught up in the global robotic revolution. Consequently, a market focused on improving the robotic systems was created and Korea has emerged as one of its frontrunners. This article reviews the Korean experience in developing various robotic technologies and then Korea's most recent contributions to the development of new technologies in robotic surgery. The goal of new technologies in the field of robotic surgery has been to improve on the current platforms by eliminating their disadvantages. The pressing goal is to develop a platform that is less bulky, more ergonomic, and capable of providing force feedback to the surgeon. In Korea, the Lapabot and two new robotic systems for single-port laparoscopic surgery are the most recent advances that have been reported. Robotic surgery is rapidly evolving and Korea has stayed in the forefront of its development. These new advancements in technology will eventually produce better robotic platforms that will greatly improve the manner in which surgical care is delivered.

Diagnostic Accuracy and Turnaround Time of the Xpert MTB/RIF Assay in Routine Clinical Practice

The Xpert MTB/RIF assay was introduced for timely and accurate detection of tuberculosis (TB). The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy and turnaround time (TAT) of Xpert MTB/RIF assay in clinical practice in South Korea. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients in whom Xpert MTB/RIF assay using sputum were requested. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and detection of rifampicin resistance were calculated. In addition, TAT of Xpert MTB/RIF assay was compared with those of other tests. Total 681 patients in whom Xpert MTB/RIF assay was requested were included in the analysis. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of Xpert MTB/RIF assay for diagnosis of PTB were 79.5% (124/156), 100.0% (505/505), 100.0% (124/124) and 94.0% (505/537), respectively. Those for the detection of rifampicin resistance were 57.1% (8/14), 100.0% (113/113), 100.0% (8/8) and 94.9% (113/119), respectively. The median TAT of Xpert MTB/RIF assay to the report of results and results confirmed by physicians in outpatient settings were 0 (0–1) and 6 (3–7) days, respectively. Median time to treatment after initial evaluation was 7 (4–9) days in patients with Xpert MTB/RIF assay, but was 21 (7–33.5) days in patients without Xpert MTB/RIF assay. Xpert MTB/RIF assay showed acceptable sensitivity and excellent specificity for the diagnosis of PTB and detection of rifampicin resistance in areas with intermediate TB burden. Additionally, the assay decreased time to the initiation of anti-TB drugs through shorter TAT.

CSR and the national institutional context: The case of South Korea

The different institutional contexts in which businesses practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) lead researchers to challenge the validity of the extant standardized global approach. This study follows recent studies in employing institutional theory to explore the specific pressures and factors that lead CSR practices to differ between countries, and how they lead to those differences. The study is a detailed qualitative analysis of CSR practice in South Korea, a country with very different value and governance systems from the US and UK where contemporary CSR evolved. Contrary to simplistic expectations, Korea shows a concern for short-termism more than for sustainability; and a normative more than a strategic orientation in its CSR, where CSR lies at a crossroads between implicit and explicit CSR behavior. The practices reflect many Korean institutional factors, but not in simple and direct ways. Institutional factors interact in intricate ways to create complex and dynamic pressures for CSR practice. CSR research needs to consider these interactions and dynamic processes with care and institutional theory can help provide a sufficiently intricate research framework.

The developmental history of labor education in South Korea from a sociopolitical and economic perspective

Although there is a considerable body of research regarding the relationships between the sociopolitical and economic transition and its implications for the education system in South Korea, there is little known about how sociopolitical and economic factors affect labor education practice in South Korea. The premise of the study is that the development of labor education is driven not only by workers’ needs but also by the state's policy to increase productivity while keeping the labor movement and political expression under control. Since many educators often overlook the importance of labor education by excluding it from adult education, very few studies have been conducted to identify the relationship between sociopolitical and economic factors and labor education in South Korea. The purpose of the study is thus to examine the effect of particular combinations of social, political, and economic forces on the development and expansion of labor education in South Korea during the period between the 1960s and the 1990s. The results of the study can be compared with studies of other countries that underwent a similar pattern of political and economic transformation.

Social context of crime control: a time-series analysis of the Korean case, 1973–2002

Regardless of recent attempts to explain crime control in relation to its social structural conditions, few studies have assessed the economic, organizational, and political context of crime control simultaneously. This study integrated these three contexts into a single project to test the relevance of social structural explanations on major crime control practices over the past three decades in South Korea. By using a variety of official statistics, time-series regressions were used. The level of crime consistently explained most variation in the arrest rates for all four categories of crimes. Prosecutions also seemed to be closely responsive to the level of crime. However, the link between crime and incarceration rates was not found for all categories of crimes. This finding indicates that levels of incarceration could be determined by external factors such as the economic conditions, organizational capacity, and political climates. In addition, economic conditions, which were measured by the unemployment rate, appeared to have a strong relationship to all crime control practices; it was positively and statistically significant for arrest, prosecution and incarceration rates. Political repression was inversely related to all three practices. However, organizational capacity only seemed to affect incarceration rates. Failure or inconsistencies of some of the social contexts in explaining crime control practice in South Korea can be assessed in both methodological and substantive grounds. This underscores the need to develop more solid theoretical arguments and empirical measures for their roles in crime control.

Usefulness of Whole-Blood Interferon-γ Assay and Interferon-γ Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay in the Diagnosis of Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the whole-blood interferon-gamma assay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]) and interferon-gamma enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) based on early secretory antigenic target 6 and culture filtrate protein 10 in the diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in routine clinical practice. We conducted a prospective study enrolling 144 participants with suspected pulmonary TB in a tertiary referral hospital in Seoul, South Korea, to investigate the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of these tests. Clinical assessment, tuberculin skin test (TST), whole-blood interferon-gamma ELISA (QuantiFERON-TB Gold [QFT-G]; Cellestis Ltd; Victoria, Australia), and an ELISPOT assay (T SPOT.TB; Oxford Immunotec; Oxford, UK) were performed. Test results were compared with the final confirmed diagnoses. Active pulmonary TB was diagnosed in 67 of 144 participants (47%). Sensitivities of QFT-G and T SPOT.TB for active pulmonary TB were 89% (95% confidence interval [CI], 79 to 96%) and 92% (95% CI, 83 to 97%), respectively; and specificities were 49% (95% CI, 37 to 61%) and 47% (95% CI, 36 to 59%). NPVs of QFT-G (84%; 95% CI, 69 to 93%) and T SPOT.TB (87%; 95% CI, 73 to 96%) were higher than that of TST (64%; 95% CI, 51 to 76%) [p = 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively]. High NPVs of QFT-G and T SPOT.TB for the diagnosis of active TB suggest the supplementary role of these tests for the diagnostic exclusion of active TB, although the low PPV limits their usefulness in routine clinical practice in South Korea, where the prevalence of latent TB infection is considerable.

Contingent factors: Modeling generic public relations practice in South Korea

This study identified which contingent variables public relations practitioners perceive as influential to their practice in South Korea. They responded that a number of contingent variables influence public relations activities and emphasized the influence of individual and organizational level variables on their practice. Practitioners at the management level perceived organizational level variables as influential while the staff level indicated PR department variables as dominant to their practice. Public relations practitioners whose main function is government relations tended to acknowledge a greater influence of organizational level variables. Most notably, public relations practitioners cited the constraints of negative information release and conflict situations.

Global Public Relations: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Excellence Theory in South Korea

This study applies the global theory of generic principles and specific applications, based on the excellence study, to South Korea. Data were collected using the International Association of Business Communicators's excellence questionnaire and Hofstede's cultural values questionnaire. Results show that the excellence theory could be used to explain South Korean public relations practice. In addition, findings on influence of societal culture show that excellent public relations practice in South Korea may be enhanced by collectivism and dynamic elements of Confucianism.