Global Studies of Childhood

Volume 3 Number 1 2013

www.wwwords.co.uk/GSCH

Making use of Old and New: Korean

early childhood education in the global context

EUNHYE PARK
Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
JEEHYUN LEE
Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
HONG-JU JUN
Paichai University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

ABSTRACT This article focuses on Korean early childhood education in the global and postcolonial
context. Special attention is paid to Western and traditional beliefs and practices of childhood
education projected by the postings on the walls of an early childhood institution in Korea. Three
major features found on the walls of the early childhood institution – that is, collective postings,
socially appropriate practices, and rules for self-regulation – are interpreted in terms of the layers of
educational practices that consist of Korean early childhood education. This article discusses how
Korean early childhood education ‘consumes’ the outside influences in order to increase its educational
competitiveness in the global context, while maintaining traditional educational practices.

Introduction
Globalization is often understood as a uniform process of cultural homogenization. This dominant
thesis of globalization is based on the assumption that culture, mostly from the West, rolls out
across the globe and reaches to the periphery, mostly to the East. In other words, globalization in
this framework is considered as cultural imperialism, in that cultures that are seen to be dominant,
modernized, and superior dominate the others. This view has been criticized for failing to consider
the complexity and the dynamics of globalization that emerge when heterogeneous cultures meet.
Appadurai (1993) has argued that contemporary global conditions are best characterized in terms of
disjunctive flows of ethnoscapes, technoscapes, financescapes, mediascapes, and ideoscapes. That
is, globalization involves the dynamic movements of ethnic groups, technology, financial
transactions, media images, and ideologies which are not neatly determined by one harmonious
‘master plan’. Rather, the speed, scope, and impact of these flows are fractured and disconnected. It
implies that globalization is not itself a unified, global phenomenon: it may operate differently in
different parts of the world, as Burbles and Torres (2000) suggest, according to the ways it is
negotiated. It means that active negotiation through power struggles occur when heterogeneous
cultures meet.
This framework is useful to understand education in the global context. In their recent study
of preschools in Japan, China, and the USA, Tobin et al (2009) conducted not only cross-cultural
but also within-cultural comparisons across two different timeframes and argue that despite
modernization and globalization, Chinese, Japanese, and American approaches to early childhood
education are no more alike in their core practices and beliefs than they were a generation ago. The
authors conclude that the globalization of early childhood educational ideas does not flow evenly
over time and space, but is negotiated in each sociohistorical context.

40 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2013.3.1.40
Making Use of Old and New

Drawing from these perspectives, this article focuses on Korean early childhood education in
the global context. Korea is an Asian country that has successfully adopted the Western system –
including education, government, and economic systems – and achieved modernization in a
relatively short period of time. On the surface, its social systems, including education, resemble
those of the West. Below the surface, however, Confucian tradition remains, as it is deeply rooted
in individual life as well as in the nation’s guiding philosophy. Confucianism in this context, which
is often referred to as ‘traditional Korean values’, include filial piety, respect for the aged, loyalty,
and mutual assistance and cooperation, as opposed to Western individualism (Seth, 2002). Seth
argues, ‘Koreans have inherited a worldview that is hierarchical and rank-conscious so that
education is a means of firmly establishing one’s position in society.’ (p. 251). Similarly, Kwon
(2004) points out that hierarchical human relationships, an emphasis on collectivism, and valuing
academic achievement are major features of Confucian legacy on Korean education. These
interrelated aspects are merged together into the current educational practices in Korea.
An example that embodies the Confucian legacy on Korean education is high achievement
scores of Korean students in international tests such as the Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA). For example, in the PISA 2009 scores, Korea ranked fourth in math, sixth in
science, and second in reading among 74 participating countries (Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development, 2010). Most often, a strong drive for education, sometimes called
‘education fever,’ in Korean society, is used to explain this achievement. ‘Education fever’ is an
expression that refers to the zeal for education that is pervasive in Korean society. The United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – United Nations Korean Reconstruction
Agency (UNESCO-UNKRA)’s final report (1953) describes ‘the strong zeal for education among
Koreans cannot be matched anywhere else in the world.’
Seth (2002) argues that South Korea’s ‘education fever’ was the principal force that drove the
country’s extraordinary educational development. He further claims,
this preoccupation with the pursuit of formal schooling was the product of the diffusion of
traditional Confucian attitudes toward learning and status, new egalitarian ideas introduced from
the West, and the complex, often contradictory ways in which new and old ideals and
formulations interacted. (p. 6)
As such, Koreans accepted Western educational influences such as system of schooling in order to
survive in the rapidly changing world, but traditional values have always been at the base, which
Tobin et al (2009) refer to as ‘an implicit cultural logic’ – beliefs and practices that are unmarked,
unremarkable and not supported by formal documents and explicit policies.
Drawing on the idea that globalization is a dynamic process of negotiation, this article focuses
on Korean early childhood education, where Western and traditional Korean educational practices
and ideas coexist in the current practice of education. Considering that institutionalized early
childhood education was introduced in Korea about a hundred years ago by American missionaries
and heavily influenced by Western theories thereafter, it can be assumed that the beliefs and
practices of Korean early childhood education are similar to those of the West. On the other hand,
it is also plausible that Confucian influence is exerted on Korean early childhood education, thereby
stressing academic achievement from early childhood and valuing direct teaching. This article
discusses how Korean early childhood education adapts some of these outside influences in order
to increase its educational competitiveness in the global context, while maintaining traditional
educational practices.

Korean Early Childhood Education Then and Now

It has been almost a hundred years since institutionalized early childhood education began in
Korea. The first kindergarten in Korea was Ewha kindergarten, established in 1914 by American
missionaries. Charlotte G. Brownlee, the founder of Ewha kindergarten, was trained at the
Cincinnati Kindergarten Teacher Training School, and she established the kindergarten teacher
training program now known as the Department of Early Childhood Education at Ewha Womans
University (Lee, 1987). Deeply rooted in the progressive kindergarten movement and child-
centeredness, the first kindergarten was entirely different from traditional Korean early childhood
education in terms of educational philosophy, teaching materials, teaching methods, and views of

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children. It was particularly hard for Koreans to accept the concept of ‘play’ as a teaching and
learning method, because it conflicted with the traditional ways of education, that had children
from early childhood sit down to teach reading and writing. In the 1930s, many people began to
consider kindergarten as useless because of its inefficiency, elitism, and ironically, inappropriateness
in education.
Although it was during the Japanese colonial period, Japanese influence on Korean
kindergarten education was relatively minor. According to Lee’s (1987) historical analysis,
kindergartens during the colonial period played a key role in maintaining Korean language, culture,
and spirit. This was possible because kindergartens were relatively free from Japanese influence. In
other words, as a space for resistance to Japanese oppression and for maintaining Korean culture
and spirit, kindergartens in the early years were less influenced by Japanese education practices.
After the period of turbulence due to restoring independence in 1945 and the Korean War in
1950, all possible efforts were made in order to rebuild the country, and the education system was
one of the main domains of restructuring. Kindergartens in Korea grew tremendously with the
political and economic development of the country. Along with the expansion of kindergartens,
accompanied by the public demand for education, and the will of the government to rebuild the
country, Korea experienced rapid development in education. In particular, in 1969 the National
Kindergarten Curriculum was established and the consecutive reforms thereafter reflect that
Korean society strived to provide quality education for young children.
Curriculum revisions were made eight times. The most recent curriculum reforms, made in
2012 for five-year-olds and in 2013 for three- to four-year-olds, are called the ‘Nuri Curriculum’. It is
the first integrated curriculum for ‘education’ and ‘care’, which previously was issued separately by
the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The curriculum reforms reflect
social discourse regarding what is valuable for young children to learn as well as current theories of
education on how children learn best. As the National Kindergarten Curriculum went through
reforms, various early childhood education program models and ideas, mostly from the West, were
introduced, including Dewey’s idea of progressivism in the 1930s, Montessori methods in the
1970s, and Piaget’s developmental theory. More recently, Developmentally Appropriate Practices
in Early Childhood Education (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Copple & Bredekamp, 2009), the
guideline published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC),
and Reggio Emilia approaches have been influential for scholars and practitioners in Korea.
As described above, Korean early childhood education borrows its theory and practices
heavily from the West. Some scholars interpret it as cultural imperialism or the domination of one
culture by another, more powerful one. In the historical review of Korean early childhood
education, Shon (2002) argued that missionary schooling in Korea was mental colonization by the
West, while Japanese occupation was physical and educational colonization. However, Kwon’s
analysis (2004), that examines the influence of the national curriculum on actual practice, counter-
argues that there were workings of traditional and indigenous values in the process of adapting
foreign practices. According to this analysis, even though the National Kindergarten Curriculum
emphasizes individuality and creativity, in reality, lessons are mainly teacher-directed rather than
children being encouraged to explore their own personal interests. Therefore, teaching approaches
that are considered inappropriate in Western early childhood education are often used in Korean
kindergartens. This discrepancy between beliefs and practices can be understood as active
adaptation of Western practices in the Korean context, where dynamic interaction between new
and old values and practices took place, rather than a failure in perfectly adopting Western
educational practice.
This article focuses on ‘postings on walls’ in a Korean early childhood education institution.
Walls represent the identity of the learning environment, space, the tastes of the users, and the
value of the larger society where they are located. Walls in early childhood institutions –posted
with children’s artifacts, symbols, and signs – represent the social and cultural assumptions of
society at large regarding children and their education. Therefore, interpreting what is posted on
the walls of an early childhood institution can provide us with insights into the cultural belief
systems of the teacher, school, and society regarding not only how children best learn and how
teachers facilitate their learning, but also how childhood is perceived in a particular society. We pay
special attention to Western and traditional Korean beliefs and practices of childhood education
represented by the postings on the walls of an early childhood institution in Korea.

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We purposely selected the Ewha Institute of Childhood Education and Care as a research site.
With its roots in child-centered and play-oriented curriculum, the Ewha Institute of Early
Childhood Education was established in 2007 on the campus of the Ewha Womans University,
right next to the Ewha kindergarten, to provide a model full-day education program, which has
strong demand in contemporary society. The reasons why we selected Ewha Institute of
Childhood Education and Care are as follows. First, the institute shares the education philosophy of
the Ewha kindergarten, the first kindergarten in Korea where Western and Korean traditional
beliefs of education encountered each other. Revisiting the origin of Korean kindergartens is
meaningful to see how they managed the continuous influences from the West. Second, Ewha has
a model of the National Kindergarten Curriculum in practice by advocating play and child-
centeredness, the core of the curriculum. At the same time, it is one of the institutions where the
‘educational fever’ of parents is overheated, and as a result, parents’ pressure and expectations of
education are strong.
Focusing on the postings on the walls of an early childhood institution in Korea, this article
discusses how Korean early childhood education ‘consumes’ the outside influences while
maintaining traditional educational practices.

Western-style Practices within the Frame of Traditional Values

Postings on the walls at the Ewha Institute of Childhood Education and Care explicitly show the
institution’s pursuit of child-centeredness and the value placed on individual interests and the play,
which is a main agenda of the National Kindergarten Curriculum. In this section, three major
features found on the walls of the early childhood institution – collective postings, socially
appropriate practices, and rules for self-regulation – and the implicit cultural logic are discussed.

Collective Postings
One of the key ideas that characterizes Western society is ‘individualism.’ This concept is clearly
reflected in the developmental theories of the West, whose focus is on development within the
individual (Lee & Walsh, 2001). Development is perceived as an individualistic process that occurs
through children’s ‘direct encounters with the world rather than mediated through vicarious
encounters with it in interacting and negotiating with others’ (Bruner, 1986, p. 85). Individualism
takes diverse forms in educational settings. For example, in terms of the spatial arrangement in the
classroom, it is reflected as ‘learning areas’ or ‘activity centers’ where children make choices
according to their own interests, as suggested by the Developmentally Appropriate Practices in
Early Childhood Education (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).
Kindergarten classrooms in Korea are also divided into learning areas, and children are given
time for free play every day according to this dominant discourse of individual choice. However,
the ways in which these individual learning activities are linked to the collective, or the wider
group, is a unique aspect of Korean values. The following pictures are examples of individual works
being collectivized, which is a common practice in Korean early childhood institutions.
In Figures 1, 2 and 3, each of the artifacts has been made by an individual child and then
collectively posted by the teacher. For example, the purpose of the ‘most precious thing’ activity in
Figure 1 is to make an attendance board that includes each child’s artifacts. Such activities are
common, in that each child is allowed to create their own artifact according to their level of writing
and drawing ability within the teacher’s planned framework. The wall functions as a space where
children’s diverse voices are harmonized under a teacher-set goal. For example, in order to
promote phonological awareness, the teacher planned the ‘Words ending with li’ activity (see
Figure 2), and explained that each child would be expected to think and write a word ending with
the sound ‘li’. In order to successfully accomplish the task, each child must understand the rule,
know how to write, and select an appropriate word that is ‘acceptable’ in the classroom. In this
process, children’s diverse voices – in terms of word selection, for example, are compromised for
the collective purpose of the activity.

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Figure 1. Children’s ‘most precious things’. The teacher asked each child to draw their ‘most precious thing’. Then the
teacher brought all of the individual pieces together to make a collective large heart on the attendance board where
children check their own attendance when they arrive at preschool.

Figure 2. ‘Words ending with li’. This was planned for the purpose of promoting children’s phonological awareness. Each
child was asked to think of and write a word that ends with li. Then, the teacher compiles the children’s work and posts
them collectively on the wall.

The practices of collective posting have different meaning for adults as compared to children. For
example, children often desire to share their activities communally (or do things together) and to
gain control over their lives (often by resisting the control of adults) (Corsaro & Nelson, 2003).
Collective postings help children share their activities with others, while allowing them to control
what they write or draw, even though the teacher-set theme limits their choices. Secondly,
collectively posting individuals’ work may promote a sense of community among children by
encouraging their participation in the activity for the same purpose, although the children’s age,
the level and purpose of the activity, and the degree of participation vary.
Thirdly, through this activity, children practice self-regulation. The space one can use is
limited, as well as the subject of what to draw or write. In order to participate, children are
supposed to understand what is officially allowed in the activity. In this experience of making one’s
work fit into the teacher-planned space and theme, the implicit cultural logic of regulating
individual desire within the group is demonstrated.

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Figure 3. Children’s ‘my books’. Collectively displayed on the wall.

For teachers, the practice of collective posting can be used as a strategy to compare, sort, and
categorize children based on their ability to write. It helps to compare the level of each child’s
ability to write at a glance, which would be difficult by looking at each individual piece of work.
Utilizing this practice, teachers can provide appropriate support according to the children’s current
level of performance.
By posting everyone’s artifacts at the same place, the practice of collective posting shows the
teacher’s fairness, representing the democratic ideal of equality that early childhood education
values. In other words, it implies a cultural desire for uniformity, deeply rooted in Korean
traditional values. For example, it is consistent with the Korean concept of nationalism, which
emphasizes one uniform, homogeneous nation. Koreans are proud of the long history of unity and
ethnic homogeneity that currently gives the nation a unique and clearly defined identity.
Therefore, collectively posting children’s artifacts might be interpreted as reflecting collectiveness,
unity, and homogeneity that are at the core of Korean identity.

Socially Appropriate Practices

Considering children’s development is one of the major principles of curriculum planning. The
Korean National Kindergarten Curriculum was developed according to this principle. It is also
reflected in the National Nuri Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2011, 2012), which came into
force in 2013. For example, the content of ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ included in the communication
section are presented in Table I.
The content is organized by age that is based on research that shows what children can do in
terms of reading and writing. Table II includes photographs of literacy events documented in the
classroom of one- through five-year-olds and shows how reading and writing are found in
classrooms. ‘Socially appropriate practices’, determined by age regarding reading and writing
abilities are reflected in the photographs.
From our observations, the one-year-old learning environment seemed to include only
printed letters on a bookshelf. Simple books were provided, including those made from cloth. In a
class of two-year-olds, an activity in which the children tasted a certain food and responded to the
taste was documented by using the words that represented each child’s facial reactions to the food
they tasted. The purpose of this posting is more for informing the parents about the activity in the
class, rather than for teaching the children to read, judging from the location of the posting, which
is at the adults’ eye level.

Category Contents Specific contents by age

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3 4 5
Reading Having Find familiar letters Find familiar letters Find familiar letters and
interest in read them
reading Having interest in the Having interest in the Having interest in the
contents being read contents of being read contents being read and
try reading
Having Having interest in books Enjoy reading books Enjoy reading books and
interest in handle them carefully
reading books Predicting the contents of Understanding the contents Understanding the
books using pictures of books using pictures contents of books using
pictures
- Looking for something Looking for something
curious on books curious on books
Writing Having Showing interest in Knowing that written Knowing that written
interest in representing oral language language and thoughts can language and thoughts
writing using written language be expressed in written can be expressed in
language written language
Having interest in letters Trying writing one’s name Trying writing one’s
constituting one’s own name and familiar words
name
- Express one’s feelings, Express one’s feelings,
thoughts and experiences thoughts and experiences
using letter-like forms using letter-like forms or
letters
Using writing - Having interest in writing Knowing the appropriate
tools tools and using them ways of using writing
tools and use them

Table I. Contents of ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ in the communication area of the Nuri curriculum.

Age Reading Writing

1 -

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Table II. Reading and writing by age .

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Emergent literacy is concerned with the earliest phases of literacy, the period between birth and the
time when children read and write conventionally (Sulzby & Teale, 1991, p. 728). In this
framework, literacy learning is seen to occur naturally and in real-life social contexts, as opposed to
formal instruction. This understanding of literacy learning assumes that children explicate many
functions of print, reading and writing for themselves as they interact with a print-rich
environment and with people who engage them in literacy events (Kantor et al, 1992). The
discourse of emergent literacy is found in a class of three-year-olds, from such activities as ‘naming
materials’ that provides print-rich environment. For four-year-olds, more structured activities to
teach letters are introduced. Educational materials were provided for word recognition and sound
matching. In the classroom of five-year-olds, postings show that the 2011 earthquake in Japan was
an issue that the children were interested in at the time, and the teacher used newspapers to
explore the topic.
In terms of developing young children’s writing, no writing activities were seen in the one-
year-olds’ classroom. For the class of two-year-olds, a scribbling activity to strengthen fine motor
skills was provided as a pre-writing activity. This activity involved children exploring diverse
writing tools on a large piece of paper without constraint. The posting in the classroom by three-
year-olds seems to be the children’s spontaneous activity of imitating writing, which is assumed
from the ways the materials were posted and the fact that the postings were a mixture of hand-
written numbers and letters alongside pictures. For the four-year-olds, writing was introduced as a
more structured activity through worksheets, and the result was made into a book. The five-year-
olds made books, an activity requiring children to compose stories, write sentences, select
appropriate expressions and draw pictures.
Overall, literacy introduced to children aged from one to three in the classroom context
focused primarily on helping children understand the function of written language. For this group
of children, teachers were expected to provide written language in the environment, rather than
explicitly ‘teach’ how to read and write. For example, socially appropriate levels of reading for
three-year-olds are found in the practice of posting ‘names’ to the materials provided in the art
center. Although most children may not be able to read these symbols, teachers post ‘name cards’
in order to support children’s understanding that oral language can be expressed in letters for the
purpose of communication.
Compared to the three-year-olds, the four-year-old children were taught reading and writing
in a more structured and teacher-planned way. An example of this is found when teaching
materials are provided that allow children to match letters (Table II). In terms of writing,
worksheets designed to give children the opportunity to practice writing their own and friends’
names are provided. For five-year-olds, more advanced levels of reading and writing were expected
including using literacy to understand social issues as reflected in the newspaper article on the
Japanese earthquake, which was a big issue in 2011, and creating storybooks.
In the overall sequence of the literacy practiced in the classrooms of children aged one to five,
socially appropriate practices of reading and writing increased suddenly at age five. Considering
that the structured way of teaching literacy was introduced at the age of four, the expectation for
five-year-old children to be able to read and write sentences and create diverse forms of literacy
artifacts seems to be a big leap.
The purpose of kindergarten education is reflected in the national curriculum document of
Korea, states ‘the purpose of Nuri Curriculum for five-year-olds is to develop basic capacities and
upright character needed for five-year-olds and to build the basics of democratic citizens.’ (Ministry
of Education, 2012, p. 13). In reality, however, overheated extracurricular activities pervasive in
early childhood institutions imply a gap between beliefs and practices. In their study of parents’
perceptions on the role of kindergarten, Jun et al (2012) suggest that kindergarten, for five-year-olds
in particular, has long been considered as a place to prepare for schooling. Especially in Korea,
being equipped with academic readiness is considered the most important task that young children
should accomplish for their successful beginning of formal studenthood (Woo, 2005). The reason
these beliefs are strong in Korea is that early childhood education has not been part of the public
education system for a long time, in spite of its development over the years. Kindergarten was first
introduced in Korea approximately a hundred years ago, and a national kindergarten curriculum
has been in place since 1969. However, as a public education system, kindergarten has not been
firmly set, because it has been divided into a childcare and the education sector. Recently, in 2012,

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public funds have begun to be used to support all five-year-olds, and the curriculum for education
and care have been integrated. Therefore, in the Korean context, early childhood education has not
been considered part of the formal school system. All of the efforts and energy put into the early
portions of early childhood are to prepare each child to be ready for elementary school, and school
readiness has been narrowly understood as academic readiness (Kim et al, 2011).
Significantly increasing the expected literacy level for five-year-olds also reflects the discourse
that divides care and education in Korean society, where infants and toddlers are considered to be
the subject of care, and five-year-olds are considered to be at a critical stage for learning. This
philosophy has been formed through a long history of the division of childcare and education in the
system, and it explicitly defines and separates toddlerhood and childhood.

Rules for Self-regulation

Many of the postings on the walls function to regulate, manage, and control children’s behavior,
particularly in terms of what to do and when to do it.
The timetable of the classroom, shown in Figure 4, displays the overall sequence of the day,
starting from greetings, snack and circle times to singing, free play, and going home in the
afternoon. This organization of the daily schedule is based on NAYEC’s suggestion that ‘the daily
schedule includes periods of activity and movement and also quiet and restful times’ (Copple &
Bredekamp, 2009, p. 221), in order to enhance development and learning. It is believed that by
displaying the schedule on the wall, children and teachers will have a better understanding of what
comes next in their scheduled day.

Figure 4. Timetable.

Another way to regulate children’s lives in a kindergarten is through written rules posted on the
walls. The pictures shown in Figure 5 are the rules that children have written for each learning
area. The picture on the left side states the rules applied when using the blackboard: ‘2. Only five
minutes’; and ‘Three people can use it at the same time.’ Rules stated in the right-hand photograph
are for the ‘library area.’ They state: ‘1. Don’t run’; ‘2. Don’t talk aloud’; and ‘3. Don’t disturb
others when they read books’.
The posting of rules in the classroom has many educational purposes. For example, these
rules encourage children to practice and apply writing in the classroom context. They also
encourage children to follow the rules that they made and wrote themselves. Rules in the
classroom also indicate that self-regulation is highly valued in Korean early childhood education.
Learning how to behave appropriately in different contexts – in this case, learning areas – is
considered a very important skill that children should learn in order to become capable members of
Korean society.

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Figure 5. Rules for each learning area

In order to appreciate cultural differences in the practice of self-regulation in early childhood

institutions, it is necessary to compare the beliefs beneath the observable practice. Hayashi and
Tobin (2011) contrast Western and Japanese practices of self-regulation using the notions of
‘collective self-regulation’ and ‘collective selfhood’. For example, when children are watching other
children fight, they actively respond to the fighting they are observing. The researchers argue that
in Japanese preschool classrooms, the center of control for fighting and antisocial behavior is at the
level of the group rather than the individual. Instead of focusing on how individual children
experience and express emotions and how a child controls their behavior, a Japanese perspective on
regulation focuses on communal forms of behavioral regulation. It is helping children learn to be
members of the class as a community and providing opportunities for the community to develop a
capacity for self-regulation
The rules posted in each learning area of a Korean early childhood institution are intended to
regulate and limit one’s behavior for the purpose of group efficiency and the whole class shares the
responsibility of regulation.

Conclusion: integrating old and new in the global context

Three major features found on the walls of the early childhood institution – the practice of
collective postings, socially appropriate practices, and rules for self-regulation – were discussed in
this article. Miriam Rosenthal’s (2000) framework for exploring ‘collectivist’ and ‘individualist’
cultures in relation to their valued practices for working with young children is useful in
understanding children’s lives in Korean society, despite the danger that the framework may
simplify culture. According to this framework, what Korean early childhood education pursues on
the surface seems to be close to what is valued in individualist societies – that is, ‘enhancing
personal achievement’ by basing this achievement on ‘equality, symmetry, mutual respect’.
However, below the surface, valued educational practices in Korea resemble those of collectivist
societies more closely, in that the practices have core elements of collective postings, socially
appropriate practices, and rules for self-regulation. Controlling children’s behavior using clear
behavior norms reflects a tendency toward uniformity, which is one of the core characteristics of a
collectivist society.
In sum, Korean early childhood education has not just adapted Western theories and
practices. Instead, it consumes what it needs based on traditional theories of education, in order to
increase its educational competitiveness in the global context. Korean early childhood education
needs to be understood as incorporating new cultural practices based on the traditional culture that
values community, academic learning, and self-regulation.

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EUNHYE PARK is a professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Ewha

Women’s University and Director of Ewha Institute of Early Childhood Education and Care. She
has an M.A. in computer education from Arizona State University and a PhD in early childhood
education from Arizona State University. Her teaching areas include ‘early childhood teacher

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education’, ‘curriculum for early childhood teacher’, ‘knowledge of early childhood education
teacher’. Recently, she is interested in ‘ESD: education for sustainable development’ and ‘ODA:
official development assistance’, both focusing on early childhood education. Correspondence:
ehparkh@ewha.ac.kr

JEEHYUN LEE is a professor in the College of Education at Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea. She
has a Doctorate in Education from Boston University focusing on early childhood education. Her
research areas have been related to early literacy, young children’s language development, math
education for young children and curriculum for early childhood education. Correspondence:
jhlk@konkuk.ac.kr

HONG-JU JUN* is an early childhood education specialist who has a teaching experience as a
preschool teacher. She has a Master of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a
PhD from Arizona State University, both focusing on early childhood education. She is interested
in sociocultural contexts of early childhood education and childhoods, and the various ways
children live through in the 21st century. In particular, her research has been focused on the issues
of immigrant families in Korea, English education fever, and the construction of childhood in
Korean modern times. Correspondence: hjun@pcu.ac.kr

*Contact author

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