Teaching and learning a new worldview: A study of an alternative school in South Korea.

摘要

This study starts with a question: How can we learn and teach a new worldview that acknowledges interconnectedness? With the question, I explore educational contexts of a Korean alternative school. The purposes of the study is (1) to understand the teachers' worldviews at the school; (2) to describe educational contexts of the school and examine how the teachers' worldviews coherently or contradictorily manifest at the school; and (3) to understand students' worldviews and examine how they are congruent with or contradict to teachers' worldviews. My primary goal is to envision a practice of education that promotes a worldview that emphasizes interconnectedness; thus, to contribute to creating educational contexts within which learning a new worldview is guided and invited.;I have conducted a qualitative study of a Korean alternative middle school that was founded with an intention of creating an alternative culture through alternative forms of education. During 2012 fall semester, I have observed school activities, teachers, and students in participant ways. I have conducted in-depth interviews with 9 teachers and semi-structured interviews with 19 students. Also, I have collected documents that illuminate participants' worldviews. I have analyzed collected data with the framework of a mechanical worldview (that focuses on parts) and an ecological worldview (that focuses on the whole and thus emphasizes interconnectedness).;I have found that, first, teachers have (I) an assumption of interconnectedness, (2) emphasis on love and self-directedness in learning, (3) congruency between purpose of education and that of life, (4) emphasis on being a subject, and (5) confusion of school philosophy. Second, the principles of love and self-directedness coherently manifest in the school's purposes of education, curriculum, pedagogies, and the atmosphere of the community. Third, by showing the consistency with teachers' worldviews, I have found that students learn self-discovery, meta-knowledge, and participant consciousness. At the same time, I have found that students have limited conception of knowledge and tend to look at themselves from a dominant worldview, which are inconsistent with teachers' worldviews. I end with a discussion of what these findings tell about the question of how we can learn and teach a new worldview.