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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present a Korean theory of epistemology and to provide an epistemological embodiment of Korean epistemology as it appears in a traditional, local village school called a seodang. A seodang’s curriculum is grounded upon individualized instruction and whole person education and emphasizes mutually respectful relationships that sustain supportive local communities. I have attempted to create an intersection between cultural elements present within Korea’s indigenous knowledge and innovative research methodology by making use of multilingual representations, visual interpretations of the text, and cultural poetry. By weaving together these two stripes of epistemology and methodology, I underscore the value of ethno-epistemology in curriculum and cultural studies as well as the need to imagine multi-linguistic, visual representations of Korean epistemology. Major texts and images taught in seodangs are interwoven with these articulations as a means of examining methodological concerns in curricular and cultural studies.
PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
What knowledge is important and who makes the decision? How to represent important knowledge in research? These are classical questions in education. This paper introduces Korea’s local village school called a seodang in answering these questions. A seodang’s curriculum is grounded upon individualized instruction and whole person education. It emphasizes mutually respectful relationships sustaining supportive local communities. In this innovative research paper, I create an intersection between cultural elements of important knowledge and how to represent them in an academic paper. Readers encounter with multilingual representations, visual interpretations of the text, and cultural poetry written in Korean, Sino-Korean, and English. By weaving together these two stripes of “what” of important knowledge and “how” of sharing data, I underscore the value of diverse methods in educational research grounded upon a seodang curriculum. Major texts and images taught in seodangs are interwoven with these articulations with the researcher subjectivity.
Notes
1. I define my research as a curriculum historical inquiry that examines historiographic archives and related documents about Seodang education and its curriculum. In defining a historical inquiry, Davis (Citation1991) articulates the importance of “telling” stories that happened in the past to provide meaningful implications for contemporary curriculum theorizing and curriculum practice (Davis, Citation1991). By subscribing to Davis’s articulation, I explore the history and practice of the Seodang curriculum and offer implications for including indigenous knowledge in defining important curricular practices. During my field trips to three major Seodang institutions, I was reminded of the cultural and political contexts that impacted Seodang education for centuries and still persist in contemporary educational practices in Korea. As Davis mentions, a historical curriculum inquiry raises critical questions about the urgent educational issues informed by innovative interpretations. This historical inquiry forced me to examine urgent problems and issues in the curriculum and cultural studies field, such as how to decolonize Eurocentric understanding of a curriculum as inspired by indigenous knowledge.
2. It is challenging to universalize major texts and curriculum taught in Seodang during the Joseon Dynasty. Due to the scope of this paper, I do not introduce major books used in Seodang. Briefly speaking, Jang (Citation2014) list the sequence of text from literacy books for children toward the Confucian Canons, including Cheon-ja-mun (千字文), Dong-mong-sun-seup (童蒙先習), Tong-gam, So-hak (小學), Four Books and Three Canons (四書三經), Sah-gi (史記), Dongsongmun, Dangyul, Chunchu (春秋), and Yegi (禮記).
3. The new bourgeois who emerged in the 19th century wanted to use Seodangs for social promotion to pass the governmental service exams. However, I argue for the basic ideal in Confucianism and actual communal involvement in creating a sound community.
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Seungho Moon
Seungho Moon is an associate professor in Curriculum Studies at Loyola University Chicago (LUC). His research centers on releasing the social imagination to promote equity and justice in education by interrogating interdisciplinary knowledge. He investigates cutting-edge discourses in curriculum and instruction, developing innovative research methodologies, and advancing cross-cultural conversations. Notably, his research on non-Eurocentric curriculum theorizing appears in Educational Philosophy and Theory and Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (JAAACS). The multiplicities of curriculum inquiries have been published at Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Race Ethnicity in Education, to list a few. Currently, Seungho is actively involved in AERA-Division B and the Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies (CICCS) SIG. Seungho is the recipient of early career award at CICCS in 2017. He is also the elected program chair at the AERA-SIG: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in Education (CTBE) and a treasurer at the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS).