US schools to have lessons on Korea

Participants in the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) grant program pose during a two-hour class to learn how to play Korea’s traditional instruments at the Institution of Korean Culture and Education, Kongju National University, Aug. 1. / Courtesy of Fulbright-Hays Group

Ivan Rosa, an art teacher at International High School

Sean Coogan, a graduate student at William Paterson University

Dr. An Hee-jung, an associate professor at William Paterson University

Dr. Hong Eun-young, an associate professor at William Paterson University

By Chung Hyun-chae

A group of U.S. educators and students visited Korea last month to learn its history, culture and education system so that they can develop middle and high school curricula in New Jersey, the U.S.

“I have a lesson plan pertaining to imperialism. Usually it is an unimportant topic in U.S. schools. What students learn about in this subject is British imperialism,” Sean Coogan, a graduate student at William Paterson University, whose undergraduate major was history.

“It has never focused on Korea and most students don’t know what happened during the Japanese occupation period. So it would give them a better idea of today’s relations between Korea and Japan,” he said.

Coogan is a member of the educational project team, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant program.

This program has been supporting overseas projects in training, research and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and regional studies for U.S. teachers, students and faculty, by providing grants to them.

Awardees are chosen through a strict selection process and 16 institutions won the grant this year, including William Paterson University’s project on Korea.

This project has been led by William the university’s faculty comprised of three Korean professors _ Dr. An Hee-jung, an associate professor of educational technology, Dr. Hong Eun-young, an associate professor of literacy, and Dr. Park Keum-jae, an associate professor of sociology.

“Korea’s history and culture have been often overshadowed by content on China and Japan in the U.S. middle and high school curriculum,” Professor Hong told The Korea Times.

“Under these circumstances, we felt the need to develop curriculum materials on Korea and share them with other teachers and schools. This is why we designed our project,” he said.

The group has been awarded the largest amount _ $85,000 (86.5 million won) _ among all 16 awardees, which suggests the U.S. government weighs importance of the project on Korea.

“Korean is identified as one of the critical languages across the U.S. In need of human capital who are able to understand Korean culture, the U.S. government might have given high marks to our project, I guess,” Professor An said.

According to her, there are 13 languages listed as critical languages in the U.S. including Chinese, Japanese and Russian, as well as Korean.

With the huge funding, the three Korean professors have focused on exploring Korean history, culture and education system through experiential learning.

“What we cared most while selecting six participants was specificity of their lesson plans, because the ultimate goal of our project is to actually affect American students after returning to the U.S.,” An added.

Coogan’s detailed lesson plan about Korean history seemed to have made him focus on historical periods.

“We traveled across five cities _ Seoul, Gongju, Gwangju, Busan and Gyeongju _ to visit historical sites. For me, Gwangju was the most memorable city in that I became aware of its sad history in which a lot of sacrifices were made for democracy,” said Coogan who will teach history at schools in the future.

In addition, participants attended seminars at the Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, as well as the Korean Education and Research Information Service, to learn about the country’s educational system.

Taking advantage of being Koreans who graduated from Korean universities, the professors organized all the programs, with assistance from their acquaintances and universities.

Host organizations for this group are Kyunghee University’s International Institute of International Education, and the Institution of Korean Culture and Education at Kongju National University.

During a month-long trip, another participant, Ivan Rosa, an art teacher at the International High School in Paterson, New Jersey, has tried to observe artistic aspects of the country.

“I was amazed to see such beautiful mountains and architecture. I also found the Hangeul alphabet beautiful and became interested in unification issues. I’m thinking of having my students create posters pertaining to Korea’s unification. My class is likely to be integrated with a history class. That’s team teaching,” Rosa said.

He also paid attention to the Korean educational system while visiting school classrooms.

“I saw most of the students focused and respectful of their teachers despite the large size of the class. My school is located in somewhat underprivileged district, so sometimes it is difficult to handle students. I thought under the Korean educational environment teachers can do their job more effectively,” he said.

He also pointed out that Korean teachers seem to have less pressure and be supported by the government, compared to American teachers.

“In New Jersey, teachers have so much pressure in terms of being evaluated by not only the principal but also administrators. There are so many eyes on us,” the art teacher said, adding that he learned much more than he expected during the trip.

The participants have four post workshops left after returning to the U.S. They will crystallize their lesson plans to be hopefully implemented in schools.

“We are thinking of making a website in which everybody can see all the lesson plans. We will try to share good ones with other teachers from other regions. That’s what we hope,” An said.