Educational Institutions for Accommodatory Resistance: Yahak (Night Schools) during Japanese Colonialism in Korea

• In Event: Poster session III
  In Poster Session: Poster session 3

Proposal

Non-formal education is a dynamic sector where the demands of people during a certain historical period, including aspirations for social change, can be easily reflected on. The purpose of this poster presentation is to highlight non-formal education initiatives during 18th-20th century Korea and how its visions for social change through education were influenced by socio-historical contexts at the time. This includes exploring peasant movements, independence movements, and night-schooling movements that took place in Korea during Japanese colonization. Although these movements have each been explored in the Korean literature, it has neither been introduced as much in English nor been highlighted together as part of non-formal education. It will be important to share my perspective with the East Asian SIG at the CIES and facilitate meaningful comparisons of non-formal education and resistance from colonization.

As for peasant movements, I explore the changes in how the movements proceeded from late Joseon to initial periods of Japanese colonization where Land and Forest Surveys took place. Despite the peasants’ resistance against surveying, the country had already been colonized, with ‘public order’ and policing governed by the Japanese. This made the issue of survival as the dominant initiative in peasant movements, which cannot be separated from the Japanese government’s intention to restructure Korean peasants as tenant farmers.

Independence movements during this period were largely influenced by the principle of self-determination and was mainly led by religious groups cooperating with each other. However, the initiatives in the independence movements were by no means arguing for a return to the past. Along with the notion of self-determination, research show that the common people were aware of republicanism as an alternative form of political leadership and advocated for it. This shows the dynamic of education in the independence movements as envisioning social change based on a mixture of Korean tradition and alternative political regimes.

Night-school movements flourished during Japanese colonization as educational demands exceeded educational opportunities provided by the Japanese. Whereas the Japanese thought the night-schools were ‘complementary’ to the formal educational system, non-formal night-schools gave the space for Koreans to engage in liberatory education, including the teaching of Korean language and labor rights.

To sum up, non-formal education was a vibrant field among Koreans during Japanese colonization which enabled Koreans to continue their traditions as well as engage in resistance. The educational pursuits in the non-formal education in peasant movements, independence movements, and night-school movements were unique in that it called for a social change that is also rooted in their own Korean contexts. A mixture of respect towards the Korean tradition of the past, as well as advocating for independence with a vision for the future is a common characteristic found in the non-formal education sector in Korea during Japanese colonization.

Author

• Hye-Su Kuk, Pennsylvania State University