Reeducation Strategies for Teachers in the Workshop of the Third American Education Team with a Focus on Participants’ Reports

The post-liberation ‘New Education Movement’ in Korea was an educational reform initiative aimed at overcoming the vestiges of colonial education and establishing the principles of democratic education. Within this reform context, the process by which American progressive educational principles―child-centeredness, life-centered learning, and social reform orientation―were introduced into Korean teacher education deserves close attention. This study examines the 1955 workshop conducted by the Third American Education Team to explore how the progressive model of the ‘workshop’ was applied to Korea’s teacher reeducation system. Originating from the Eight-year Study of the Progressive Education Association in the 1930s, the workshop embodied a practical model of teacher reeducation grounded in democratic pedagogy. By adopting this model in in-service teacher training, the Third American Education Team sought to foster a new teacher culture that encouraged teachers to identify problems in their school settings, collaborate with colleagues and experts, and develop improvement plans through inquiry-based learning. Analysis of the participants’ reports reveals that the Team’s workshop placed strong emphasis on voluntary participation and collaborative research, recognizing cooperative learning as a central element in teachers’ professional development. Whereas previous studies on the U.S. Educational Missions have mainly focused on what Korean teachers learned, this study highlights how they learned. The workshop’s format―rooted in interaction between consultants and participants, and among participants themselves―embodied the progressive educational belief that democratic education cannot be ‘transmitted’ but must be experienced and constructed collaboratively. For this reason, the American Education Team actively introduced the workshop method into Korean teacher education during the 1950s.