Park Sang-hee et al.: Great Transformation in Education: Asking Leaders

What might have taken 10 years was accomplished in just six months. This describes the future of education, which was suddenly brought into the spotlight by COVID-19 in 2020. Two years later, COVID-19 remains deeply embedded in our daily lives, and the gap of social inequality has become even more pronounced in the field of education. Guidelines that change on a case-by-case basis depending on the crisis—such as determining whether to resume full in-person attendance or remote learning on a weekly basis—are nothing but confusing. What is clear, however, is that we cannot return to the post-COVID era. In what direction should South Korea's education policy move in the post-COVID era? We conducted interviews with six leaders from representative educational institutions responsible for early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education, re-employment and vocational training, lifelong education, and national education sectors since 2020. In the fields of early childhood education and elementary and secondary education, we met with Park Sang-hee, Director of the Korea Institute for Childcare and Education, and Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, to hear about the policy directions for daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary, middle, and high schools. In higher education, we met with Ban Sang-jin, Professor of Education at Jeonbuk National University, who served as the President of the National Institute for Educational Development in 2020, and in the field of re-employment and vocational education and training, we met with Na Young-don, President of the Korea Employment Information Service, to explore solutions to the problems currently facing universities. Through interviews with six heads of institutions—including Kang Dae-jung, President of the National Institute for Lifelong Education, who is implementing policies to revitalize lifelong education, and Kim Jin-kyung, Chairperson of the National Education Council, who is preparing to establish a future-oriented education system—we gauge the direction of a ‘great transformation in education’ that will differ from the present.

Korean title: 교육 대전환, 리더에게 묻다

Korean author: 박상희 외

Korean publisher: 지식의날개

ISBN-13: 9788920042768