Leighanne Kimberly Yuh

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Assistant) at Korea University

The encounter between Confucianism and western learning is often portrayed as a confrontation with between Confucianism, associated with passivity and hierarchy, and the western philosophical tradition, connected with independence and rationality. This bifurcating tendency is pronounced in the historiography of nineteenth- century Korean history, w...

In 1894 at the end of the Chosôn dynasty, the Korean government initiated a sweeping program of reforms known as the Kabo Reforms. This was an attempt to make unprecedented political, economic, and social changes that would modernize the country and establish an independent and sovereign state. However, there are conflicting depictions of the Kabo...

Despite the turbulent political circumstances of the 1880s, and notwithstanding opposition from key government officials, this decade witnessed the Korean government’s initial attempts to establish educational institutions modelled after western schools – the Royal College (Yugyeong Gongweon), a military academy (Yeonmu Gongweon), and an agricultur...

The first modern textbook published by the Chosŏn government, the People’s Elementary Reader (PER),marked a significant departure from traditional learning both in terms of content and form and played a pivotal role in introducing western-style learning. However, an absence of a thorough consideration of the PER’s obvious moral emphasis provides on...

Amidst the turbulent circumstances following the forced “opening” of Korea in 1876, the Korean government launched a variety of reform programs, including the establishment of the Royal English Academy (Yugyŏng Kongwŏn) in 1886, the first modern government school, which lasted only eight years. This paper argues that the most significant factor for...

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine both the ideological and sociological function of Japanese colonial education in Korea, and its implications in identity formation in the colony and to some extent in the metropole. That is, through education, the Japanese attempted to create docile bodies and docile minds in a colony considered to be...