A Comparative Study on Characteristics of Korean Girls' High School and Japanese Girls' High School in Korea in the Japanese Colonial Era-Focusing on the School Register of Dongduk and Suwon Girls' High School
Kim, M.S.
Korean Thought and Culture 76: 103-134
2015
Document Number: 279985
In this study, school records of Dongduk and Suwon Girls' High Schools during the 1940s were analyzed to compare characteristics between Korean girls' high schools during the Third and Fourth Chosen Educational Ordinance and Japanese girls' high school in Korea. Dongduk Girls' High School was a private school founded in Gyeongseong(Seoul) by Chungang Cho Dongshik and Korean benefactors who shared his view of nationalistic women's education, and had a strong nationalistic tendency. On the other hand, Suwon Girls' High School was founded as a public school by the Suwon Japanese School Association for secondary education of Japanese female students.While Dongduk Girls' High School kept the records mainly in Korean and Chinese characters Suwon Girls' High School recorded in Japanese and Chinese characters. For the names of students and parents, also, the former first put the Korean name, which was crossed out in two lines, to write the Japanese name on top of it. There were 14(8.5%) students out of 165 who did not convert their names into a Japanese one. However, in Suwon Girls' High School, except 1 student, all students' names were recorded in the Japanese version.In both Dongduk and Suwon Girls' High Schools, only a quarter of the parents were involved in agriculture whereas 82.1% of the entire Korean population during the 1930s and 1940s were working in agriculture. However, about one third of parents at Dongduk Girls' High School and half of parents at Suwon Girls' High School were public servants or liberal professionals who were highly active in and open to women's education as a newly emerging bourgeoisie class.In the Third Chosen Educational Ordinance, 'conduct', which is likely to reflect the subjective opinion of the teacher, was included in the grade. Demeanor evaluation was based on observation of the teacher in charge on overall daily life of students inside and outside the school, and reveals the perspective and position of the recorder. Suwon Girls' High School, where both Korean and Japanese students were educated, showed ethnic discrimination in education.