Democracy and Mission Education in Korea(1928)을 통해 본 피셔(J. E. Fisher)의 민주주의 교육철학과 조선 선교교육 인식

Abstract

This article reviews James Earnest Fisher's educational arguments in Democracy and Mission Education in Korea, which was originally published in 1928. James Earnest Fisher was a missionary and educator in modern Korea in the 1920s and 1930s. In the book, Fisher examined the aims and contents of mission education in Korea according to the criteria of “democracy” or “democratic education”, two concepts introduced by John Dewey. Based on the principle of democracy, Fisher criticized the prevalent but narrow-minded view that mission education should focus on evangelism, and instead suggested that like general education, it should be aimed at the understanding and growth of Korean life. Furthermore, Fisher considered the practical tasks of mission education at that time to be the following: the task of establishing democratic education or relationships in the mission field by coping with the conditional limits of the Japanese imperialistic control system; the role and task of mission education to improve Korean life; the task of achieving harmony in mission education and the Korean traditional culture or spirit; the task of putting Koreans at the core of mission education; and so on. On the whole, Fisher's book used general educational philosophy as its analytic frame, and observed mission education from the perspective of education rather than religion. It showed a belief in the realization of the democratic principle of education despite the control of Japanese imperialism. The book also contained the results of Fisher's reflective thinking about the Korean modernization of education, including ways to find a harmony between Western modernity and the Korean tradition.