“We’ll Be Farmers When We Grow Up” - Article on Education for Humanization and Critical Literacy Education in Korea

Oct 15, 2026

Exploring Yi O-Deok’s literary work, this article examines historically and culturally embedded ideas of humanization in Korean education through the ethos of “Asia as Method.” Centered on Yi’s extensive five-volume diary and edited literary pieces from the 1950s–1980s, the study highlights a locally grounded philosophy shaped by sociocultural contexts. Findings position Yi’s ideas as a non-Western critical counterpoint to Western-centric educational paradigms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

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“We’ll Be Farmers When We Grow Up”: Education for Humanization and the Legacy of Critical Literacy Education in Korea 1 Yoonmi Lee (이윤미) Hongik University ECNU Review of Education 2024, Vol. 7(3) 598–617 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20965311231210315](DOI: 10.1177/20965311231210315)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/20965311231210315)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: This article explores the literary work of a teacher and activist, Yi O-Deok, as a lens to approach historically and culturally embedded notions of humanization in education in Korea. Anchored in the ethos of “Asia as Method,” this study offers a unique perspective that exempliﬁes the importance of the local sociocultural context in Asia in enriching our understanding of universal concepts. Design/Approach/Methods: This study adopts a methodological approach centered around the examination of Yi O-Deok’s work and his inﬂuence on critical literacy education. Key source materials include Yi’s extensive ﬁve-volume diary and the various literary pieces he edited from the 1950s to the 1980s. Findings: Yi O-Deok’s philosophy on humanizing education, deeply inﬂuenced by local contexts, provides a distinct, non-Western perspective. It offers a critical counterpoint to Western-centric educational paradigms and enriches the broader understanding of humanization in education. Originality/Value: The uniqueness of this study resides in its focus on children’s writings, afﬁrming faith in the unﬁltered expressions of their pure spirits encapsulated in the raw “languages of the Corresponding author: Yoonmi Lee, Department of Education, Hongik University, Humanities and Social Sciences Building C (Room \#630), 94 Wausan-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04066, Korea. Email: [yoonmi.lee.edu@gmai](yoonmi.lee.edu@gmai)[l.com](l.com) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). soil,” which have persevered through the sociopolitical upheavals of Korea’s modern history. This in turn strengthens the call for a nuanced, non-Western interpretation of the concept of “humanization” in education. Keywords Children’s writings, critical literacy education, humanization, progressive teachers’ movement, self-expression, Yi O-Deok Date received: 20 December 2022; revised: 22 April 2023, 6 August 2023; accepted: 25 August 2023 Introduction This article will discuss the literary work of primary school teacher and activist Yi O-Deok (1925–2003) as a lens through which to approach the historically and culturally embedded notions of inganhwa gyoyuk (or humanization in education) . Inganhwa gyoyuk has been a key motto in the Korean progressive teachers’ movement and has been heavily developed since the late 1980s. This movement is rooted in the country’s modern history, which has experienced complex processes of Westernization, colonization, national division, and rapid industrialization (Lee, 2022) . The activist motto of humanization in education has not been well deﬁned by its users but has remained open-ended, with mixed origins. Yi O-Deok’s work illustrates an endeavor among the multiple strands of this unﬁnished project. This study explores the nuanced subject of humanization within the Korean sociocultural context. It focuses on understanding how the concept of humanizing education can be perceived differently wi

FAQs

What is the main focus of the article?

The article uses Yi O-Deok’s literary work to understand historically and culturally embedded notions of humanization in Korean education.

How does the study approach Yi O-Deok’s work?

It examines Yi’s influence on critical literacy education, using key sources including his five-volume diary and edited literary pieces from the 1950s to the 1980s.

What do the findings emphasize about humanizing education?

Yi O-Deok’s locally influenced philosophy provides a distinct non-Western perspective and challenges Western-centric educational paradigms by enriching how “humanization” is interpreted.

Oct 15, 2026

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