Stanford’s Korean Studies Program (KSP) has recently been awarded with a major gift from Hana Financial Group and a grant from the Korea Foundation, which will provide a major boost to Stanford’s already strong K-12 outreach education offerings. KSP will collaborate closely with the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) on its outreach activities.

Hana Financial Group has provided $600,000 for the next five years in support of an annual Hana-Stanford Conference on Korea for U.S. Secondary School Teachers. The first conference took place this summer, from July 23 to 25, at Stanford. It brought together secondary school educators from across the United States and a cadre of Korean teachers from Hana Academy Seoul for intensive and lively sessions on a wide assortment of Korean studies-related topics ranging from U.S.-Korea relations to history, and religion to popular culture. In addition to scholarly lectures, the teachers took part in curriculum workshops and received numerous classroom resources developed by SPICE.

The Korea Foundation has awarded a three-year grant of $609,527 to support the new K-12 Education on Korea in the United States curriculum development project. Gary Mukai, director of SPICE, noted, “The coverage of Korea in U.S. high school curriculum is often limited to the Korean War.” To help address the identified need to broaden the coverage of Korea, KSP will work with SPICE to develop three high school-level curriculum units and Stanford’s first distance-learning course on Korea for high school students. The curriculum units will examine the experience of Korean Americans in U.S. history; various aspects of traditional and modern Korean culture; and the development of South Korea’s economy. The distance-learning course, called the Sejong Korean Scholars Program (SKSP), will be offered in 2013.

The SKSP will annually select 25 exceptional high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors (from public and private schools) from throughout the United States to engage in an intensive study of Korea. The SKSP will provide students with a broad overview of Korean history, literature, religion, art, politics, and economics—with a special focus on the U.S.–Korean relationship. Top scholars, leading diplomats, and other professionals will provide lectures to students as well as engage them in dialogue. These lectures and discussions will be woven into a broader curriculum that provides students with reading materials and assignments. The SKSP will encourage these students to become future leaders in the U.S.–Korean relationship and lifelong learners of Korea.

“We’re grateful to receive these two major sources of funding for Korean studies outreach education, and look forward to working with SPICE to establish Korea as a subject taught regularly in classrooms throughout the United States,” said Gi-Wook Shin, director of KSP.

Connie Straub selected a small pink jar from the bottles and utensils scattered on the picnic table. “It’s shrimp – kind of a shrimp paste,” she told her audience, giving the jar a skeptical glance. “But it’s optional, it really doesn’t matter.”

Laughter erupted from the crowd of Koreans and Americans new to their cuisine. Straub, who grew up in Korea, set the jar aside and reached for a bottle of soy sauce – the base, she explained, for a traditional Korean marinade.

The cooking demonstration was part of a national conference that brought nearly two dozen American teachers to Stanford to learn about Korean history, culture, security, and politics from scholars at the university and other schools. Teachers and students from Hana Academy Seoul, a private high school in South Korea, also attended.

Stanford’s Korean Studies Program (KSP) co-sponsored the conference, along with the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), an organization that works with Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies to develop curricula on international topics for American elementary and secondary school students.

Despite Korea’s growing economic clout and important role in international security, little is taught about Korean history, politics, and culture in American schools. The conference organizers are trying to change that.

“South Korea is an incredibly important U.S. ally and partner,” Gi-Wook Shin, founding director of KSP and a sociology professor, told the conference participants. “And Korean-Americans are becoming a very important part of American society.”

David Straub, the program’s associate director who is married to Connie Straub, said South Korea is significant “not only because of the North Korean division… [and] because it is the world’s eighth-largest trading economy…but also because of its impressive development.”

Since 1979, South Korea’s per-capita GDP has increased more than twentyfold. The country has also undergone sweeping political reform and dramatic social change in the last three decades.

“I don’t know of any other country that’s developed as quickly,” Straub said. “Not only economically, but also socially and culturally.”

SPICE has produced several middle and high school curriculum units focused on Korea. Each teacher attending the conference received a collection of SPICE materials, and SPICE staff also conducted curriculum demonstrations and shared instructional strategies during the event.

SPICE director Gary Mukai said he believes early exposure to the country’s history and culture could inspire students to study Korea in college and beyond.

“Coverage of Korea in U.S. high schools has generally been limited to the Korean War,” he said. “The fact that the coverage is so limited really restricts students’ understanding of a very vibrant country.”

Mukai told visiting teachers that he hoped the conference would lead to “the creation of a community of learners” including both Korean and American teachers.

The teachers appeared to be fulfilling Mukai’s hopes. On the first day of the conference, after a presentation by Hana Academy teachers on the Korean educational system, American and Korean teachers discussed educational policy.

James Covi, who teaches world history at Lakeside High School in Seattle, commented on Korea’s efforts to move away from rigorous standardized testing in secondary education.

“Here in the U.S., we look at [Korean] test scores and we’re quite jealous,” Covi said, laughing. “Maybe there’s some common ground in the middle we’re trying to meet at?”

Covi attended the conference to expand his knowledge of Korea, which he said is insufficient to “teach [Korea] well.” He said he enjoyed learning more about Korean culture, through events such as the cooking demonstration and presentations on the educational system, as well as about the divided peninsula’s history and politics.

American teachers also learned from several visiting Korean students, who delivered short presentations on Korean society. The students also interacted with American teachers during meals and social events, answering questions about academics and daily life in Korean high schools. 

“The concept of coming abroad to meet other people from this country, and to talk about my country, was really exciting,” said Minji Choi, one of the students. “It’s a great opportunity.”

But the best opportunity for cross-cultural engagement may have come in a simpler form, as Connie Straub concluded her demonstration and her audience scattered to nearby tables piled high with traditional Korean food. The spread including several varieties of the fermented and fragrant vegetable dish known as kimchi, often approached with skepticism by the uninitiated.

The American teachers quickly shed their inhibitions – and then their misconceptions. “It’s delicious,” said one, a loaded forkful raised to her mouth. “The cucumber is extraordinary.”

 

During the first annual Hana-Stanford Conference on Korea, co-sponsored by KSP and SPICE, nearly two dozen U.S. secondary school educators gathered at Stanford, July 23 to 25, to learn about Korea, from hangul (Korean alphabet) to daily life in North Korea. They returned home with new ideas and numerous resources for teaching about Korea.

Original version published in the 2007–08 Shorenstein APARC Annual Overview

Since 2005, Denise Masumoto has managed Shorenstein APARC’s Corporate Affiliates Visiting Fellows Program. Each summer, Masumoto welcomes a new group of fellows and their families to the Center, and helps them to navigate their new country. She also oversees the program curriculum and connects fellows with Center faculty who share their research interests.

How has the program changed since you took over?

When I started at Shorenstein APARC, the program was well established, and it gets better every year. Today, there is more interaction with our faculty and other scholars, which produces better research. The core research goal remains constant, but the changing composition of each group—more female fellows, varied professional backgrounds, new countries joining the mix—keeps the program exciting and unique.

What is the biggest challenge that visiting fellows face when they enter the program?

Definitely deciding which events to attend! In addition to the classes they audit, and the calendar of seminars and site visits arranged specifically for the visiting fellows, there are numerous events within the Center, at our parent institute FSI, all around the Stanford campus, and into Silicon Valley and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The fellows’ schedules are busy and filled with great opportunities to learn new things and to network; the biggest decision is how to prioritize. What the visiting fellows put into the program is what they get out of it.

How do the visiting fellows integrate into the Center and the University?

I strongly encourage all the visiting fellows to get out and meet people, in Shorenstein APARC and beyond, and to ask lots of questions. Whether this is done in the classroom, at a seminar or conference, or in front of the coffee pot, meeting people and having conversations are valuable parts of their experience. You never know who you might meet, what you might learn, or where it might lead.

In what ways do the visiting fellows contribute to the Center’s research mission?

Research is a continuous process and one that requires feedback and exchange. Our visiting fellows have the opportunity to interact with and learn from our distinguished faculty. At the same time, the knowledge and practical experience that they bring to the Center provide insight and international perspective.

How do the visiting fellows benefit?

In April 2008, we met with affiliate organizations in Japan so we could better understand their objectives. We learned that the affiliate organizations recognize that the program’s value lies in allowing the visiting fellows to take advantage of Stanford’s resources, to develop their professional skills, to expand their international network, and, crucially, to have their way of thinking completely changed. The visiting fellows return home with a fresh perspective on and renewed enthusiasm for their work.

What happens after the program ends each year?

While they are at Stanford, the visiting fellows develop strong relationships with other members of their class. We want this to continue after they return home. Many of our alumni are now in prominent positions within their organizations.

I am focused on growing the network of alumni by maintaining and improving a comprehensive database, which will make it easy for former fellows to stay in touch with one another and with the Center.

Masumoto returned to Japan this autumn to visit with affiliate organizations, and to reconnect with alumni during a reception that was held in Tokyo on September 10.