전후 고등교육의 재개와 미국의 역할

American Influences on German and Korean Education System

Any analysis of American cultural policy toward occupied lands needs to take into account the occupier’s motives and goals and the reaction of the occupied peoples. Because cultural policy, even in an occupation setting, involves interactions and transactions, the will of the occupied peoples as well as the occupier’s intention in occupied lands must be considered. The aim of this paper is to compare American influences on German and Korean education system from 1945 to 1955, focusing on the American policy of Higher education in both countries. American cultural policy in occupied Germany and South Korea was based initially on the plans to reverse any authoritarian social and political traditions before 1945 and to build “a psychological foundation on which political and economic reform could rest”. This form of cultural policy was called “reeducation” and it involved numerous measures to democratize German and Korean education system and reorient various areas of cultural life in both countries. However, there can be no doubt that the American policy of higher education in both countries have shown more contrasts than similarities. Originally composed of American Soldiers, the Education and Religious Affairs Branch(E&RA) of OMGUS in Germany considered its primary concern in denazifying and democratizing the education system. But reform measures at the early stage of the occupation period failed to achieve its goals, because German conservative educator rejected American reform plans. Convinced that German education system differed from American one, they did not hesitate to condemn the Americans’ reform plans. So, the German education system at this stage was less affected by the works of OMGUS. In 1948 U.S. cultural policy had moved away from “reeducation” and become a less ambitious plan of “reorientation” toward anticommunism. Unlike “reeducation”, this “reorientation” was devoid of any aspects of the denazification program, which had been abandoned as the Cold War heated up and anticommunism became a higher priority than anti-Nazism. But American cultural policy was ultimately most successful when it involved Germans in cultural exchange since 1948. Such policy probably had the most impact on young German intellectuals. By contrasts, U.S. Military Government in Korea sought from the beginning of the occupation period earnestly to alter Korean education, especially higher education, under the banner of democratization. Seeing the occupation policy as a kind of means that could make a partner state in Korea, American officials exerted also in the field of education to build a group of pro-american leaders and tried to reform the Korean education on the model of American universities. This reform effort continued though resisting groups of Korean nationalists and progressive intellectuals rejected american initiative in education reform. After the Korean War 1950-1953 American officials concentrated more on education-aid programs that reflected the American policy amid the onset of the Cold War. As a result, the Korean society in 1950s experienced more and more a process of cultural and social cultural adaptation, especially in the field of education, to the standards set by the society of the United States.