| weeks of study on each other’s campuses.
The idea of an exchange program was conceptualized during a visit by former dean of education Susan Fowler to the Inje University campus in June 2000. Four years later, Professor Jinhee Hyun came to Urbana and proposed formal development of an exchange agreement. Dean Fowler supported it at the College level, and Professor Adelle Renzaglia, Head of the Department of Special Education, supported it at the departmental level, and it was initiated in 2005. Professors Renzaglia and Hyun agreed that for the exchange to be meaningful, each exchange student needed to feel that he or she was a member of the visiting institution, instead of merely taking courses during the four week visit.
First Exchange Students
The first group of five students from Korea arrived in June 2005, and was housed in one of the Illinois residence halls. They enrolled in Professor Robert Henderson’s seminar on global and legal aspects of special education with five U of I students. They also participated in an independent study with doctoral candidate Laura Hedin that involved visits to special education and rehabilitation facilities in the Chicago and local area, and a seminar that critically compared the educational services offered to special populations in the USA and in Korea.
Our 2006 Visit to South Korea
Following a positive evaluation of the initial exchange, Professor Henderson proposed to undertake a study tour of Korean Special Education with three students in June 2006. On arrival in Korea, we spent the first week in the Seoul—Incheon area, with the assistance of Dr. Kyung Gun Han, a Dankook University professor who obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Visits were made to schools, rehabilitation facilities, university teacher-education programs as well as cultural sites, such as Changdeok Palace. Our group also made a presentation on inclusion of students with disabilities in the United States to Special Education faculty and graduate students at Dankook University.
We were also able to visit the Paradise Welfare Foundation, which provides considerable assistance to individuals with disabilities through development of educational materials and technology as well as staff development services for teachers.
The Inje University Experience
At the end of our week in Seoul, we traveled by “bullet train” to Busan and were met by Professor Jinhee Hyun, who escorted us to our excellent dormitory facilities on the Inje University campus. When we arrived on campus we were greeted by a large sign over the front of the Education Building: “Welcome University of Illinois Students!” This was typical of the reception that we received throughout our month-long stay in Korea. In addition to the hospitality by our hosts at Inje and the various professional special educators we met, the students at Inje had prepared a series of entertaining skits and songs, and near the end of our visit we tried to reciprocate with a rendition of “I’m a little Tea-Pot” (in English & Korean) as well as a Korean version of “My Favorite Things,” and a Korean folk song “A-ri-rang” which we learned from some of the Inje students.
To thank the faculty and students of Inje University for their hospitality, we were pleased to be able to provide a seminar for their faculty and students on the inclusion of students with disabilities in the United States. The seminar was made available on both English and Korean slides and oral presentations in both languages.
Lessons Learned
Korea is an ancient country, with a proud and genetically similar population. Its geographical position and favorable climate has made Korea a target for invading armies from Russia, China, Mongolia, and Japan. But since the end of the Korean War in 1953, South Korea has experienced a rapid growth in population, industrial capacity and educational programs. In 2004, 81.3 percent of high school graduates went on to post-secondary education. Included in this rapid development has been educational and rehabilitation facilities for individuals with disabilities.
The historical development of special education programs and services in Korea has roughly followed the pattern in the United States and in other Western countries:
- Initially, residential schools for students with physical, mental and sensory disabilities were developed in Seoul and other key cities, many times by religious or private foundations. Today they still operate as National Special Education schools (in Seoul and major cities) for students with physical, cognitive and sensory disabilities.
- These special schools and rehabilitation facilities are mostly new, very well equipped, and staffed with fully qualified teachers, speech therapists, physical and occupational therapists and other support staff, and have an exceptionally low teacher/pupil ratio.
- Where the term, “inclusion” is used in the Korean schools that we visited, it mostly refers to some physical and/or social integration of students with disabilities meeting with non-disabled peers for short periods of time each week. They also have “reverse-integration,” where students from elementary or secondary schools make visits to the special schools for short periods each month.
- Teacher preparation programs in special education sometimes have their own special schools on campus to serve as demonstration facilities—similar to some teacher colleges in the United States. The largest of these is part of Deagu University.
- We speculate that with the declining birth rate over the past several years, it may be possible to move entire classes of children now in special schools back into their neighborhood schools, along with their special education teachers and all the special equipment. From there, the move from integration to inclusion of children with disabilities into regular classrooms will be much easier to accomplish. This seems to be the feeling of many educators with whom we spoke in Korea.
- The influence of private and parochial education, as well as private foundations on Korean educational programs is evident—especially as it applies to students with disabilities.
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