A Study on a Construction of the Gongbubang’s Meanings by Focusing on a Voluntary Teacher’s Experiences

Abstract

This study based by theories of social constructivism analyses that the A-Gongbubang is dynamically constructed by interactions of inside agents. Preceding researches of Gongbubangs fall into the trap of reifying the meaning of Gongbubangs as caring and educating that are perceived as the fixed norm in these studies. However, meanings of the Gongbubang are endlessly constructed and changed by practices of voluntary teachers. Focusing on “Daesu Kim”s experiences who had been a student and is a voluntary teacher of the Gongbubang, this study examines one process by which the student embodied meanings of the Gongbubang and another process through which the teacher have made meanings of the Gongbubang. In-depth interviews with him make this study to see the processes of changing social meanings of the Gongbubang into the scope of micro-dimension as personal experiences. This study, above all, presents that since 2000, direct political meanings are disappeared and the character of alternative education is important in meanings of the Gongbubang. And concerning on conflicts of voluntary teachers, this study argues that meanings of the Gongbubang can be constructed differently from insiders’ perspectives.