The Superimposition of “Cultural Layers” and the Reconstruction of “Historical Contexts”: Practice and Reflection in Teaching “Joseon Dynasty Yangban Culture” in Junior Secondary Social Studies

Park Ji-hyun  [South Korean]

Abstract

South Korean social studies education endeavours to cultivate students' rational understanding and critical inheritance of traditional culture. Traditionally, teaching the ‘Yangban Culture of the Joseon Dynasty’ has tended towards static knowledge transmission, resulting in students feeling disconnected. This study designed and implemented an innovative teaching case based on the concepts of ‘cultural layer’ superimposition and ‘historical context’ restoration. Centred on the core task of ‘decoding the secrets of Yangban family precepts,’ the case guided students to progressively overlay four dynamic “layers” – ‘institutional regulations,’ ‘daily life,’ ‘ideological concepts,’ and ‘artistic aesthetics’ – to deeply analyse the multifaceted dimensions of Yangban culture. Activities such as ‘simulating family ritual scenarios’ and ‘experiencing Hangeul script writing’ placed students within concrete historical contexts, fostering their ‘sympathetic understanding.’ Practice demonstrates that this approach effectively enhances students' learning engagement, historical thinking levels, and dialectical understanding of traditional culture's complexity and contradictions, providing an operational pathway for Korean traditional cultural education.

Keywords: Yangban culture; cultural layers; historical context reconstruction; social studies; critical inheritance; secondary education

Introduction

Amidst the surging tides of globalisation and digitalisation, Korean youth increasingly feel alienated from their nation's traditional culture. The teaching of ‘Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) Yangban (Scholar-Officials) Culture’—the core of Korean traditional heritage—holds significant weight within the current secondary social studies curriculum. Yet it frequently encounters pedagogical challenges: content-wise, it tends to emphasise political systems and Confucian dogma, resulting in a flattened narrative; Methodologically, it predominantly relies on teacher-led lectures, with students passively memorising concepts such as the ‘imperial examination system,’ ‘class-based hierarchy,’ and ‘Rites of Zhu Xi,’ struggling to perceive its historical resonance and inherent tensions. Consequently, students either simplistically equate Yangban culture with ‘rigid feudal ethics’ and reject it outright, or develop a romanticised, nostalgic imagination under the influence of the ‘Korean Wave’ – neither constituting rational historical cognition. To address this predicament, this study proposes a ‘cultural stratum’ teaching model, inspired by archaeology's “stratigraphy” theory and historical hermeneutics' concept of ‘horizon fusion.’ This model conceives specific historical-cultural phenomena as composed of multiple dynamically interacting, superimposed ‘strata’—such as institutional, lifestyle, conceptual, and artistic layers. Teaching aims to guide students, like archaeologists, to excavate, analyse, and synthesise these layers sequentially, ultimately ‘reconstructing’ a three-dimensional, contradictory, and vibrant historical panorama. Simultaneously, it emphasises ‘historical context restoration’ by creating micro-historical scenarios approximating authenticity, enabling students to engage in experiential inquiry and bridge the comprehension gap between past and present. This paper details the design and implementation of a teaching case study from a Year 9 social studies lesson entitled ‘Deciphering the Two Ban Clan Family Precepts,’ reflecting on feedback to provide practical reference for innovating traditional Korean cultural education.

I. Background and Theoretical Framework of the Teaching Case Design

1. Analysis of Teaching Content: This lesson focuses on the family precepts culture of the Yangban aristocracy during the late Joseon Dynasty. Family precepts are comprehensive texts integrating institutional norms (household laws), practical wisdom (life management), moral concepts (loyalty and filial piety), and literary cultivation (poetry and prose), offering an excellent entry point for analysing Yangban culture. The textbook excerpts only fragments from Toegye's Family Precepts, resulting in limited content.

2. Student Profile Analysis: Year 9 pupils possess foundational skills in historical text reading and collaborative group work, with personal resonance for themes of family, education, and success. However, they remain largely unfamiliar with the thought patterns and life logic of pre-modern societies.

3. Theoretical Framework: The ‘Cultural Layers’ model (Institutional Layer, Life Layer, Conceptual Layer, Artistic Layer) and ‘Situated Learning Theory’.

II. Implementation of Teaching Case Study

First Lesson: Initial Exploration of Layers – Decoding the Structure of Family Instructions Texts

1. Contextual Introduction: Screen a short video depicting contemporary South Korea's ‘education fever’ and ‘family expectations,’ prompting the core question: ‘How did ancient people educate their offspring and uphold family honour?’

2. Task Assignment: Students assume the role of ‘historical-cultural detectives,’ receiving core historical materials: the full text of Toegye's Family Instructions and relevant passages on family precepts from Seongho's Miscellaneous Discourses. Core task: decipher the ‘survival code of the Yangban aristocracy’ concealed within these precepts.

3. Layered Overlay Exploration:

First Layer: Institutional Regulations. Working in groups, identify provisions concerning familial hierarchy (eldest sons, younger sons), inheritance, marriage selection, and relations with servants. Discuss: ‘How do these regulations function like “laws” to uphold familial order?’ Connect to social systems like the ‘banchang system’ to understand family precepts as micro-manifestations of societal structures within the clan.

Second Layer: Daily Life Practices. Focus on descriptions concerning study schedules, dietary restrictions, social etiquette, and illness management. Students shall create a ‘Typical Day in the Life of a Ban Clan Member’ timetable. Consider: ‘How do these daily details shape an individual's identity?’

Third Layer: Ideological Framework. Extract core value terms (e.g., filial piety, brotherly duty, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, righteousness, integrity, shame) and compare them with relevant discourses in The Elementary Learning and Zhu Xi's Family Rites. Debate: ‘Is “restraining oneself to restore propriety” a suppression of human nature or a form of self-cultivation?’

Fourth Layer: Artistic Aesthetics. Appreciate poetry quotations within the family precepts and critique calligraphic manuscripts (images). Experiential activity: Transcribe the same precept in both Hangeul (Hangul) and Chinese characters to perceive the class distinctions and aesthetic connotations embedded within the scripts.

4. Layered Synthesis: Each group creates a ‘Yangban Culture Mind Map’ linking key elements across all four layers to develop an initial understanding of its three-dimensional structure.

Second Lesson: Contextual Reconstruction – Deep Immersion in Micro-Scenarios

Scenario Construction: Develop two specific scenarios based on historical records.

Scenario A: The ‘Coming-of-Age Ceremony setting. Provide pictorial materials on the ‘Coming-of-Age Ceremony’ from the Rituals of the Reign. Students assume roles (host, initiate, assistants, guests) to simulate parts of the ritual, focusing on how ceremonial protocols convey adult responsibilities and familial expectations.

Scenario B: Patriarch Admonishes Wayward Son. Develop a short script based on family precepts and records of aristocratic youth misconduct from the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. Students portray a stern father and his son, who is enamoured with commerce and disdains the imperial examinations, engaging in dialogue. Other students act as members of a ‘clan council’ to evaluate the exchange.

In-depth Discussion: Following the experiential activities, students deliberate on the core question: ‘While Yangban culture sustained long-term social stability, how did its inherent contradictions—such as the tension between idealistic morality and pragmatic utilitarianism, or individual development versus familial constraints—ultimately lead to its rigidity and crisis?’ Guide students from layered analysis to dialectical historical thinking.

Creative Output and Expression: Working in groups, students complete one of the following: (1) Draft a modern-spirited ‘Family Code’ for their own lineage; (2) Write an essay titled ‘The Yangban Class Through My Eyes: Glory and Shackles’; (3) Create a four-panel comic illustrating a facet of yangban culture.

III. Analysis and Reflection on Teaching Outcomes Through analysis of classroom performance, discussion records, final projects, and post-lesson questionnaires/interviews, this case achieved the following outcomes:

1. Significantly enhanced learning motivation and engagement: The ‘detective’ role and ‘code-breaking’ tasks introduced gamification and challenge, while layered inquiry provided clear cognitive scaffolding, leading to active student participation.

2. Deepened historical thinking: Students moved beyond merely identifying ‘what’ to actively exploring ‘why such systems/lifestyles/ideologies existed’ and ‘how they interacted’. They developed preliminary analyses of the duality within the Two Classes culture, such as how ritualistic teachings shaped order and refinement while simultaneously fostering hypocrisy and oppression.

3. Achieving ‘Empathic Understanding’ of Traditional Culture: Contextual reenactment activities significantly bridged temporal and spatial divides. One student reflected: ‘When I played the father, admonishing my son with words from the family precepts, I suddenly realised these weren't cold, lifeless phrases from a book, but the anxieties and hopes of an ancient man. While I still disagree with many of those ideas, I felt I could understand him.’

4. Challenges and Reflections: Firstly, this demands exceptionally high historical literacy and classroom management skills from teachers, requiring extensive preparatory research into supplementary historical materials. Secondly, time constraints are tight; two lessons suffice only for core inquiry, necessitating extension of certain activities beyond class hours. Finally, striking the balance between ‘understanding’ and ‘critique’ to prevent students uncritically accepting hierarchical notions through experiential learning requires more nuanced teacher guidance.

Conclusion: Through teaching designs that overlay ‘cultural strata’ and reconstruct ‘historical contexts,’ this study transformed static, abstract knowledge of ‘Two Classes Culture’ into dynamic, investigable ‘historical problem chains’ and ‘experiential scenarios.’ The case demonstrates that this approach not only effectively imparts knowledge but also cultivates students' structured historical analytical skills, historical empathy, and dialectical thinking regarding the complexities of traditional culture. It represents a valuable attempt towards achieving the social studies curriculum's goal of ‘cultivating well-rounded democratic citizens.’ Future applications of this model to topics such as ‘Korea's Modernisation’ and ‘The Industrialisation Period’ could further test and refine its applicability.

References

[1] Korea National University of Education, Institute of Social Studies Education. (2019). Explanatory Notes on the Social Studies Curriculum. Ministry of Education.

[2] Lee, T. J. (2016). The Life History of Joseon Dynasty Literati. Dolbegae.

[3] Shin, M. H., & Kim, Y. M. (2018). Research on Developing a Situated Learning Model for Historical Understanding. Journal of History Education, 65, 123-155.

[4] Bruner, J. S. (1996). The culture of education. Harvard University Press.

[5] Toegye Yi Hwang. (2015, original 16th century). Toegye Seonsaeng Gahun (translated by Kim Hak-ju). Traditional Culture Research Association.

[6] Seo Tae-yeol. (2020). Designing Korean History Lessons Using a Cultural Stratification Analysis Model. Secondary History Education, 28(2), 45-72.

[7] Im Ji-hyun. (2017). Education and Identity in Late Joseon Scholar-Officials' Families as Reflected in “Family Instructions” Texts. Journal of the Korean Home Management Association, 35(3), 1-18.

[8] National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). (2013). The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.