Challenges for Medical Ethics Pedagogy in Korea

Abstract

The principle of autonomy clearly plays a less significant role in the practice of medicine in Korea than it does in western medical practice. The basic reason for this is cultural in nature. Not only in the field of medicine, but in all areas of social life, individual autonomy is accorded less value in Korea than it is in the West. In the field of education, these different attitudes towards the value of individual autonomy reappear in the form of different educational philosophies. The dominant teaching methodologies in Korea tend to be paternalistic and authoritarian in comparison with western educational models, which seek to promote the autonomy of students through critical thinking pedagogy. This pedagogical difference poses challenges for the teaching of medical ethics in Korea. The literature in medical ethics, most of which comes from North America, is premised on the assumption that ethical problems can, and should, be resolved through the careful application of critical reasoning skills. This assumption is entirely appropriate for a western audience, which is educated and socialized in terms of critical thinking pedagogy. However, for Korean students, who are educated in a system that does not promote intellectual independence and critical thinking, the fundamental methodology inherent in the literature in medical ethics can appear entirely foreign. In this paper, I describe some of the challenges for medical ethics education in Korea, and I explain these challenges in terms of differing attitudes, in Korea and in the West, towards critical thinking pedagogy and the value of individual autonomy.