Schooling, Learning Disposition, and Life Course Transitions: A Life History Study on Korean Elite Adult Learners

Abstract

This article analyzes the crystallized learning disposition formed in secondary schools and its persistent influence on the transition between educational sectors and the workplace. Using interview data from eight adults who graduated from a prestigious university in Korea, this study reveals that exam-inclined self-direction, a manner of self-direction without self, is strongly associated with types of knowledge and the method of constructing the self under extreme ranking competition. Exam-inclined self-direction, firmly ingrained in the students, has momentum beyond secondary schools, in which it was cultivated, and has constrained some of their life choices. This article problematizes some ideas of self-direction and discusses exam-inclined self-direction as socially and institutionally conditioned, as well as the reason it has survived in the Korean social context. Finally, this article calls for the in-depth investigation of a new category of learner, exam-friendly adult learners.