The pursuit of quality education in Korean sunday schools, devising an appropriate model of evaluation

[摘要] The purpose of the thesis is to design an evaluation model which could be used to improve the quality of Sunday schools in Korea. Various evaluation theories that are current outside the church were examined and evaluated to see whether they were amenable to modification to serve the church’s interest in Sunday Schools. The adapted theories were put into practice and tested to see whether the resultant model of evaluation was fit for practical use [or not] in a church setting by doing a number of case studies. Recently the church has had to face severe criticism from the wider Korean society. In order to overcome these problems, the thesis examines the purpose of Sunday school education, which is essentially based on the pursuit of faith conceived more holistically, and considers the improvement needed to deliver quality education in Sunday schools. For this purpose, it tries to devise an evaluation model that establishes a clear understanding of the present state of Sunday schools whilst also suggesting how these schools might change and develop the quality of their education. In order to achieve the quality improvement of Sunday schools, this thesis considers QM (Quality Management) as the main theoretical basis of an evaluation model, because both the kind of analysis and improvement which are used in QM, were shown to be suitable and applicable to a Sunday school setting whilst providing a basis for a continuous improvement in quality. The thesis demonstrates the suitability of this model with regard to its practical application in the field by testing it in individual Sunday schools, which together represent the range of Korean Sunday schools that one might encounter. Also, it critically considers those parts and processes of the evaluation model which should be changed in response to the issues that arose during the case studies.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion

[关键词] B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion;BR Christianity