UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 38, Page 9
August 5, 1993
Korean educator, alumnus returns to campus as scholar

     Sociologist and educator Duk Yoon has made a return journey to the
University from his native Korea to study how Delaware teaches its
teachers.
     Yoon, who received his master's degree in sociology from the
University in 1968, is spending a year on the campus as a visiting scholar
from the Korean National University of Education.
     A former dean and provost, as well as a founding member of the Korean
National University of Education, Yoon is studying how the University
integrates education courses with major fields of study in training social
studies teachers. He also is studying new developments in the field of
sociology.
     After graduating from the University of Delaware, Yoon received his
doctorate in education at the State University of New York (SUNY) in
Buffalo and has combined his two areas of expertise throughout his career.
He taught at Northern Iowa University and then became director of the
sociology department at a Catholic seminary in Iowa, to help prepare
priests who would be serving in the Pacific region of the world.
     When the Korean government decided to establish a university of
education, Yoon was invited to participate in the project and returned to
his homeland where he played a prominent role in the school's growth.
     As a sociologist, Yoon's area of research is deviant behavior from an
anthropological viewpoint, or more specifically a comparison of how crime
pervades society in Japan, the United States and Korea.
     Japan is a group-oriented, tightly controlled society, he pointed out,
so that crime is less prevalent than in Korea or the United States. He
described Korea, which was first under feudal rule, later ruled by Japan,
and then divided, as an individual-oriented society where one has to look
out for oneself. There is seven times the amount of violence in Korea as in
Japan, but proportionately one-seventh of the violent crime in the United
States where violent crime is a major problem.
     As an educator, Yoon is interested in learning about methods used at
Delaware that he may use to develop a progam for training sociology
teachers at the Korean National University of Education. He also is
interested in developing the library resources and is consulting with
scholars about ways of improving graduate programs at his home university.
     The return to Newark has been successful for him from a personal and
professional point of view. "I liked the University so that when I had
opportunity to come to the United States, I chose to come to Delaware.
There are many changes, as the University, including the sociology
department, has grown both physically and academically. Everyone has been
cordial and helpful, and I hope to incorporate some of the methods and
programs I have studied in the Korean educational system," he said.
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure