Roger Shouse to Speak at Global Forum in Korea

by Sara LaJeunesse (June 2011)

University Park, Pa.—Roger Shouse, an associate professor of education, has been invited to speak at the 2011 Global Human Resources Forum, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea, in November. The purpose of the conference is to bring together representatives of global businesses, universities, governments, and international organizations to discuss some of the pressing issues that the world faces, especially in education, human resources development, and talent management. Past speakers at the conference have included former President of the United States Bill Clinton and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for me to be invited to this global conference,” said Shouse. “We’ve had many College of Education faculty visit and speak in Korea and other East Asian nations over the past decade and I’m happy to carry on that tradition and strengthen Penn State’s relationship to that part of the world.”

Shouse was invited to give the talk because of his expertise on Korean and Taiwanese education. His talk will focus on creativity and how schools and societies can influence its development in young people. “I plan to touch on differences in the way the concept has been traditionally interpreted on both sides of the Pacific and how our different understandings lead to different patterns of schooling,” said Shouse.

In particular, Shouse studies how east-west cultural conflicts often impede school reform, both in the United States and in East Asia. He also studies “education fever” in South Korea and the factors accounting for parents’ intensive involvement in “shadow education,” the practice of setting aside money to pay for additional educational opportunities for children, in South Korea.

Shouse’s work has been published in journals such as Educational Administration Quarterly and Sociology of Education and he now serves as book review editor of the American Journal of Education. He is a coauthor of a 2010 book, titled Principal Leadership in Taiwan Schools, that examines the status of Taiwan’s education system. He recently spent a year in Taiwan as a visiting professor at National Pingtung Teachers College.

CONTACTS
Roger Shouse: rcs8@psu.edu