Dr. Injeong Yoon’s pathway to the University of Arkansas, where she began a tenure-track teaching position last year, is hardly traditional.
Initially, she thought that she wanted to be a professional writer, but later found a home in education.
For about six years, Yoon worked as an elementary school teacher in her homeland of South Korea, where she taught a variety of classes, including language arts, mathematics, science, history, social studies, moral education and visual arts.
For Yoon, who earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Gongju National University of Education and a master of education in art education from Mokwon University in South Korea, her experience in the classroom was deeply gratifying and somewhat challenging.
“The K-12 experience in South Korea was similar in many ways to the U.S., following the U.S. military domination after the Korean War,” says Yoon, who still has family in South Korea. “I loved working with young students, but in Korea you’re expected to remain politically neutral and teach what you’re told to teach.”
Frustrated by her inability to make pedagogical changes to the curriculum, Yoon decided to heed the advice of her mentors and enrolled in a doctoral program in art history and education at the University of Arizona.
That decision cemented her desire to join the ranks of academia and to expend more time and energy on broader social justice issues.
