교수상의 변화와 미래

초록

The image of university professors in Korean society has evolved into three distinct types: the venerated, cult-like scholar, the professional expert, and the knowledge civil servant. These types do not represent a linear historical progression but rather coexist as incongruous strata of academic tradition. Each type embodies positive characteristics ‒ a scholar with a vocation, a developer of practical knowledge, and an intellectual with a sense of public duty ‒ while simultaneously reflecting negative aspects such as the authoritarianism of academia, the traps of commer- cialism, and the pathologies of bureaucratization. Today, professors’ professional lives are subordinated to the managerial logic of university corporations, which treat them as ordinary employees, and to the bureaucratic control of the Ministry of Education, which makes them resemble civil servants. The vocational dimension of academic work has nearly disappeared, and its professional practicality is increasingly marginalized within the law-school system dominated by the bar examination. The professor of the future must overcome the academic authoritarianism, commercialism, and bureaucratism, while preserving and advancing the communal culture of universities. Such a professor should integrate interdisciplinary research and practical knowledge to contribute to society and realize the public nature of education through academic practice. This transformed academic figure can be called an “interdisci- plinary practitioner-scholar.” Accordingly, the Private School Act and the Higher Education Act, which regulate the duties of professors, should be interpreted in accordance with this future-oriented professional identity. In particular, the principle of ‘mutatis mutandis’ in Article 55(1) of the Private School Act allows for the adapted application of the National Public Service Act and the Act on Education Officials, thereby enabling a redefinition of pro- fessors’ duties that aligns with the mission and professionalism of aca- demic vocation.

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