ABSTRACT
Dr Cheong's account of Saemaul Education within the national Saemaul Undong Movement of the Republic of Korea prompts questions both about its character and success and about approaches to reducing poverty. Cheong however, suggests that the education, while much in need of more professional andragogical guidance, nonetheless helped prevent Saemaul Undong from sliding into totalitarianism. There are many strong and authoritarian governments of both left and right which can and might exercise the political will for a development programme with a strong educational component. Some adult education readers discomfited by the authoritarianism evident in the programme, and perhaps by the implicit purpose of enhancing national security through ideological training. On the positive side, the congruity between message and means within the socially equalising training courses must be acknowledged, as well as the valuing of rural and manual working experience implied in the account.
