Recently, there is an intense dispute about the high school modern history textbook. The core issue of the dispute is that the high school modern history textbook of the 7th National Curriculum is seriously towards ‘leftism’. Especially, in the ca...
Recently, there is an intense dispute about the high school modern history textbook. The core issue of the dispute is that the high school modern history textbook of the 7th National Curriculum is seriously towards ‘leftism’. Especially, in the case of Kumsung publishing company’s textbook which is the mostly selected textbook in high schools, an issue that it has serious ‘bias’ and ‘distortion’ aroused. And for such alternative, a group called Textbook Forum published an alternative textbook, but the textbook is criticized for failing to contain proper perception of history, and also for having contents pertinent to the struggle of political ideology. In the study, the core issue of the modern history textbook dispute will be reviewed to suggest directions for history education.
Regarding the structure of the contents of the two textbooks, Kumsung’s textbook contains the content pursued by the 7th National Curriculum, which is developing students with thinking ability, creativity, and the ability to explore. On the contrary, the alternative textbook shows unsubtle editing. Kumsung’s textbook used the chapter structure exactly as suggested by the Ministry of Education, and the alternative textbook contained free chapter structure because it is not an authorized textbook. Kumsung’s textbook focused more on describing the period before Korea’s liberation, and the alternative textbook allocated considerable amount of space in describing the period after the liberation and economical areas, which is a shift towards proper direction pursuing diversity.
Kumsung’s textbook did not mention about Korea’s authenticity, and also, it showed an aspect of underestimating Korea’s foundation as a mere incident which certain force, which supported the US military administration and the independent government, came to seize power. On the contrary, the alternative textbook criticized the previous textbooks’ negligence in Korea’s foundation, and described the historical meaning of Korea’s foundation with weight. In addition, regarding the description about the Korean War, Kumsung’s textbook simply depicted the damage of the ethnic tragedy and war in a small amount, and also, regarding the reason for the beginning of war, it contained revisionist view. The alternative textbook introduced the dispute of authenticity theory and modified theory, and based on published documents, it described the process of North Korean’s invasion in detail. In addition, it clearly describes the meaning of the Korean War.
Kumsung’s textbook described the development of democracy focusing on the movements for democratization, and showed dichotomous view of Korea’s modern history, describing it as the conflict between dictatorship and the struggle for democratization. On the contrary, the alternative textbook took a more multi-dimensional approach to view the positive aspects of Korea’s modern history.
Regarding North Korea, Kumsung’s textbook included North Korea’s history in modern history, but the alternative textbook arranged it as the main subject. While Kumsung’s textbook ignored the reality of North Korea and the difference between North Korea and Korea’s system in the name of unification oriented description, the alternative textbook defined North Korea as a totalitarian system and mainly described about the reality of North Korea. On the contrary, there being no description about unification is a problem, and a clear view about unification should be included.
Historical view formed during adolescent period influences individual values greatly. Therefore, history education in middle and high schools come to have important meaning. In such aspect, the alternative textbook published to search alternatives for history education would be a meaningful event. I hope that the alternative textbook contributes to the diversity of history education.