제7차 교육과정 역사과 심화선택의 문제

Abstract

The 7th Educational Curriculum has been administered since the 2002 academic year with a view to cultivating autonomous and creative Koreans to lead the society of autonomy and creativity in the 21st century of information-led globalization. In particular, the subject of history has been continually controversial as lots of problems have been raised by both school teachers and historical organizations. While "Korean History" was decreased in the number of class hours, "Modern and Contemporary Korean History" was independently made as an advanced elective subject. The subject was welcomed as diverse data presentation and description were possible in the textbook-authorization system to help students have wide historical perception. On the other hand, the parts of modern-contemporary history tended to be neglected in the class of "Korean History," or the elective subject itself was often unavailable owing to each school's special situation. In this context, this paper examines the curricular systems of the two subjects, social studies and history, while considering how "Modern and Contemporary Korean History" is selected and managed at school and whether it is independently needed or not. First, the standpoint of postmodernism is used here to estimate the educational direction of modern and contemporary history in some countries. Next, how the parts of modern-contemporary history have been treated in the textbook of "Korean History" in elementary, middle, and high schools since the Liberation in 1945 is revealed. Last, a questionnaire for students and teachers is analyzed about the matter of separating "Modern and Contemporary Korean History" from "Korean History," the issue of intensifying history education, and the necessity of educating modern-contemporary history. As for curricular management, "Modern and Contemporary Korean History" should be included in "Korean History" and the latter needs to have proper period allotment for faithful instruction. In addition, for advanced teaching-learning activities, teachers have to have training, diverse materials development, and group research activities. Especially, instead of textbook-centered instruction, the development of multimedia-used instruction is increasingly required by way of on-the-spot experiences and moving-image materials. The issue of strengthening history education was frequent but temporary whenever China mentioned the Northeastern-Area Research Project and Japan distorted some contents in its history textbooks. Therefore, the government needs to listen to the improvement demands regarding the problems in the history education at school so that there will be less trials and errors in the 8th Educational Curriculum to let people have desirable history education fitting the 21st century.