The Korean War is one of the world-famous events that took place on the Korean Peninsula. The war caused tremendous damage to the people and led to the division of Korea that remains divided today. The issue of separated families due to the war has no...
The Korean War is one of the world-famous events that took place on the Korean Peninsula. The war caused tremendous damage to the people and led to the division of Korea that remains divided today. The issue of separated families due to the war has not been solved yet with the tension kept intact between North and South Korea. There has been a lack of consistency in the causes and major events of the Korean War, which had huge impacts on the modern history, in elementary textbooks. Their descriptions in the textbooks have changed every time there is a curricular revision.
This study set out to examine the academic circles' research achievements with regard to the Korean War by the period and analyze its descriptions and their changes in the elementary Social Studies textbooks currently used in the field of education based on them. Based on the findings, the study would contemplate over the description directions of textbooks to help the students perceive the Korean War, one of crucial events in the modern history, right, realize the precious nature of peace, and cultivate the quality of making efforts for peace as citizens.
The investigator analyzed descriptions about the Korean War in the fifth and sixth grade Social Studies textbooks covering the war from the First Curriculum to the Revised Curriculum of 2009. The analysis criteria were divided according to external systems and content. The analysis results were as follows:
First, the descriptions of the Korean War in the elementary Social Studies textbooks were influenced by the research trends of the academic circles, which put their research focus on the causes of the war until the 1980s. Influenced by the researches of the academic circles, the textbooks had different descriptions of its causes. The academic circles have expanded the scope of research topics and diversified methodologies since the 2000s, leading to the diversification of content described in the textbooks. Driven by these changes, the textbooks described the massacre of civilians, oral history-based methods, and social changes due to the war.
Second, the descriptions of the war in the textbooks were also under the influence of national policies and political power according to the times. Some of the textbooks would put emphasis on the opposition against the ceasefire, others on unification of two Koreas with South Korea marching into North Korea, and still others on the cooperation of the UN forces. The amount of descriptions of the war would be reduced in some textbooks, and the content of the descriptions would be distorted in others.
Third, the terms related to the Korean War and the countries that participated in it were changed by national policies, objectives of curriculums, situations of the times, changes to the relations between North and South Korea, diplomatic relations and orthography in the elementary Social Studies textbooks.
Fourth, there were differences in the description attitude toward the Korean War among the textbooks. The textbooks under the early curriculums exhibited an emotional description attitude, using hostile expressions toward North Korea and the Soviet Union and expressions of gratitude toward the U.S.A. and the UN forces for their help and aid. With the revision of curriculums, however, these expressions were no longer used and replaced by the increasing descriptions of objective positions such as comments on the damage of North Korean and Chinese forces.
Fifth, there were also differences in the content and amount of descriptions of the war among the textbooks. No consistency was found in the descriptions of its causes, development processes, and major events such as the ceasefire process across the areas of analysis. The amount of descriptions also varied according to the curriculums up to eight times.
Finally, the visual materials of the Korean War increased in types and volumes according to the revision of curriculums. There was a prominent increase to the visual materials related to the development process and damage of the war to inform the students that did not experience the war of the cruelty and damage of war. The South Korea-based materials were, however, still dominant.
Based on these analysis results, the study proposed the following directing points for the descriptions of the Korean War in textbooks:
First, the Korean War should be described right as an independent historical event in the modern and contemporary history. There was no consistency in the amount and content of its descriptions throughout the nine curriculum revisions. Its descriptions would make an abrupt decrease in some cases and reflect the political situations in others. The Korean War should be described in an objective position to tell its causes and outcomes as an important event in the modern and contemporary history so that the students can develop a discerning eye for the present and future society.
Second, the major events of the war should be described in a consistent manner with their internal and external situations covered. There should be consistency in the explanations of its causes and the descriptions of its major events such as the development and ceasefire processes among different textbooks.
Third, there should be emphasis on a bottom-up approach to its descriptions in a direction of overcoming its wounds and preventing another war. The textbooks have enumerated the damage caused by the war at the levels of the state and people with individual suffering omitted from description in many cases. In the textbooks, the descriptions of the war should be changed in a direction of helping the students, who have no experiences with war and have wrong ideas of the Korean War, see the cruelty of the war and think of it as an event related to them. It is thus needed to employ the oral history-based approach and direct descriptions toward the social changes due to the war in the textbooks.
Fourth, education about the Korean War should be oriented toward peace. It should be made clear that the Korean War caused immense suffering and wounds to both North and South Korea so that the students can realize how precious peace is and increase their peace consciousness. Furthermore, the descriptions of the war should take a direction of encouraging the students to recognize a need for peaceful unification and prepare for unification in the textbooks.
The present study will hopefully contribute to the descriptions of the Korean War in textbooks to promote the students' understanding of the war in elementary education.