중학교『역사(1)』Ⅳ단원 '고려의 성립과 변천' 분석

Abstract

A textbook is a learning medium which is published in accordance with the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum System came to adopt the 'constant revision' system after the Revised National Curriculum of 2007, and the History textbooks have been revised four times since then. Such changes of the curriculum and the textbooks brought confusion to the teachers and students in the field. Producing highly accurate textbooks is all the more imperative for middle school History textbooks, as they may be used by teachers not majoring in history education. The Revised National Curriculum of 2009, announced in 2011, required that the contents of the history subject be reduced by 20% and the textbooks focus on presentation of the political and cultural history. As a result of the reduction, the number of lessons on the Goryeo Period went down from 2 to 1, while the number of achievement elements decreased from 9 to 5. Such reduction was only superficial, however, as there was no substantive reduction of the learning contents of the subject. By analyzing the Revised National Curriculum of 2009 and 'Foundation and Transformation of Goryeo' part of the 9 History (1) textbooks, the author could distinguish the following characteristics. First, a diverse variety of textbooks has been published under the Textbook Screening System. Second, despite the diversity of their physical appearances, each of the 9 textbooks was not particularly different from each other in terms of their presentation of Korea's political history and their supplementary learning materials. Third, even though the 2009 National Curriculum demanded historical presentation focused on the political and cultural history, the textbooks were relatively lacking in their presentation of the cultural history. Based on the findings above, the author would like to make a few suggestions. First, it should be clearly recognized that the reduction of student workload in a curriculum cannot be achieved by reducing the volume of the textbook. If such workload were to be reduced, there should be a clearer guideline on the contents to be described at the middle school level. Also, there is an issue about 'autonomy', which is one of the key elements of the Textbook Screening System. The 9 textbooks were not particularly distinguished in terms of their presentation of Korea's political history and their supplementary materials. While some degree of overlapping materials is understandably unavoidable, the current status suggests the need for the authors to make efforts to include new materials. While the current National Curriculum demanded historic presentation focusing on the political and cultural history, the actual result was that the cultural history was simply attached to the political history which was at the center of the presentation. Such result seems to reflect a structural problem. By incorporation the cultural history into diachronically divided achievement standards, various issues such as the relative weight of the cultural history and comparison of the characteristics of each era will be resolved by themselves.