Global convergence or national identity making?: The history textbook controversy in South Korea, 2004-2018

ABSTRACT

Previous research has documented a worldwide shift in the teaching of history that looks beyond nation-state based history instruction in favor of a post-national curriculum that imparts knowledge of diverse identities, cultures, and global issues. In South Korea, however, the construction of national identity in history education continues to be a key function of its civilizing mission because of the uncertainty over inclusion of North Korea within South Korea’s calculus of who constitutes Koreans. This article analyzes the domestic politics of history education in South Korea, with particular attention paid to the controversies surrounding the nationalization of history textbooks. In 2015, the administration of President Park Geun-hye announced plans for its own history textbook to “correct” ideological bias in the private history textbook market. Questions of nationhood, ethnicity, and identity took bitter shape in history textbooks, where portrayals over historical events were revised to underscore competing visions of state legitimacy vis-à-vis the global political order. Hence, we highlight that the South Korean textbook controversy not only challenges transnational convergence in history education but questions a conventional understanding of history education as decisively national or global rendered visible by the complicated and fraught histories of East Asian societies.

KEYWORDS:

• History education
• globalization
• national identity
• textbook controversies
• South Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

In this article, we use the Revised Romanization system to reflect Korean terms and names, unless an individual uses a different preferred romanization. Additionally, we placed the family name before the given name and condensed the double-syllable given name to become one word with a hyphen, unless the individual uses a different preferred name order and/or hyphenation.

1. Revisions in South Korea’s school curricula are closely tied to presidential administration changes. Since the South Korean government proclaimed the first national curriculum in 1955, there have been nine revisions (Kim, 2004). At the time of writing this article in 2018, the most recently drafted curriculum is the 2015 revised curriculum.

2. Textbooks used in South Korean schools can be classified into three types. Type I textbooks are authored by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Type II textbooks are produced by private publishing companies and authorized by the MOE. Type III textbooks are recognized by the MOE as relevant and useful among existing publications when Type I and Type II textbooks are not available for a given subject (MOE, 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hyungryeol Kim

Hyungryeol Kim is Associate Professor in the Department of Ethics Education, College of Education at Seoul National University.

Stephanie K. Kim

Stephanie K. Kim is Assistant Professor of the Practice and Faculty Director of Higher Education Administration at Georgetown University.