동아시아사 수업과 평화 인식

Abstract

East Asian History was first established as a high school subject in the2007 curriculum, and its inclusion has brought about manycontroversies. Chinese history, Japanese history, and Vietnamesehistory, as well as Korean history, are included in East Asian History. This subject’s contents and structure are extraordinary in contrast tothose of Korean History or World History. There was much debateconcerning East Asian history among scholars. Subsequently, EastAsian History textbooks were composed. Students have studied EastAsian History since 2012. This article analyzed the difficult aspects of teaching and studyingEast Asian History, and introduced the efforts of history teachers. Manyteachers and students consider East Asian history as a difficult subject. That is because of (1) the burden of new knowledge for teachers, (2) thedifficulty in connecting the knowledge of Korean history and Worldhistory logically, (3) preventing the knowledge of World history studiedbeforehand from being the basis for understanding East Asian history,(4) the difficulty in adapting to the topical history of the textbook, (5)the descriptions which make it difficult for readers to grasp thetextbook’s contents, and (6) the lack of knowledge among students ofChinese history, Japanese history, and Vietnamese history. Teachers have made many efforts for the efficient teaching of EastAsian History in the face of difficult conditions. They are trying to use resources that stimulate student interest as they introduce the classesor explain the chronology and connections linking each nation’s history. In addition, they are developing many sorts of narratives by searchingfor references, by re-organizing the story, and by approaching localand personal history and dealing with special regions. The aim of East Asian History is to understand the history andculture of East Asia and to respect others. Regarding the enhancementof the peace understanding of students, this article confirmed suchachievements and tasks for solving this issue in the East Asian Historyclass. Teachers emphasized the unit of modern history with regard toraising peace recognition. Students stated that they could understandthe history and culture of neighboring nations more deeply. But theydid not agree with the idea of respecting neighbors, that is, China,Japan, and Vietnam. That is because of the conflict of history andterritory among East Asian nations and a fixed idea formed by thesocial environment, especially by the mass media. On the other hand,negative recognition of neighboring nations is ironically intensified inspite of studying the imperial invasions and colonial domination ofmodern history. More study and practice are required for peacerecognition by students.