동아시아 지역사 서술의 현황과 과제 - 고등학교 『동아시아사』(2012) 근현대 부분을 중심으로 -

Abstract

In this article the Korean high school textbooks for“History of East Asia” published in 2012 and their curriculum were analyzed to examine the present situation and the task of narrating regional history with a focus on modern history. The main purpose of regional history is to foster a historical consciousness which regards highly coexistence and peace by overcoming a dichotomy of the national history and world history, and by simultaneous understanding of a mutual association within the region of East Asia and the distinctiveness of each nation. The curriculum of East Asian history presented three elements as criteria for selecting contents. These were common or correlated elements, elements showing diversity, and elements of exchange and conflict. Two textbooks show different narrations of the above elements. The textbook published by Chunjae Education Inc. presents thematically related contents together, which allows readers to connect or compare the situations of Korea, China, and Japan by themselves. The textbook published by Kyohak Publishing Co. shows narration divided by each country with an emphasis on the history of international relations which attempts to complement a limitation of a single country’s history. These textbooks include the history of the native country as a part of the regional history, which led to an opportunity to relativize a nativecountry-centrism, which is a new aspect that was not seen in the existing textbooks of world history and Korean history. It would be the best if Korea’s East Asian history can boost the atmosphere that changes “victims competition” into “introspection competition” in each country. These two textbooks still have a long way to go to provide more appropriate contents as regional history. This can be achieved by emphasizing the following three tasks. First, narrate the formation process of a nation-state by extending it to the end ofWorld War Two,but do not limit the time before World War One. The second task is to enhance the level of connection and comparison and to have expanded applications of this view simultaneously when narrating each topic. The third task is to face the expansion-aimed empire which alienates East Asia and is the principal offender that has suppressed human living conditions, and to overcome it. When the principles and the direction of narrating East Asian history are desirably set, the textbooks can be improved by continued modification and supplementation to develop proper regional history textbooks. The historical research should proceed toward overcoming the structure and logic of the “Oriental history” (J. Tōyōshi ) originated by the modern empire of Japan. One may expect that Korean East Asian history education can establish an “(East) Asian history” which will replace the “Oriental history” that has been shared by Korea and China.