Comparison of the Reading Content of Elementary School Curricula in South Korea and North Korea: Focusing on the 2015 Revised Korean Curriculum of South Korea and the 2013 Revised Korean Curriculum of North Korea

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the elementary school reading content in the most recent curricula in South Korea and North Korea. For this reason, content structure and components in reading were extracted from the South Korean 2015 Revised Korean Curriculum and the North Korean 2013 Revised Korean Curriculum in order to examine their commonalities and differences. The commonalities in reading between South Korean and North Korean education are that reading is an independent area, in which the methods of reading are emphasized, and that various types of writing and reading attitudes are suggested. However, differences are observed in content details and main components within such commonalities, and there were numerous content items treated independently, such as media, vocabulary education, and literature, or components given special emphasis only in South Korea or North Korea. The commonalities and differences observed in reading between South Korean and North Korean education suggest important implications in planning reading education for the era of reunification. They include an integrated perspective on the essence of reading in the era of reunification, solutions to modifying the content structure of reading, and the integration of reading and adjacent areas.