‘국정 역사교과서 사태’에 관한 교육학적 탐색

Abstract

Since October 2015, when the Ministry of Education made pre-announced the administration of ‘the government designated history textbooks’, the issue of the history textbooks designated by the government produced a lot of controversial opinions and those were focused on the problem of distortion of historical facts. The key to this controversy was the political distortion of historical facts. However, the problem can and should be viewed from a more foundational perspective, which is whether or not the state power should characterize the contents of textbooks. It is a question of whether the state power can unilaterally decide on the contents of education without the consent of students, their parents, and the teachers. Therefore, it causes many disputes and confusions of the educational system centered on the history academy and political circles. However, this controversy over the history textbooks of the state has been abandoned by the decision of the Ministry of Education on May 31st. The purpose of this study to search for the problems of the national textbook system from the perspective of education. The study argues that the essence of ‘the government designated history textbooks’ is not just a matter of history distortion but the problem of the national textbook system itself. For this purpose, the author first examines whether the system of state textbooks is appropriate in terms of the right to education, and then explores the issue of national education rights represented by state textbooks in terms of the educational rights of the students and their parents'. Then, from the viewpoint of the constitutional value of political neutrality of education, the author searches for the relationship between textbook production and state power. Through the study, the author tries to search for the future of the desirable textbook system.