역사교육을 둘러싼 한국과 미국의 이념논쟁 비교

Abstract

The controversy over the National History Standards in America during 1994-5 and the controversy over Korean modern history textbooks in Korea since 2004 assume a very similar aspect in spite of almost a decade’s time difference. This study aims to analyze and compare in detail the history education debates in the two countries. First of all, both in America and in Korea the controversy was stimulated by the media, not by the academics. Soon, the controversy extended to the legislative body of each country, and sparked intense political debates over history education. In January 1995 the United States Senate passed a resolution condemning the National Standards for History as un-American, and the authors of the Standards were forced to revise them. In 2004 Korean National Assembly, too much swayed by the party interests, did not do anything but further polarized the bitter dispute when a conservative Congressman insisted that the narrative of the Korean modern history textbook is overly anti-American and pro-North Korean. Textbook Forum, a group of intellectuals held symposia and published several books including Korean Modern History: an Alternative Textbook as a counter to the existing Korean modern history textbooks, which were deemed to be left-leaning by the group. However, it was not until the new conservative administration was launched in early 2008 that the revision of Korean modern history textbooks saw any progress. Conservatives led by Lynne Cheney criticized the Standards for describing American past “too grim and gloomy.” In Korea its modern history textbooks were blamed for narrating Korea’s history of recent sixty years from negative perspective, while writing that of North Korea as positively as possible. In both countries it was the main issue of the debates that the national history, especially the stories of nation building and the founding fathers were depicted too negatively in the Standards and history textbooks. It is also similar that during the debates both sides condemned that the other sides are politicizing history. Peoples involved in the Standards controversy and Korean modern history textbooks controversy charged that the opposing sides are politically motivated. As a result, the history education became the arena for the ideological controversy. Thus, ironically teachers and students who are directly involved in the issue of teaching and learning were excluded from the debates in both countries. It is noteworthy that the long ideological controversy in both Korea and in America was pressed by the extreme difference of historical recognition between the traditionalists and the revisionists.