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The Introduction of the 'East Asian History' Curriculum and the Role of NAHF

It has been about 10 years since the introduction of the subject "East Asian History" in high school. Although there were many controversies and concerns about the introduction of unfamiliar subjects, the subject seems to have settled down without any difficulty in the school scene. In fact, the introduction of the subject called "East Asian History" is not for self-reflection of curriculum or academic development of history. It was based on a policy judgment that history education should be strengthened to respond to historical distortions of China and Japan. East Asian history was put into high school education in such a rough, somewhat harsh way. However, Korean society is indeed dynamic, and related discussions and research have accumulated in just 10 years. So now East Asian history is forming an axis of history education.

NAHF is the institution that played a great role in establishing the East Asian history subject. NAHF led the direction of the curriculum and textbooks from the time of introduction of East Asian history. In 2008, when people were puzzled by how to approach the new subject. NAHF led the system of the curriculum by publishing the draft textbook. And they started a teacher training program on the theme of East Asian history in 2009 and re-educated on-site teachers. The program is still going on. NAHF has also been constantly paying attention to publishing books to support education on East Asian history(『A library of East Asian History Education』(2010), 『History of East Asia I·I·III』(2011), 『Educational Resource Book for East Asian History Education』(2016).

'Sourcebook for the Education of East Asian History'(2016)

A source book planned and published by NAHF to relieve the difficulties of teachers 

in charge of 'East Asian history' at school. 

This is like a guide to help teachers operate classes effectively.    

The Intention of Planning and the Direction of Publishing

The East Asian history curriculum takes an approach to grasp the history of East Asia by theme. It is not to set the range of historical awareness as a unit regional world in the middle of Korean history and world history. It is an attempt to understand history from a completely new perspective. It is not a complete history of East Asia, but rather a comparison of thematics to understand the structure and dynamics of East Asian history.

As East Asian history takes a different perspective on historical awareness from existing Korean history and world history, the school scene felt a great deal of embarrassment. In order to the deepening learning and mutual comparison of the themes that the East Asian history subject is aiming for, a dense understanding of the history of East Asian countries must be preceded. However, history education in secondary schools in Korea has never dealt with Japanese history, Vietnamese history, and inland Asian history deeply. For this reason, it is true that the history teachers of the schools did not have much understanding or interest in the history of these areas.

『The Introduction to East Asian History』 published by NAHF is a basic introductory book on East Asian history. This book helps understand the history of Korea, China, Japan and Vietnam by describing the history by theme. High school teachers who teach East Asian history, as well as ordinary people who are interested in East Asian history, are the main readers. This takes a systematic, deeply and plain narrative method.

Geographical Range of East Asian World

The East Asian world includes not only Korea, China and Japan, but also Mongolia, 

Tibet and Vietnam. ⓒChunjae Education INC.

The contents of the book and its authors

It was in March 2019 that the meeting for the publication of 『Introduction to East Asian History』 began. Kim Jung-hyun(a researcher at NAHF), Park Jin-woo(professor of Sookmyung Women's University), Kim Jung-in(professor of Chuncheon University of Education), and I held about 10 meetings. Thus, this book contains a total of 25 themes including Korean history, Chinese history, Japanese history, and Vietnamese history. Although there is some regret, I believe that it covers and encompasses the main points of East Asian history. In addition, the top authorities of Korean academia participated in the writing for each theme. In this regard, 『Introduction to East Asian History』 reflects the level of Korean academia in the early 21st century.

The Possibility of Application in High School Field Education

When <East Asian History> was introduced as a high school subject, history teachers were inflated with hope. The history education of high school around 2012 was being ignored by students. <Korean History> was a subject that should be designated as a necessity at Seoul National University entrance examination. Therefore, except for the highest grade group, students did not choose <Korean History> subjects in the college entrance examination. In addition, the <World History> did not receive students' choice because it was difficult because it contained too much contents. The rate of examination for <History> subjects was almost the lowest every year in the social science part of the college entrance examination. With the introduction of <East Asian History>, which seems a little tough in this situation, people predicted that history education would find a meaningful breakthrough. In fact, there were a lot of students who chose <East Asian History> in the college entrance examination at that time.

About 10 years after the introduction of the subject of <East Asian History>, the number of students choosing this subject is decreasing. The whole <History> subjects are the same. The difficulty of the <East Asian History> subject also plays a big role. Because what it is aiming for is an in-depth historical understanding of 'Thematics' and 'The Comparative History'. However, history teachers still have difficulty in teaching <East Asian History>. And they didn't teach effectively because of that reason. In order to teach <East Asian History> efficiently, teachers must understand the contents of the subject accurately. And the development of East Asian studies should be preceded. I am eager to hope that 『Introduction to East Asian History』 will be widely used to contribute to the education of East Asian History in high school.