Announced the results of its regular review of textbooks by The Government of Japan (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: MEXT) in every march, the conflict between Korea and Japan over the history distortion issue in textbooks is repeated. In March, the results of its regular review of high school textbooks which will be used since 2023 were announced. All social studies textbooks that passed the review include the description of Dokdo. In response, South Korea has consistently maintained a strict and decisive attitude against Japan's claim to Dokdo based on the fact that Dokdo is clearly Korea's own territory, in terms of history, geography and international laws.
processed 'Curriculum Guideline and Commentary' by Japanese social studies department, a specific and systematic stance is described on Dokdo. Accordingly, Korea strengthened Dokdo education by directly describing Dokdo in the curriculum based on the 'Dokdo Education Contents System'. In particular, following the partially revised curriculum in 2011, Dokdo education has been set up as a "cross-curricular learning themes" of the current curriculum, showing that Dokdo education is being strengthened not only in social studies but also throughout education.
Research on Dokdo education and policy between Korea and Japan has been steadily conducted. However, the analysis of the description of Dokdo in Korean history textbooks was generally studied focusing on national history. In the current curriculum which is the 2015 revised version of 〈East Asian History〉, Dokdo is specified as a learning element and also described in textbooks. However, no research has been conducted on the analysis of the description of Dokdo when it comes to the textbooks of 〈East Asian History〉. Therefore, based on the fact that Dokdo is stated in the high school social studies curriculum, the textbooks of 〈Korean History〉 and 〈East Asian History〉 describing Dokdo were analyzed in this study.
In order to visually understand the changes in Dokdo education, this study revealed all textbooks of the 2009 revised curriculum and 2015 revised curriculum of 〈Korean History〉 and 〈East Asian History〉. Among them, the scope of the unit containing the description of Dokdo was circumscriptively compared and described. Before analyzing textbooks in advance, changes in each curriculum were examined. By reviewing the contents system and achievement standards of the curriculum and comparing descriptions related to Dokdo in textbooks, the description and changes of Dokdo in Korean textbooks were examined.
Through this, It is confirmed that the main flow, elements, and direction of the description is the same in 〈Korean History〉 and 〈East Asian History〉 based on the fact that Dokdo is historically Korea's own territory and Japan illegally incorporated it. The 2015 revised textbook had the same flow and direction as the previous revised textbook, but as Dokdo education was strengthened, the description of the text increased quantitatively and improved qualitatively. Meanwhile, 〈Korean History〉 and 〈East Asian History〉 confirmed that there were differences in historical records and materials constituted by each textbook according to the writing standards, and differences in the perspective of explanation appeared. According to the subject characteristics of the two textbooks, not only the description of the text but also the difference in the composition of the subject was confirmed.
This study examined Dokdo education centered on Dokdo, an element that stimulates nationalism between Korea and Japan. Research related to the description of Dokdo is significant in that it was concentrated in its own history, so it was expanded to 〈East Asian History〉 to examine all types of history textbooks.