학생들이 세계사에서 ‘중요한 역사’를 판단하는 기준

Abstract

This study investigated how students make sense of historical significance in world history. Using qualitative, task-based interviews, I interviewed 40 secondary students who had taken world history courses. Findings indicated that students thought that it is important to learn how current globalized societies have developed. Students also tried to understand different ideologies, values, or customs over the world by learning world history. Furthermore, they hoped to learn historical lessons in world history, particularly from historical narratives of overcoming the hardship. Finally, students tried to emphasize the greatness of Korean history and culture by comparing and contrasting between Korean and world history. These findings suggest that students are under conflicts of different kinds of identities between global citizenship and national citizenship. Although they recognized that they have to improve tolerance toward differences, their patriotic ideas toward Korean history were conflicted with this recognition, and students’ national identity limited their multifaceted understandings of world history topics. Therefore, I conclude that history education in Korea needs to purse democratic citizenship education in order to overcome narrow-minded national identity, and world history must help students think of various perspectives from others that counter patriotic narratives in Korean history.