The purpose of this essay is to analyze the external characteristics of 『Korean History』, the textbook of the Korean History class taught in high school which has been established according to the 2009 curriculum. The 'Slimming' principle attempted in the 2007 curriculum has been applied without change, and as the 『Korean History』 textbook has been published according to the 'Slimming' principle, related analysis work has significance.
'Slimming' of curriculum is refers to the strengthening of discretion of textbook writing and reduction of students' burden of learning through careful selection of content elements centered on minimum requirements of curriculum. Thus, the 2007·2009 educational curriculums present main topics and achievement standards as the content elements of curriculum. According to analysis results of 『Korean History』 textbook developed through this curriculum, its characteristics can be organized as the following.
First, the content of the 6 types of 『Korean History』 textbook that passed the inspection in unit system has been composed through unit composition method centered on unit structure method and topic composed through middle and small units below the main unit according to the purpose of the writer, and overall flow did not show large difference.
The 6 types of 『Korean History』 textbook has selected the method of arranging main body and related data with student activities in main body composition. In comparison with the 『Korean Modern History』 textbook of the 7th curriculum, 『Korean History』 textbook emphasizes student activities with relatively less focus on research activities, and is more specifically presented to be adjusted to the level of finding answers within main body or given data. Such change is regarded to have been achieved through the reflection of the criticism regarding overly complex and unspecific data use and research activities of the 『Korean Modern History』 textbook.
Lastly, this study has analyzed the differences in type and perspective regarding the lives of various people who have lived through the Japanese colonial period that have been presented in the revised curriculum. The 『Korean History』 textbook commonly portrays the changes in lifestyle and awareness according to the transformed era and the activities of people that have led each period through reading materials or special content rather than the main body. Because it is difficult to actualize this within the main body, the method of separating as special content type is also executed in model unit development report.
Furthermore, although differences are shown between textbooks from particular perspectives, it is judged to be different from bias which arouses intentional refraction in history as it has been originated from the reflection of research results and related descriptions or from difference of perspective.
Analysis on textbooks newly used in schools is a very important task. This is because whether textbooks are traditionally viewed as the only truth, or perceived as a type of material, the fact that textbooks provide a great influence to the knowledge and thinking development of students regarding educational curriculum does not change.