The May 18th Democratic Uprising was designated as a UNESCO Memory of the World in 2011, which was extremely rare for a piece of modern history. It means that the spirit of the May 18th Democratic Uprising should be preserved and continued by human all around the world. As the uprising received the huge credit for its historical value, it was necessary for Korean students to be educated with correct and extensive education. However, the study of education about the Democratic Uprising has still left much to be desired.
The domestic educational contents about the May 18th Democratic Uprising was checked in this dissertation. The textbook description was analyzed from the Period of 5th Educational Course which was the first time for the democracy to be mentioned up until the Period of 7th Educational Course which was in 2009. The textbooks are four different "National History textbooks", six different "Korean Modern and Contemporary History Textbooks", six different "Korean History Textbooks", "Living Korean History Textbook 2", and "Living Korean Modern and Contemporary History Textbook". The amount of description about the Democratic Uprising in history textbooks has been increased. However, it is considered to be necessary to further develop various perspectives and enlarge the amount of information on the Democratic Uprising.
Next, this dissertation examined how Korean students consider the Uprising. Through survey, the difference of perspectives of middle school and high school students was looked into. The results were organized by the level of schools and then by areas. The students' viewpoints about the Uprising were affected by the more educational opportunity which they had, the more positively they feel, emphasis of the importance of the case and the desired satisfaction of the class. However, the group of high school students has been moderated but has not been overcome compared to the group of middle school students about the regional deviation about the perspective of the May 18th. Even though regardless of the regions, students had lots of questions about the May 18th and showed high desires about studying the Uprising. The current public education textbooks could not solve the questions students had. Moreover, public education did not offer enough opportunities or numerous teaching-learning methods. It is necessary for public education to make efforts to overcome the regional deviation and to satisfy learners' educational desires. To solve these problems, by not only the ways of descriptions in history textbooks should be changed but also advancements of learning-teaching methods should be developed.