2026-06-25 –, Room 105 (Seats 84)
World history education in South Korea has undergone continuous revision, reflecting shifting historiographical paradigms, national priorities, and changing understandings of global interconnection. While curricular reforms have sought to address critiques of Eurocentrism and to incorporate approaches associated with New World History and global history, significant tensions remain between reform discourse and classroom practice. This panel investigates the current state and challenges of world history education in South Korea through four interconnected dimensions: national curriculum discourse, textbook narratives, high-stakes assessment, and scholarly debates shaping reform.
The first paper analyzes the normative goals embedded in national curriculum documents, identifying enduring tensions between “human history” and “today’s world.” The second paper investigates how high school textbooks construct global narratives, focusing on Eurocentrism and the distribution of historical agency. The third paper turns to assessment by examining eleven years of College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) items, revealing how high-stakes testing constrains the realization of global history ideals. The fourth paper situates these developments within broader scholarly debates, analyzing how researchers’ positionalities shape discourse on world history education in Korea.
Taken together, these studies show that world history education in South Korea operates at the intersection of global intellectual trends and national institutional structures. By integrating curriculum, textbook, assessment, and discourse analysis, the panel offers a comprehensive examination of how “the global” is conceptualized, institutionalized, and contested in world history. Korea’s experience offers a valuable case for international scholars seeking to understand how world history education is evolving within national education systems in a period shaped by new debates about globalization.
Tensions in the Goals of World History Education and the Meaning of World History: A Discourse Analysis of Korean Curriculum Documents
Abstract for Additional Participant 1:This paper examines the goals of South Korea’s world history curriculum from 1945 to the present through discourse analysis of national curriculum documents. It focuses on two enduring objectives: understanding “human history” and explaining “today’s world.” Although widely accepted as complementary, these goals embody tensions related to inclusiveness, Eurocentrism, and the purpose of historical knowledge. By analyzing how these aims are articulated and reconfigured across successive reforms, the study reveals underlying contradictions that help explain the curriculum’s persistence within established frameworks despite global historiographical debates. The paper argues that unresolved tensions between universal human narratives and present-oriented global concerns limit more transformative curricular change. It concludes by proposing directions for reconceptualizing world history education beyond these inherited dichotomies.
Title for Additional Participant 2:Being Global in World History Education: Eurocentrism and the Limits of Historical Actors in High School Textbooks
Abstract for Additional Participant 2:This paper analyzes Eurocentrism in South Korean high school world history textbooks by examining the distribution of historical agency. Although recent reforms have adopted global and postcolonial perspectives, textbook narratives continue to privilege European experiences as implicit norms of modernity. Moving beyond quantitative content analysis, this study investigates how agency is assigned, constrained, or withheld in narratives of cross-cultural encounters. Drawing on postcolonial and decolonial theory and critical discourse analysis, it demonstrates that European actors are frequently positioned as initiators of change, while non-European societies appear as reactive or peripheral. These narrative patterns shape students’ understanding of “the global” and limit more relational or multipolar interpretations of world history. The paper highlights the implications of historical agency constructed in narratives for rethinking global history education in an era often described as post-globalization.
Title for Additional Participant 3:Assessing History in South Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test
Abstract for Additional Participant 3:This study examines how world history is operationalized in South Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), a high-stakes national examination. Analyzing 440 test items from 2014 to 2024, the paper compares mandatory Korean History and elective World History exams across content distribution, item design, and difficulty. Although the national curriculum endorses a global history framework, CSAT items emphasize regionally bounded knowledge and factual recall, with limited engagement in transregional processes or historical reasoning. The elective status of World History further narrows its scope, as item construction prioritizes score discrimination. The findings reveal a gap between curricular aspirations and assessment practice, demonstrating how high-stakes testing shapes the epistemic boundaries of global history education. Korea’s case offers broader insights into the challenges of aligning global history ideals with accountability-driven assessment systems.
Title for Additional Participant 4:Researchers’ Positionality in World History Education: Debates and Issues in Korea
Abstract for Additional Participant 4:This paper explores how researchers’ positionalities shape debates on world history education in Korea. Key issues—including Eurocentrism, the status of world history within the curriculum, integration with Korean history, and global citizenship education—reflect differing academic backgrounds and institutional locations. Using presentation materials from the National Congress of Historical Studies, the study traces shifts in major debates and analyzes how patterns of argumentation correspond to scholars’ specializations in history education, Korean history, Asian history, or Western history. The findings suggest that discussions are structured not only by rational deliberation but also by disciplinary identities and professional trajectories. By foregrounding positionality, the paper calls for more reflexive and dialogical approaches to reforming world history education in Korea.
This panel is organized by the Academy of Korean Studies and the Korean History Education Society.
Hanseok Ko is a visiting researcher at the Center for Educational Research, Seoul National University. His research focuses on the provincial governance of the Roman Empire, its interactions with provincials, and the content of world history education.
Eun Kyung Shim is an EdD candidate in the Department of History Education, College of Education, Seoul National University. Her research interests include historical agency in world history textbooks and history education in international curricula such as A-level and IB.
Mimi Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of History Education, College of Education at Seoul National University. Her research interests include the role of historical materials, the teaching and learning of historical inquiry, and history teacher preparation.
Soeun Lee is an Associate Research Fellow at Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE). Her research centers on students’ historical understanding, historical literacy, and the teaching of ‘difficult histories’.
Yongjun Park is an M.A. student in Department of History Education, Korea National University of Education, and a history educator in the Korean public education system. His research interests encompass the exploration of the prevailing trends and intrinsic nature of discourses in the fields of history and history education, with particular attention to the ways in which these discourses themselves are historically situated and constituted.
Hanseok Ko is a visiting researcher at the Center for Educational Research, Seoul National University. His research focuses on the provincial governance of the Roman Empire, its interactions with provincials, and the content of world history education.
Eun Kyung Shim is an EdD candidate in the Department of History Education, College of Education, Seoul National University. Her research interests include historical agency in world history textbooks and history education in international curricula such as A-level and IB.
Mimi Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of History Education, College of Education at Seoul National University. Her research focuses on teachers’ use of primary sources and inquiry-based instruction. Drawing on nationwide teacher surveys, in-depth interviews, and lesson log analyses, she has shown that teachers vary widely in how they conceptualize primary sources, and that these beliefs strongly influence classroom practice. Her more recent projects investigate teacher factors—such as historical thinking orientations, views on the purpose of school history, and teaching experience—that affect the use of activities, sources, and inquiry. Building on these findings, she is currently leading the development of educative curriculum materials designed to support teachers’ knowledge growth and help them bridge the gap between disciplinary history and school history in the era of digital transformation.
Soeun Lee is an Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE). She is interested in how students relate to history within contemporary society and seeks ways to support the development of their historical thinking. In line with this interest, she earned her Ph.D. from Seoul National University with a dissertation on students’ understanding of substantive historical concepts.
Her research centers on historical literacy and the teaching of “difficult histories.” She has co-authored a book examining history curricula designed to promote historical literacy. More recently, her work focuses on how difficult histories, such as immigrant histories and colonial pasts, are represented within school contexts. Her research aims to identify effective pedagogical approaches and the professional support that teachers need to foster students’ deeper, more critical, and meaningful historical understanding.
Yongjun Park is an M.A. student in Department of History Education, Korea National University of Education, and a history educator in the Korean public education system. His research interests encompass the exploration of the prevailing trends and intrinsic nature of discourses in the fields of history and history education, with particular attention to the ways in which these discourses themselves are historically situated and constituted.