A Historical Study on the Paradigm Shift of Environment Subject Curriculum in Korea

한국 환경과 교육 과정의 패러다임 변화에 대한 역사적 고찰

The purpose of this study is to find historical paradigm shift of the environmental subject in Korean school curriculum. For the purpose, two research questions guided this study. First, we would like to find out the changes in environmental education curriculum by interpreting the Korean national curriculum. Second, we want to know about the paradigm shift of environment education in Korea. In this study, curriculum documents, teachers' guide books, textbooks, and other educational materials were used for literature review. The results are as follows: First, Robottom and Hart's frame of three paradigms in environmental education research, positivism, interpretivism and social criticism, was suitable in interpreting curriculum. Second, the curriculum of environment subject has substantially changed from 6th to 2007 revised curriculum. Third, while the 6th curriculum was strongly affected by the positivism and education 'about' the environment, the 7th curriculum had been influenced by the interpretivism and education 'in/through' the environment, and the 2007 revised curriculum is under the influence of the education 'for' the environment and social critical paradigm.