Scholars plan alternative textbooks

By Chung Ah-young

Progressive history scholars are geared up to write “alternative” history books in a protest against the state-issued textbooks which will are planned to enter use in secondary schools starting in 2017.

The Korean History Research Association (KHRA) announced on Friday that it has already started developing “alternative Korean history books” to counteract the government’s push for the new policy.

The KHRA, the nation's largest organization representing some 700 historians, has vowed not to participate in the writing of the state-issued textbooks. The association was launched in 1988 to represent the younger generation of Korean historians who joined the democratization movement in the 1980s.

“We will put a large number of scholars into the writing, editing and reviewing process for the alternative books,” said Chung Yong-wook, president of the KHRA and a professor of contemporary Korean history in the College of Humanities at Seoul National University. “We are now ironing out the details, such as the type of books and publication dates.”

The contributors will include KHRA members and other historians. KHRA members previously took part in the writing of secondary school history textbooks published in 2013.

“We’ve not decided yet whether it will be made as alternative textbooks just for students or general history books broadly used by everybody,” Chung said. “We will come up with more details soon.”

Following the Ministry of Education’s announcement of the policy change on Tuesday, 11 progressive superintendents opposing the plan in cities and provinces nationwide have vowed to develop the alternative books.

In response, the ministry said that it will take legal action against the move. But since the KHRA’s writing of the alternative books is being done privately, the government might not have much regulatory control over it.

Jang Hui-guk, superintendent in the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, said that the city will jointly develop their own history textbooks after creating selective history courses for schools.

“The government’s plan is a behavior which denies the autonomy and diversity which are democratic values our society has achieved,” he said.

Min Byeong-hee, superintendent of the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education, said in a press release that he will support developing alternative textbooks and other historical resources in cooperation with other city and provincial offices to help students have “the right historical views.”

Under the current Korean law, education chiefs ― including superintendents, principals and vice principals ― in cities and provinces are entitled to create supplementary textbooks, although they cannot totally replace the government-approved official textbook.

But the ministry said it will regulate the superintendent-certified textbooks if they are not politically neutral.

Currently, schools select from among history textbooks written by eight private publishers approved by the government. The government has pushed ahead with the plan to adopt the single state-authored textbooks, suggesting the current ones are too left-leaning with pro-North Korean content.