2015 Revised Study of Religion Curriculum and Christian Education

ABSTRACT

This paper aims at analyzing, in Christian education perspectives, the ‘Study of Religion’ Curriculum(2015 Revised Study of Religion Curriculum), a part of the 2015 revision of the ‘National Curriculum of Korea’ for primary and secondary education that the Korean Ministry of Education confirmed and announced in September, 2015. Based on this purpose, first of all, this paper reflects critically on features, strengths, and weaknesses of 2015 Revised Study of Religion Curriculum. As the results of this critical reflection, this paper identifies a systematic structure for implementation of the Curriculum and its significant characteristics as cultural education that reveal the necessity of religious education in the multi-cultural and multi-religious society as strengths of the Curriculum; on the contrary, the Curriculum has its problems, such as an excessive emphasis on an academic approach to religious education that could entail conflicts between the Korean Ministry of Education and Christian schools, and the questionable effectiveness of the Curriculum. Thus, in order to implement 2015 Revised Study of Religion Curriculum, Christian schools need to reconceptualize their existing concepts of Christian education and Christian education curriculum by transforming these concepts into the concepts of Christian education as character-spiritual education, reflective religious education, interreligious education, religious education through art, and the religious education that utilizes hidden curricula effectively, maintaining their identities and mission statements. In addition, the future revision of the ‘Study of Religion’ Curriculum needs to be based upon some principles that integrate the religious education for faith and the religious education for religious studies, include some strategies for integrating, the term spirituality and its concept, and ways of experiential (or practical) knowing, and deliberate on actual situations and needs.