A Study on Development of Catholic Textbooks in Concordance with Glocalism

ABSTRACT

At present, 114 of the 236 high schools, founded by religious foundations, selected ‘Religious Education’ (R.E.) as a subject for their curriculum. 88 of these schools chose other subjects along with Religious Education. Among 38 Catholic high schools, 9 selected Religious Education, but the other 9 chose other subjects instead. It is notable that only half of the schools founded by religious establishments actually have Religious Education classes. This means that most schools founded by religious establishments do not highlight a religion and faith as being integral to the learning that happens at that school. In addition, due to the ‘Autonomous School Policy’ in 2008, some Catholic schools changed into ‘Autonomous Private Schools’, which tend to focus on College Scholastic Aptitude Tests rather than on spirituality and religion. Thus, it is becoming more and more difficult to provide Religious Education classes at school. Considering this educational backdrop, I believe Religious Education textbooks should be urgently revised. In this thesis I analysed various matters of current textbooks that should be fundamental for Religious education. Next, I studied what religious education should strive to become and what we may have overlooked in the new curriculum. In this way, I tried to find a way to develop Catholic textbooks to reflect the needs of modern Korean society today. Through my investigations, I studied the globalization of the Religious Education textbook-that is, ‘Global Religious and Cultural Education’ as a foundation of public education and also the means for developing global textbooks in concordance with local Religious education.