This study examines how “history education” in Korea during the 1950s and 1960s developed into an autonomous discursive field, focusing on the arguments and activities of history education researchers. In particular, it analyzes how members of the History Education Research Society sought to secure a distinctive domain for history education and to establish their professional identity and practical direction amid the tensions among state–society demands, school realities, and historiographical discourse. These researchers strategically utilized national and social imperatives such as “democracy” and “the nation” to justify the role and necessity of history education, while also formulating their own concepts and logics such as“historical consciousness” and “historical thinking” and positioning them asthe goals of history education. Through practices such as textbook writingand participation in history education policy, they attempted toinstitutionalize the direction they envisioned. However, after the May 16 military coup, their ideas were distorted and selectively incorporated intopolicy by the Park Chung-Hee regime, bringing them into competition andnegotiation with various actors in the history education discourse, includinggovernment-aligned historians such as Lee Seon-geun and some historianscommitted to overcoming colonial historiography. By analyzing theseinteractions, this study reveals that history education in the 1950s and 1960swas not merely a projection of state ideology, but rather a discursiveformation shaped by multiple actors operating within a constrained yetmeaningful degree of autonomy.
Seok-young Son (2025) studied this question.