A Study on the Objectives and Contents of ESD Reflected in the 2015 Revised Curriculum of Primary School (Journal of Education for International Understanding; Vol. 15, No. 1)

 This study analyzed the objectives, core contents, and terms of use of sustainable development education reflected in elementary school curriculum to find ways to effectively implement ESD in conjunction with the curriculum. For this purpose, the contents described in objectives and achievement standards of the 2015 revised curriculum were analyzed, focusing on 8 subjects. Based on the results of the previous studies, the contents of ESD were selected and used as a reference. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, all eight subjects analyzed in this study include ESD-related goals in curriculum objectives. This shows that ESD can be implemented in the subject. Second, the terms reflected in the curriculum were used as ‘sustainable global village’, ‘sustainable future construction’, and ‘sustainable future society’ in social studies and practical arts. This shows positiveness in learning from the perspective of sustainable development. However, in both subjects, sustainable development is focused on future society, and it has a limitation in that sustainable development is a concept that looks at both the present and future generations at the same time. Third, the eight subjects include all the core contents except for ‘gender equality’ among 22 core contents of ESD. This is a positive indicator that ESD can be implemented in the curriculum.