Content Analysis on Rural Multi-Functionality Published Language Textbooks in ElementaryㆍMiddleㆍHigh School

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study is to promote alternative plans on the prejudiced and distorted parts in school textbooks in the aspect of multi-functionality of agriculture and rural community. This was done through analysis of the contents in 44 kinds of schoolbooks in Korean language (30 of elementary school, 12 of middle school and 2 of high school). This will lead to promote the understanding about the multi-functionality and form the proper value system related to agriculture and rural community for children and juveniles using schoolbooks. A content analysis which is a research tool to classify all contents of materials containing the properties to become the object of interest in a systematic way, was employed to examine to what extent the contents on agriculture and rural community were reflected in the textbooks for elementary school, middle school and high school. The content analysis was done in two categories, namely; application method and function view. Application method had four types of texts, cases, figuresㆍpictures, and activities, while function view emphasized the relevance for the multi-functionality of agriculture and rural community (i.e., function of environment preservation, function of rural scenery and rural traditional culture conservation, function of maintenance and development of local society, and function of food security). The results of application method in elementary school showed that the textbook of the second-year class having a large amount of figuresㆍpictures related to agriculture and rural community, had the highest frequency in all six grades. In the function view, the environment preservation function was most abundant among a variety of multi-functionalities. In middle school, the average frequency had shown a rapid decrease. However, the function of environment