"교육의 질은 교사의 질을 능가할 수 없다."라는 말이 있다. 현재 교육대학이나 사범대학 등 교원 양성 기관에서 직전교육을 통해 통일교육을 전문적으로 지도할 신규교원들이 배출되지 않는 상황에서 통일교육의 성과를 기대하기 어렵다. 즉, 통일교육의 성패에 있어서 교사들의 통일교육 의지 및 역량은 매우 중요한 영향을 미친다. 그렇다면 초등학교, 중등학교 교사를 양성하고 있는 교육대학, 사범대학 등에서의 예비 교사를 위한 통일교육은 어떻게 이루어지고 있는가? 또한 우리는 미래의 사회를 주도해 나갈 아동과 청소년을 키워내는 초등학교, 중등학교 교육에서 통일교육을 제대로 실시할 수 있는 여건과 지원을 어느 정도 마련하고 있는가?
본 연구에서는 이러한 질문에 대한 근거를 찾기 위해 초등학교, 중등학교 교육을 이끌어 가는 교사들의 양성을 위한 교육대학 및 사범대학의 교육과정을 체계적으로 분석해 보았다. 그리고 이를 바탕으로 현재 학교통일교육의 문제점을 찾아내고, 이를 해결하기 위한 초, 중등학교 교원 양성 교육과정의 개선 방안을 다양하게 제시하였다.
It is no exaggeration to say that the unification is one of the most imminent issues that confront people who are living in Korean peninsular. In addition, in terms of the procedure of unification, it is a knotty subject that needs the systemic and steady endeavor of all members in society. Due to the fact that matters connected with unification and North Korea belong to State-Nationality scope and this scope is relatively not related to every individual's interest, educators who have paid great attention to this subject have had difficulties in activating unification education. Therefore, I believe, it is high time to look at the unification education from another angle, that is, it is not a personal matter but a public property requiring government recommendation and support.
There is a saying that "Nothing could indicates the Quality of education more accurately than the Quality of teachers." Owing to the current fact that pre-service teacher education practiced in colleges can not ensure the educational expertise of teachers needed to teach unification substances in elementary and secondary schools, the fruitful result of unification education can not be anticipated. In other words, willpower and ability of each teacher playa main role in success of unification education. In that case, how is the pre-service teacher education with emphasis on unification education in colleges practiced? what are the actual schooling conditions for unification education in elementary and secondary schools?
In order to answer those Questions, in this study, I analyzed the pre-service education curricula in educational colleges and in schools of education in universities. Through this systemic analysis, I not only found some problems in both pre-service unification education and actual unification education in schools, but also laid out the scheme for remedy. First, including both liberal arts courses and special subjects courses, there are rare courses linked with unification education such as 'understanding of North Korea' and 'theories of unification education' in curricular of. educational college and schools of education in universities, except in those of department of Ethics education. Even though there are some established unification education courses, students are not willing to attend those courses because they are not compulsory.
Second, to implement unification education carefully in educational colleges and schools of education in universities, securing professors who can teach the subject matters related to it should be considered.
Third, the institutional device for connection between pre-service with in-service
teacher education should be prepared. Prospective teachers should learn basic knowledge of unification education through pre-service teacher education and in-service teachers should learn in-depth contents through unification education classes run by social institutions. Thus, there should be various social institutions for unification education, which specialize in diverse interests of unification education.
Fourth, the running of curricula in college and university is self-regulating so, to guide reform, through appealing it in the opinion leaders' meetings of higher educational institutions, the induction of cooperation of them is necessary. Moreover, the support of the Teacher Training Section in the Education Ministry is in need.