Analysis of Environmental and Sustainable Development Content in Elementary Music Textbooks for Grades 3-4 and a Review of Related Research Trend

The issue of environmental pollution and ecosystem change is not limited to a specific region but is a global problem. In response, countries around the world are making multifaceted efforts to address this challenge. Korea has also joined these efforts by establishing its National Sustainable Development Goals and working toward their implementation. The 2022 Revised National Curriculum reflects this by including “environment and sustainable development” as a cross-curricular theme, encouraging education for environmental protection and sustainability across all subject areas. Accordingly, this study investigated how environmental and sustainable development education is being implemented in the music curriculum. To do so, the study analyzed activity instructions and learning content in the environmental and sustainable development-related units of the 2025 music textbooks for grades 3-4, from the perspective of environmental literacy. It also reviewed how actively and in what thematic areas music education research related to environmental and sustainable development has been conducted. According to the results, among the 23 environment-related activity instructions and learning contents identified, 8 addressed the domain of environmental disposition, 7 focused on environmental knowledge, and 8 on environmental action. Among the 15 activities that clearly reflected music domains, performance (singing) appeared most frequently with 7 cases, followed by appreciation(4) and creativity(2) domains, and there were 2 cases including both creativity and performance. Regarding research trends, a total of 19 studies have been conducted since 1999. From 2017 onward, research has continued consistently—except in 2018—with an increasing number of studies in recent years. In terms of research content, educational approach studies were the most common, while curriculum-focused studies were the least. Based on these findings, the study presents implications and suggestions for future research.