Teaching the past, informing the present? School history education and attitudes toward foreign countries

Abstract How does school history education emphasizing past grievances with other countries impact attitudes toward conflict and cooperation with the countries today? We examine this question using original data from 34 classrooms across 17 high schools in Seoul, South Korea. We first test whether exposure to anti‐Japanese content in school history education negatively impacts students' attitudes toward cooperation with Japan. We then compare how the attitudes of students educated with a more pro‐US textbook differ from those using a more anti‐US one. We find that school history education influenced what historical events students believed as “facts” and their evaluation of historical events. However, the effect on students' historical memories did not by itself automatically translate into corresponding attitudes toward present‐day Japan or the United States. Our findings offer various implications for studies on international rivalries and historical memories, as well as for debates on the political effects of school education.