최근 우리나라는 국가 교육 정책의 근간으로 ‘창의?인성교육’을 강조해 왔는데, ‘인 성교육’보다는 ‘창의 인재 육성’에 보다 중점을 두어온 것을 부인할 수 없다. 그러나 지금 현재 교육 최대 현안은 바로 ‘인성교육’으로, 정부는 추상적으로만 제시해 온 인 성교육을 보다 구체화하고 실천·체험을 통해 역량을 키우고자 ‘인성교육 실천 주간’을 설정하고 ‘인성교육 실천 포럼’을 창립하였으며, ‘인성교육범국민실천연합’ 등을 통해 인성교육 활동을 확대해 나가고 있다. 또한 유사한 상벌 제도1)가 있음에도 불구하고, ‘꿈과 끼를 키우는 행복교육 실현을 위한 실천적 인성교육 활성화’를 위하여 2013년에는 ‘제1회 대한미국 인성교육 대상’(교육부, 2013)을 공고하기도 하였다.
There is greater interest increased in character education in Korea these days as an alternative for decreasing school violence. It is understood that the subject ‘Ethics’ is the core of personality and moral character education in school curriculum, and also ‘Korean National Language’ and ‘Social Studies’ curriculum deal with personality factors. ‘Visual Arts’, ‘Music’ and ‘Physical Training’ curriculums also contribute to foster character education through experiential activities. Even though there were many studies done already on character education in school art education, more researches are needed for activation. The purpose of the study was 1) to analyze contents of 10 middle-school art textbooks which were government-authorized and published in 2013 in relation to the sub elements of character education in art education, ‘aesthetics’, ‘trustworthiness’, ‘respect’, ‘responsibility’, ‘fairness’, ‘caring’ and ‘citizenship’, 2) to suggest an application method for activating character education in school art education. In conclusion, ‘Aesthetics’, ‘Trustworthiness’, ‘Respect’, ‘Responsibility’, ‘Fairness’, ‘Caring’ and ‘Citizenship’ as the sub elements of character education in art education was deeply related to art education for human education, and also the goal and contents of 2009 National Art Curriculum of Korea. For its implication and implementation, the importance and curriculum plan for character education in art education should be recognized and developed.