A Study of News Frames on the Controversy over Evolutionary Theories in South Korean Science Textbooks

Abstract

In December 2011 and March 2012, South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (currently the Ministry of Education) received a “revision petition” from an organization named “Society for Textbook Revision (STR) 1 .” STR belonged to a Christian foundation called the Korea Association for Creation Research. The two petitions, specifically addressed to the Minister of Education, Science and Technology, were respectively titled “Archaeopteryx is Not a Transitional Species between Reptiles and Birds,” and “The Evolutionary Lineage of the Horse is a Pure Imagination.” STR demanded that the contents pertaining to these subjects should be deleted from high school textbooks. The Korean government forwarded the petitions to seven science textbook publishers, asking them to use their discretion on the issue. In the end, most of the publishers responded that they would remove the related