Native-language science education in Korea started twenty years earlier than previously thought, hidden among refugees in the 1930s Soviet Union.
April 25, 2026
Original Paper
Tracing the First Science Textbook Written in Korean by Korean to be used by Korean: Focusing on the Science Textbooks in Primorsky Krai 1930s
SSRN · 6639343
The Takeaway
Historians long believed that the first science textbooks written in Korean appeared in the 1950s. A discovery in the Primorsky Krai region reveals that the Korean diaspora was teaching science in their own tongue two decades prior. These refugees built an intellectual history that was erased from the mainland's records. This finding forces a rewrite of Korea's educational and scientific development. It shows that the drive for native-language science was strong enough to thrive even in exile under harsh conditions. The history of modern Korean science is older and more geographically diverse than anyone realized.
From the abstract
Having textbooks written in the native language plays a crucial role in providing contextualized and culturally grounded education. However, in South Korea, it has generally been understood that Koreanwritten science textbooks first appeared in the 1950s. This study challenges that assumption by examining science textbooks written and translated in Korean by Korean, and used by Korean diaspora (고려인) in the 1930s in the Primorsky Krai (연해주) region, particularly in Khabarovsk schools. By analyzing