Analysis of Life Respect in Elementary School Education with the Morals Subject from the Perspective of Population Education

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find better ways to teach Population Education and Moral Education in a ‘low birth rate and aging’ society through content analysis of life-respecting education in elementary school morality classes applying the perspective of Population Education. Methods: Accordingly, an analysis was conducted based on the content analysis framework of life-respecting education developed in this study to examine how life-respecting education is conducted in the morals subject of elementary schools. So, the content analysis framework divided each area into ‘understanding, crisis, practice of life respect’ and analyzed twelve sub-content elements. Results: As a result of the analysis based on the developed content analysis framework, the content element of the crisis of human life in the ‘crisis of respect for life’ and the content element corresponding to ‘respect for human life’ in the ‘practice of respect for life’ were the most frequent areas. However, it was found that content elements related to ‘conflict of bioethics’ and ‘recovery of bioethics’ were insufficient. Conclusion: Population Education is an attempt to identify one of the various causes of phenomena related to population problems in a ‘low birth rate and aging’ society as a phenomenon of disregard for life at the social and cultural level and seek a direction to resolve it. Therefore, value educationon respect for life, which is emphasized in the Population Education, should be the basis of school education. Moreover, the subject of the analysis of the content of life-respect education was examined through morals classes in elementary schools that directly deal with the value of life. Accordingly, life-respecting education in the morals classes of elementary school should move towards a direction that can embrace both Morals Education and the perspectives of Population Education.