The Journal of The Korean Association of Geographic and Environmental Education ISSN:1226-511X(Print) 2586-5641(Online) 한국지리환경교육학회지

This study aims to elucidate the characteristics of the geography domain in the Finnish elementary ‘Environment (Ympäristöoppi)’ subject through curriculum and textbook analysis, deriving implications for South Korean elementary social studies. To this end, the study examined the content structure, teaching objectives, transversal competencies, and evaluation criteria of the Finnish National Core Curriculum (POPS 2014), alongside a textbook unit on ‘Southern Europe.’ The results indicate that Finnish elementary geography expands its spatial scope from local living environments to the global scale, deepens learning from observation to inquiry and interpretation, and emphasizes human-environment interactions and sustainability. Notably, ‘inquiry’ is established as an independent content area. The explicit inclusion of fieldwork, geographical thinking, maps, and geomedia in objectives and assessments maintains the subject's distinct identity. Furthermore, the textbooks structurally expand from natural environments to industrial activities and human migration, enabling students to understand regional formation and transformation in connection with global phenomena. These findings provide meaningful implications for complementing the logic of regional learning in South Korea. They suggest strengthening inquiry and fieldwork, linking geomedia to geographical thinking, and exploring regional changes within global contexts. In addition, Finland’s practice of implementing at least one multidisciplinary learning module each year could provide a useful reference for developing a practical alternative to an integrated-subject approach.