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The Current State and Prospects of Senior High School Geography Curriculum

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Geography Education in Japan

Part of the book series: International Perspectives in Geography ((IPG,volume 3))

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Abstract

This chapter discusses geography education primarily at the senior high school level, which continues to be an elective subject even in the current version of the National Curriculum Standards. Since the 1989 version, geography has been relegated to the status of an elective subject which contributed to the enrollment decline. It seems that this trend will continue and it is inevitable that geography education in Japan will weaken further. A review of the issues confronting the Geography and History curriculum is presented. Further, the author proposes a history subject that is an amalgam of World and Japanese History, different from the current idea of reorganizing subjects. The envisioned four-subject curriculum structure includes the following: History of Humankind (four credits) and Modern History (two credits) which is a reorganization of traditional Japanese History and World history, General geography (four credits) and Basic geography (two credits), which are based on traditional Geography A and B.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Out of 773 4-year colleges in Japan, 86 are national universities (about 620,000 students), 92 are public universities (about 140,000 students), and 595 are private universities (about 2,090,000 students). The number of private universities and their students account for an overwhelmingly high percentage of the total (MEXT 2010).

  2. 2.

    Report by the committee members, Shigeru Sugiki and Masami Komiya as of December 2010. Incidentally, because combinations of possible subjects differ depending on colleges, detailed statistics need further investigation.

  3. 3.

    The National Curriculum Standards commentary suggests that “disaster and measures” may be addressed as a part of survey content in regional survey in Geography B.

  4. 4.

    The senior high school National Curriculum Standards of 1960 and 1970 mandated that four subjects or more including Ethics and Civics as well as Politics and Economy were required out of the following five: Ethics and Civics, Politics and Economy, Japanese History, World History, and Geography. In reality, all five subjects were made compulsory in the majority of general senior high schools.

  5. 5.

    National Institute for Educational Policy Research (2000, 2004) reports systematic research on curricula of subjects in Social Studies in foreign countries.

References

  • Central Council for Education (2008) Yochien, syogakko, chugakko, kotogakko oyobi tokubetsu shien gakko no gakushu shido yoryo tou no kaizen ni tsuite:toshin (Improvement of the national curriculum of kindergartens, elementary schools, junior and senior high schools, and special support schools : report). January 17, 2008. http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo0/toushin/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2009/05/12/1216828_1.pdf. Accessed 2 Dec 2013

  • MEXT (2009) Koto gakko gakushu shido yoryo (National curriculum for senior high school). Higashiyama shobo, Kyoto

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  • MEXT (2010) Monbu Kagaku Toukei Youran (Statistical abstract of education, culture, sports, science and technology). MEXT, Tokyo

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  • National Institute for Educational Policy Research (2000) Syakaika-kei kyoka no curriculum nokaizen ni kansuru kenkyu: Syogaikoku no doko (Studies on improvement in curriculum of social studies: trend of foreign countries). National Institute for Educational Policy Research, Tokyo

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  • National Institute for Educational Policy Research (2004) Syakaika-kei kyoka no curriculum no kaizen ni kansuru kenkyu: Syogaikoku no doko (2)(Studies on improvement in curriculum of social studies: trend of foreign countries (2)). National Institute for Educational Policy Research, Tokyo

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kinki University, 3-4-1 Kowakae, Higashiosaka, Osaka, 577-8502, Japan

    Katsuki Toida

Authors
  1. Katsuki Toida
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Correspondence to Katsuki Toida .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Yoshiyasu Ida

  2. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Minori Yuda

  3. Joetsu University of Education, Niigata, Japan

    Takashi Shimura

  4. Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Shunsuke Ike

  5. Toyama University, Toyama, Japan

    Koji Ohnishi

  6. Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

    Hideki Oshima

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Toida, K. (2015). The Current State and Prospects of Senior High School Geography Curriculum. In: Ida, Y., Yuda, M., Shimura, T., Ike, S., Ohnishi, K., Oshima, H. (eds) Geography Education in Japan. International Perspectives in Geography, vol 3. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54953-6_19

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