阪上 弘彬

第45回日本地理学会地理教育公開講座：次期改訂に向けての小中高地誌学習の新たな方向性

Primary geography education receives attention in many countries (see, Review of International Geographical Education Online, vol.5, issue 2, 2015). In contrast to the world trends, geography education (research) in Japan mainly focuses on the secondary education stage, and the discussion on primary geography is a few (e.g., Shimura, 2015). Of course, recently, some research, e.g., the Science Council of Japan (2011), pointed out that such a situation is a considerable problem. Purpose and method: This presentation reports on the current situation and issues in primary geographical education in Japan under the following research questions: (1) How is the situation in primary geography in Japan, compared with some countries? (2) Based on the current situation, what considerable problems are there in geographical education in Japan? To answer the above questions, we analyzed the Course of Study, textbooks, and related educational policy documents in Japan, compared with some countries. Results and discussion: Compared with other countries, the situation in primary geography in Japan is shown as follows: Although the primary social studies curriculum in Japan is organized based on expanding environmental approach, it does not deal with global issues in geographical learning. Global issues themselves are positioned in the curriculum, however, they belong to civics learning in 6 grades. In addition, primary geography in many countries teaches world geography. On the other hand, primary geography in Japan focuses on geographies in school districts/local areas (1-3 grades), cities (3 grades), prefectures (4 grades), and Japan (5 grades) and emphasizes developing investigation skills through such learning units. References: Science Council of Japan. (2011). Proposal: Creating a new high school geography and history-fostering space-time cognition in response to globalization. Science Council of Japan. http://www.scj.go.jp/ja/info/kohyo/pdf/kohyo-21-t130-2.pdf Shimura, T. (2015). Primary geography education in Japan: Curriculum as social studies, practices and teachers’ expertise. Review of International Geographical Education Online, 5(2), 151-165.

Needless to say, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) becomes a more and more important theme in geography education. At present, ESD is positioned in primary and/or secondary geography curricula in many countries and regions. In Japan, ESD has been introduced into the national curriculum standards in 2008 (primary and junior high school) and 2009 (high school) (Nakayama et al., 2015), and developing citizens to build a sustainable society is emphasized in the revised curriculum in 2017 (primary and junior high school) and 2018 (high school). This poster focused on junior high school geography and clarified the characteristics of ESD through content analysis of the geography curriculum in 2008 and 2017. The analysis focused on the establishment of concepts for building a sustainable society and the abilities and attitudes emphasized by learning instructions from an ESD viewpoint (see, Kadoya & Goto, 2013). As the results of comparisons of descriptions in both 2008 and 2017, the geography curriculum in 2017 included more of the concepts for a sustainable society and ESD abilities and attitudes. This is because more global and local geographical issues as a center content of ESD have been introduced into learning units, especially “world geographies” and “Japan geographies” in the curriculum in 2017, and the principle of curriculum organization has changed from content-based to the competency-based curriculum. References: Kadoya, S., & Goto, M. (2013). The past, present and future of ESD in Japan: how to develop and disseminate ESD at school with the network of the local community. NIER Research Bulletin, 142, 47–58. http://id.nii.ac.jp/1296/00000006/