Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and thinking, through experiential and project-based learning in the local area
and students' living spaces. The curriculum simultaneously nurtures student abili-
ties, skills, and attitudes for proactively participating in the development of their
community.
The need for practical exercises for children that incorporate social participation
was suggested earlier by geography researchers and educators. For example, Ida (
2005
,
2006
) emphasized participation as a geographic skill within the learning process.
Nishiwaki (
2008
) suggested a complete overhaul of the geography curriculum
that consistently incorporates nurturing of student social participation abilities. The
author also argued that to overcome the dwindling local area consciousness
2
that
had arisen as a result of children's inadequate personal experiences (of both society
and nature) in their local area in recent years, there was a need for instruction that
includes local social participation (Takeuchi
2006
).
This paper is based on these accounts, providing evidence to support the view
that practical activities in geography education should incorporate social participa-
tion in the local area and be a model for the geography curriculum.
3
9.2
Social Participation in Social Studies and Geography
Education
9.2.1
The Formation of Awareness of Society and Fostering
Citizenship
4
The discipline of Social Studies, which was established in 1947 to spearhead post-
war democratic education, states. “The mission of the newly established discipline
of Social Studies from now on is to help our young people understand society and
2
In an earlier paper (Takeuchi
2006
), the author defi ned regional consciousness or awareness as a
holistic mental response to children's local area, which includes aspects of conscious recognition
and an emotional or sentimental one.
3
Regarding adoption of a social participation perspective by the education bureaucracy in cases
such as the Revised Basic Law on Education, Sat
ō
(
2002
) has indicated problems of “contradiction
between self-initiated activity and mobilization in the emphasis on 'service' and 'love of home-
land,' based on nationalistic views of public education and through linking together the school, the
family, and the local area” (p. 201). In this paper, while giving due consideration to such problems,
the author value the positive aspects of social participation learning that can foster active citizens
through direct experience in the local area, and consider the value of such learning in instruction.
4
In the National Curriculum Standards, the term “civic abilities” are used in the goals for the edu-
cational discipline. The National Curriculum Standards 1968 edition (Ministry of Education,
Science and Culture
1969
) is where civic abilities were fi rst clearly spelled out in the general goals.
The word citizen “should be understood as including two meanings, that of a citizen who is a mem-
ber of civil society, and as a citizen who is a member of the nation” (p. 2). This generally supposes
that civic abilities are those of individuals who are both local and national citizens. In this paper,
to assume social participation in the local area and stress the attributes of the local citizen within
“civic abilities”, the author use the term “citizenship”.
