Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
High School Geography Education Guidelines” were translated into Japanese as a
model. Nakayama's research received strong interest because it reported efforts in
the U.S. to reorganize geography education, at a time when Social Studies in senior
high school was being deconstructed in Japan. Ando (
1993
) studied the Social
Studies curriculum in the U.S. and proposed a curriculum theory that extended
Hanna's (
1956
) theory “expanding communities of men,” from an article entitled
“Society-Child-Curriculum”. Hanna's theory has since been modifi ed and incor-
porated into Japan's Social Studies curriculum. The expanding environments
theory developed by Ando is a foundation of Japan's elementary school Social
Studies curriculum. Another model U.S. project is the High School Geography
Project (HSGP). Its curriculum structure, although unpopular among U.S. geog-
raphers and geography education researchers, had a well-balanced design for
teaching Social Studies in Japan. Kusahara's (
1996
) study was groundbreaking
and changed attitudes toward the HSGP curriculum structure. That study serves as
a foundational reference when discussing geography education within the subject
of Social Studies.
16.2.2
International Understanding
Knowledge about international countries has been incorporated in the study of for-
eign countries at the high school level since the 1970s. The aims of such study are
to promote better understanding of other countries and to teach students about for-
eign lifestyles and cultures. For example, Nishiwaki (
1993
) discussed the aim of
developing world citizenship through geography education. He argued that educa-
tion about international issues should not be just simple memorization or even
understanding facts, but that it should promote student abilities to participate in a
global society. Nishioka (
1996
) was the fi rst geography education specialist to write
a systematic development studies book. His aim was to understand causality
between poverty in developing countries and class differences between the northern
and southern hemispheres. He also discussed how people can change their attitudes
to overcome these issues.
16.2.3
Geographical Perspectives and Way of Thinking
The concept of “geographical perspectives and way of thinking” has its roots in the
mid 1950s. This concept holds that there are conceptual theories and academic
skills unique to the subject of geography. This perspectives and way of thinking is
the academic skill set that many geography education theorists believe should be
developed in students, and its offi cial inclusion into education was announced in
1969. However, the meaning of this concept is not unanimously applied as a skill set
to student learning in high school geography guidelines (Toida
1999
).
