Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of a future-oriented Social Studies education. To this end, Geography, as a part of
Social Studies education, must strongly emphasize the relationship between nature
and human society.
More than 10 years have passed since the dawn of the twenty-fi rst century, which
was dubbed “the century of the environment”. The current international education
trend is focused on fostering citizenship that includes global vision, with the aim of
creating a sustainable society. Since 2005, the United Nations has developed a range
of educational activities as part of the Education for Sustainable Development
(ESD) initiative.
The National Curriculum Standards Revision report released in 2008 contained
the phrase “aiming for the realization of a sustainable society” (Central Council for
Education 2008, p. 79). In the 2008 National Curriculum Standards, Social Studies
education in junior high school included content that encouraged students to
consider actions and philosophies from “the perspective of forming a sustainable
society” (MEXT 2008). This content is part of Civics standards, namely, aiming for
a better society, and is positioned as a summary of Social Studies that includes the
areas of Geography and History. This same perspective is featured throughout junior
high school Social Studies. In fact, in Geography, Environmental issues and envi-
ronmental conservation raises these issues as core ideas that are included together
with content about the regions of Japan. In this topic, students are required to con-
sider the importance of efforts towards environmental conservation for the purpose
of building a sustainable society. Environmental issues and environmental conser-
vation are core issues and [these efforts] should be tied back to the attitudes of
industry, regional development, and people's livelihoods.
Senior high school Geography A includes a study unit on global issues in which
students learn about the environment, resources, energy, population, food, housing,
and urban issues from global and regional perspectives. This course makes clear the
necessity for national initiatives and international cooperation to build a sustainable
society that fi nds solutions to such issues (MEXT 2009). These objectives will form
the central theme of future geography education.
Although the ultimate goal of Social Studies education is to foster citizenship
through social awareness, Geography will remain a knowledge-based subject that
contributes to student learning through phenomena and facts, which in turn leads to
social awareness that directly contributes to the goal of Social Studies. Thus,
Geography plays a critical role in developing scientifi c social awareness that forms
the premise of value judgments and decision making for thinking about how to
improve society.
The formation of a sustainable society requires a balance among environmental,
economic, and social dimensions. Geography, which contains the elements of nature
and humans, can develop convincing explanations about environmental dimensions
based on the results of scientifi c inquiry. There is little doubt that geography can be a
driving force of Social Studies because it includes ESD viewpoints such as the rela-
tionship between human activities and natural elements (e.g., topographic features,
hydrologic features, climate, and terrain), developed by investigating case studies.
