Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 19
The Current State and Prospects of Senior
High School Geography Curriculum
Katsuki Toida
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 edu-
cation 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.
Keywords Curriculum ￿ Geography and History ￿ Senior high school geography ￿
The National Curriculum Standards
19.1
Introduction
The new National Curriculum Standards was announced in March 2008 for
elementary and junior high schools, and in March 2009 for senior high school.
These National Curriculum Standards have been implemented since April
2011 in elementary schools, April 2012 in junior high schools, and April 2013 in
senior high schools. The goal of the chapter is to discuss issues surrounding the
geography curriculum in senior high school and to propose prospective future
directions.
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