Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
This is a serious problem not only for learners but also for teachers. In junior
high schools, Geography is required, and there is a need for many geography
instructors, however, Social Studies instructors report that Geography is not their
strength. According to a survey conducted by the author, who has been involved in
teacher training courses, the number of subjects that students take for college
entrance exam within specialty areas in Social Studies was higher than that taken by
majors in college. In “Geography and History, Civics, and Math,” which is one of
the entrance exam subjects at the author's university, Japanese History is the most
selected exam, accounting for nearly half the students. The remaining half of exams
is shared by World History and Politics and Economy, with a small proportion
shared by Geography and Math. In fact, the majority of the students who are enrolled
in the teacher training course taught by the author wish to teach Japanese History
despite the fact that they are enrolled in departments of law, economics, and man-
agement. However, it is foreseeable that these students will be assigned to work in
junior high schools and teach Geography, without any university training in this
subject area.
One of the chief factors that contribute to enrollment decline in senior high
school geography is that geography is not an option for many college entrance
exams, especially private colleges.
1
A document edited by the AJG-CGE
(Association of Japanese Geographers-Commission of Geographical Education)
2
reveals that out of 860 departments/programs and 273 private universities, 848
(98.6 %) of departments and programs offer World history as an option, and 810
(94.2 %) offer Japanese history, while only 380 (44.2 %) offer Geography. Private
institutions are public education organizations that receive subsidies, so they are
they not socially responsible to accept entrance exams from subjects' organization
in the National Curriculum. Since Geography and History consists of three areas,
World History, Japanese History, and Geography, from a macroscopic point of view,
an acceptance structure of entrance exams that unjustly neglects one of these areas
can be considered to be against the national educational policy.
World History was made into a compulsory subject based on rationale not
extended to other Geography and History subjects. This change along with the insuf-
fi cient number of geography teachers in junior high schools, and the selective accep-
tance of Geography for college entrance exams are all interrelated and have weakened
senior high school Geography. This negative spiral that is happening may ruin the
geographical culture within the Japanese society.
1
Out of 773 4-year colleges in Japan, 86 are national universities (about 620,000 students), 92 are
public universities (about 140,000 students), and 595 are private universities (about 2,090,000
students). The number of private universities and their students account for an overwhelmingly
high percentage of the total (MEXT
2010
).
2
Report by the committee members, Shigeru Sugiki and Masami Komiya as of December 2010.
Incidentally, because combinations of possible subjects differ depending on colleges, detailed sta-
tistics need further investigation.
