Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 19.1
High school Geography and History curriculum (Tentative plan)
Geography
History
Basic geography (two credits)
Modern history (two credits)
General geography (four credits)
History of humankind (four credits)
Requiring more than two credits
Requiring more than two credits
of a bias towards history courses is rooted in the teacher training system. For example,
the Teaching License Law stipulates that students take the same number of geog-
raphy and history credits regardless of their chosen teaching subject. Since the
course Geography and History is divided into Geography, Japanese History and
World History topics, it means that two third of instruction time are dedicated to
history-related lessons. The author argues that if teacher candidates must study
equal credits for geography and history, then more time for geography is needed
in senior high schools.
The fi rst National Curriculum Standards introduced after the war in 1947 divided
world history into Eastern History and Western History. The second version in
1951, integrated these two topics into World History. Conversely, history depart-
ments at universities continue to make a distinction between eastern and western
histories. This framework that separates the teaching of Japan's history from the rest
of the world isolates events in Japan and it is thus taught in a vacuum, separate from
the world context. In the U.K. as well, History is a concept that combines world
history and British history. In addition History and Geography have been treated
equally. In France too, history is a concept that combines history of the country and
the world, and by positioning it alongside Geography, the axis of time and space are
maintained.
5
Here the author would like to propose a personal idea: the current World History
and Japanese History be dismantled in favor of reorganizing History of Humanity
(four credits) and Modern History (two credits). By moving between Japanese
History and world History, both subjects will ideally highlight the past and chal-
lenges of humans. The author wonders whether the latter subject could be content-
structured to trace the historical process in the discussion, while stressing challenges.
However, could geography be incorporated into General geography (four credits)
based on the current Geography B and Basic Geography (two credits) based on
Geography A (all titles tentative)? Moreover, a strategy is needed to makes two
credits or more in Geography and two credits or more in History compulsory from
the above four subjects. Table
19.1
presents an early idea of the proposed course
reorganization.
In the current Geography and History curriculum, which was launched in 1989,
it has been divided into World History, Japanese History, and Geography. As a result of
World History becoming compulsory, while Geography became elective, geography
enrollment drastically declined. Consequently, geographical knowledge among
5
National Institute for Educational Policy Research (
2000
,
2004
) reports systematic research on
curricula of subjects in Social Studies in foreign countries.
