Reality of Establishment of “Geography” and “Advanced Geography” Subjects in the New High School Curriculum after 2022: Results of a Nationwide Curriculum Survey of High Schools

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a nationwide high school curriculum survey conducted from October 2021 to February 2022, just before the new national curriculum prescribing Geography as a compulsory high school subject was implemented. The main findings are as follows. 1) The percentage of compulsory subjects in the first grade tends to be higher in History than in Geography, particularly in Hyogo prefecture and private schools. 2) By school type, the elective subject of Advanced Geography is not available in vocational high schools, meaning that school geography learning ends with compulsory Geography for those students. 3) In schools from which the majority of students attend universities, there is a tendency for Advanced Geography not to be offered in humanities courses, but rather in science courses. 4) As the background to these findings, it is speculated that there are high school teaching strategies geared towards university entrance examinations, a shortage of teachers who specialize in geography, and difficulties in changing the previous curriculum framework.