2016 Volume 84 Pages 25-36
The purpose of this research is to discuss how social studies education should deal with national education policies and government guidelines for education and textbook screening. As the government is strengthening its intervention in education, what is required in social studies research is strategic thinking toward the government by neither submitting to the government nor by challenging it. It is important to show what arrangements are possible in the content determined by the government and what classes are close to the ideal for social studies.
For example, for the theme, “the national land,” the treatment of which was enhanced due to a political request, a strategic approach is required through an investigation as to how this theme has been treated in past curriculum and textbooks and what other social studies approaches are possible. This approach can contribute to the expansion of the view of social studies for the teachers who arrange these classes, and it can lead to a clear raison d’être for social studies research.
The purpose of this research is to show an ideal state for national land studies within social studies as well as the ideal state for social studies research that deals with the government through an analysis of the characteristics of national land studies in ‘early social studies’ based on a confirmation of identity and citizenship and also an investigation as to the connection between building national consciousness and nurturing desirable citizenship.
