Abstract
In the history of social studies education in Japan, it is beyond question that building up social recognition ability is very important. However, there are different interpretations of social recognition ability. Therefore, this paper seeks to establish the essential meaning of social recognition ability, by examining five foreign frameworks which are related to social recognition. The research makes it clear that contextualization is a common requirement in the formation process of social recognition ability. Based on the results of this research, we make suggestions for developing social studies teaching materials which conform to the new national curriculum of Japan.
