This study focuses on the relationship between social studies practitioners and the national curriculum so as to propose strategies for the improvement of national curriculum based social studies lessons. First, I examine the national curriculum social studies lessons which do not adequately consider the learner situation and then demonstrate how these can be improved based on the external situation and the internal learner situation. Then, to focus on the needed improvements, I examine the lesson in terms of the learner situation, and outline a two-stage improvement procedure. The first stage starts when the teacher becomes aware of the issues in the lesson from the external situation. The second stage moves from the learner’s internal situation to lesson improvement. Then, based on this lesson improvement procedure, I examine the problem in the social context in terms of the influence on the learner and clarify the utilization of the textbook so as to concretely improve the focus on the learner.

　　This study examines the formation of values of students in an elementary school social studies class and proposes the construction of alternative lesson plans to traditional elementary school social studies lessons to allow the focus to shift from a regional to a national perspective so as to ensure a viable learning base. Previous studies on this subject have proposed that social studies lesson plans can foster the formation of values to avoid unintentional indoctrination. However, these propositions have not been fully reflected in elementary school education. Therefore, this study has two main points of significance.

　　First, for the purpose of the formation of values, this study proposes a construction principle for elementary school social studies, which is constructed through the institutionalization of democratic values and a child’s value formation processes. Second, based on the above principles, to develop volunteering values in children, this study introduces a possible lesson plan for the 5th grade, “Analyzing Minamata disease.” After practice, the children understood the norms behind the social decisions involved in Minamata disease and how these norms could change. Further, it was shown that through the use of such examples it is possible to foster the formation of values. By making judgments regarding social problems, the children were able to see the differences in the interpretation of each other’s values, and therefore were able to deepen their social recognition abilities.

　　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.

　　This paper outlines the development of a framework for high school history lessons that foster authentic social participation by searching for the historical causation behind modern social issues reported in the daily news. First, 13 categories that characterize both modern society and historical causations are identified from previous research. Then, using historical causations written in high school history lessons with these categories, a matrix operation and text classification are used to develop a framework that proposed historical causations according to the degree of similarity to specific modern issues in the daily news. Third, world history lessons are developed using the framework on the following five steps: 1) choosing a particular modern social issue and the related historical causations, 2) constructing historical causations, 3) applying these causations to solve modern social issues by evaluating the validity of each team in the group, 4) applying multiple viewpoints from which to solve the issues, and 5) transmitting the outcome of the learning to society. Finally, we develop a world history curriculum to enhance student ability through the gradual implementation of the five lessons along with a “learning by setting the subject”principle.

　　Mutual understanding is the exchange of views between oneself and others based on communication. In terms of that, communication that encourages mutual understanding of the neighboring countries is important in international education. However, thus far, there has been no real communication in international education between South Korea and Japan. Some former researches utilized another’s view to facilitate mutual understanding. But the understanding was based on inner dialogue and there was no process to deliver one’s opinions to others; so, real communication does not happened.

　　This research proposes a situation in which “authentic communication” can be realized and tries to prove its effect through action research. For that, the project “Making a Better Textbook” with South Korean and Japanese Students was practiced using a 6th grade Japanese social studies textbook that explains South Korea as the medium for communication. South Korean students were encouraged to talk to Japanese students based on the following 4 steps: Know the textbook’s contents, Recognize another’s view (Japanese textbook view), Analyze/Criticize this view, and Suggest a new textbook for Japanese students. Japanese students were also encouraged to express their opinions about the suggested textbook to make it better based on the same 4 steps to the South Korean students. Finally the South Korean students re-suggested their opinions to make the textbook better to the Japanese students.

　　After the lessons, students from both the countries thought of each other not as a subject of understanding but as the subject for communication and the misunderstanding that existed between them were reduced. Students were more open to each other and this strengthened the possibilities for a better relationship between the two countries. This research not only showed the possibilities for “communicationbased” international education, but also implied the following: (1) a new value for the use of textbooks and (2) an international education based on “communication between oneself and others (our communication)” instead of the communication between one country and other countries (nations’ communication).