This study examined the development of social studies lessons that encourage junior high school students to engage with external agencies. It was found that to develop an understanding of the common good, schools need to develop lessons that encourage students to engage with external agencies for three main reasons.

1.To develop social awareness, which is the foundation of problem solving.

2.To eliminate student resistance to varying opinions by raising their self-esteem through feedback.

3. To ensure the main teaching materials are focused on real-world issues that external agencies may not yet have examined.

　　The results of this research give some guidance on the development of lessons that emphasize cooperation with external institutions. Future research could focus on developing lessons/units that include community collaboration and clarifying the teachers’ opinions of the academic value of these types of social studies lessons.

　　This study examined the inclusion of discussions on controversial issues in teacher education in the United States. Specifically, this study examined the research of Hess (2001), who developed effective controversial issue discussion teaching methods, and Pace (2019), who compared global controversial issue discussion teaching methods by teacher educators. The research analysis identified the key areas that need to be included in teacher training to ensure teachers gain knowledge about controversial citizenship issues in Japan (for example, nuclear power generation and tax system). It was concluded that to ensure that controversial issues are discussed in teacher education courses, there needs to be a shift from skills development to strategy development. These studies are important references for the inclusion of citizenship education in teacher training courses in Japan.

　　This article aims to clarify how to design a lesson in which students can inquire into “Difficult History” from the “Critical-Sociocultural Approach” perspective. This article consists of the following four points; (1) “CriticalSociocultural Approach” as a theoretical framework for history education that aims to address the sociocultural contexts that makes “Difficult History” “Difficult”, (2) The lesson design principles based on “Critical-Sociocultural Approach”, (3) The characteristics and limitations of actual design cases, and (4) The directions of transforming in history lesson design principles that are required in the future.

　　It was concluded that first, lesson design principles based on the “Critical-Sociocultural Approach” need to connect the Humanitarianism-based “Sociocultural approach” with “Historical thinking.” Previous studies have been divided the “Sociocultural Approach,” which focuses on Humanitarianism and “Historical Thinking.” The “Sociocultural Approach” is used to research the students’ historical perceptions and understanding. Meanwhile, the “Historical Thinking” approach focuses on concepts that promote the students’ cognitive development; however, these concepts need to be combined when inquiring into “Difficult History.” Second, to apply “Difficult History,”the research methodology also should be transformed. “Difficult History” is context-driven, and thus it is difficult to extract the general principles from the practice. In the future, it will be necessary not only to examine the connection of previous Japanese Social Studies research but also to reexamine the effectiveness from a practical perspective.

　　This study investigated and analyzed the influence of learning contexts on high school students’attitudes toward history classes, using X school as a case study, which has classes focused on various career paths, from which several recommendations for improving history classes were determined.

　　The students stated that regardless of the learning context, the purposes for learning history were knowledge and culture, learning from the lessons of history, and current understanding. When asked about the classes delivered by history teachers, the students emphasized textbook-based learning regardless of the learning context. The learning context differences were also identified as preparation for entrance and employment exams.

　　The survey results indicated that the students were more interested in learning content when the purpose for learning history and the lessons they wanted from their history teacher were consistent and were less interested in the learning content when these requirements were not met. Therefore, classes that both allow students to understand the purpose of learning history and address their expectations of the history teachers could increase their interest in learning history. By referring to developed history lesson models, suggestions are also given as to the kinds of history lessons that can meet student needs in the various learning contexts.

　　This study aims to elucidate the impact of implemented curriculum on civic engagement (attained curriculum) of junior high school students and subsequently, examine the conditions for civic engagement learning proposed in social studies educational research, critically. Questionnaires using the ICCS (International Civic and Citizenship education Survey) framework were completed by 1495 junior high school students. Factor analysis was conducted post survey and the results of path analyses indicate that learning from each other in school and learning about school management and school issues have a positive influence on behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement of the students. However, only emotional engagement is positively influenced by learning about social issues. This research offers the following considerations:

　　First, focusing on school management and school issues was more effective in structured curricula than focusing on the social issues and social relations prerequisites for civic engagement learning. Second, including civic engagement learning only in social studies was ineffective and that engagement in this learning should be included in social studies and other subjects.

　　The conclusion also suggests that the limitations of the framework for discussion of social studies education, and proposed a new way of formulating research questions with a set of methodologies.