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Project-Based Learning in Post-WWII Japanese School Curriculum: An Analysis via Curriculum Orientations
- Source :
-
Curriculum Journal . 2017 28(4):626-641. - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- In the 2000s, the new national curriculum, dubbed as the "yutori curriculum," introduced a new subject for project-based learning "Integrated Study" as its prominent feature. Comparing curriculum orientations in project-based learning in three historical periods after the WWII including Integrated Study, this paper aims to offer a genealogy of postwar Japanese school curriculum primarily based on a critical reading of the national curriculum guidelines on project-based learning, which is emblematic of the extending power of postwar Japan's curriculum authorities. Although Integrated Study was purportedly child-centered and put emphasis on each child's personal relevance and each school's autonomy, the finding of this study shows that Integrated Study in the yutori curriculum was rather a technology that disciplined schools, teachers, and classroom processes to shape children into morally good and cognitively flexible Japanese nationals. Despite its rhetoric of child-centeredness and personal relevance, the introduction of Integrated Study as part of the yutori curriculum was ultimately part of the state's move to gain further control over schooling.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0958-5176
- Volume :
- 28
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- ERIC
- Journal :
- Curriculum Journal
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- EJ1157311
- Document Type :
- Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2017.1340170