In this essay, I aimed to reveal the feature of Japanese elementary social studies during 1947-1951. I
studied Japanese core curriculum theory and curriculum plans of Japanese elementary schools, and the
Course of Studies of Japanese Elementary Social Studies published in 1951.
Since proclamation of the Course of Study of Japanese Elementary Social Studies in 1947, many
elementary schools published their own school curriculum plans, for example, Sakurada Elementary School
Plan and Akashi Elementary School Plan, which is based on the core curriculum theory. The Plans are
constructed of two parts of "core course" and "surroundings course". The core course is to be problem
solving course and the surroundings course is to drill 3R's. In those Plans, Social Studies is seen as Core
Course.
But this view on Social Studies was contradict to the view of Ministry of Education of Japan which
counted social studies as one of subject matter. The Japanese Core Curriculum League which promoted
core curriculum movement came into conflict with the Ministry of Education of Japan. Ministry of
Education of Japan revise the Course of Study of Elementary Social Studies of 1947 and proclaimed new
ones in 1951. In this revised Course of Study, the Ministry of Education of Japan to define Social Studies
as the subject matte such as Language, Mathematics so on.
The social studies lesson in those days practiced unit lesson which centered on problem solving, for
example "Lesson Plan(4th grade): Prevent the fire in our community!"