School curriculum reform in contemporary Japan: competencies, subjects, and the ambiguities of PISA

ABSTRACT

Since the late 1980s, school curriculum revisions in Japan have sought to promote capabilities and dispositions that transcend subject boundaries and are often labelled ‘competencies’ in international curricular discourse. This study examines policy documents over the period, showing how Japanese policymakers have sought to navigate pressures internal and external to Japan. It argues that tension between competencies and subject domains in the OECD’s PISA surveys enabled both attacks on Japan’s so-called yutori (relaxed) curriculum revision of 1998–1999, and subsequent responses by Japan’s Ministry of Education and Science. Analysis indicates that curriculum reform in Japan has moved from a ‘competency-added’ revision in 1998–1999 towards a ‘competency-integrated’ revision in 2017–2018; the latter seeks to resolve the tension between competencies and subject content by developing broader capabilities through distinctive approaches offered by different subjects. Further research is needed to determine how well the curriculum will be translated into school practice.

摘要

自20世纪80年代末以来，日本的学校课程修订一直试图培养超越学科界限的能力和性情--在国际课程话语中通常被称为“素养”。本文考察了这一时期的政策文本，展示日本的政策制定者如何试图应对国内外的压力。文章认为，经合组织的PISA测评中素养和学科领域之间的张力使日本1998-99年所谓的yutori（宽松）课程修订以及日本文部科学省随后的回应均受到批评。分析表明，日本的课程改革已从1998-99年的“附加素养”修订转向2017-18年的“整合素养”修订；后者试图通过不同学科提供的独特方法来发展更广泛的能力，从而解决素养和学科内容之间的张力。需要进一步的研究来明确课程在多大程度上转化为学校实践。

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum
• school
• Japan
• competencies
• subjects
• PISA
• academic ability

关键词:

• 课程
• 学校
• 日本
• 素养
• 学科
• 国际学生评估项目
• 学术能力

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Professor Michiko Tomizawa and Professor Katsuhiro Yamazumi for their kind invitation to Japan in autumn 2022, which facilitated research for this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Japanese and History were chosen because of their relevance as major school subjects to the curricular reform agenda and because of the author’s expertise and previous research in these areas.

2 The Japanese term gakuryoku has been crucial in educational reform debates, but translating it into English is not easy given that the English word ‘ability’ is sometimes used to refer to potential rather than achieved ability. Gakuryoku tends to refer to achieved ability, and therefore could often be well translated as ‘academic attainment’. However, I have chosen to translate it consistently as ‘academic ability’ given that this article discusses reconceptualisations of gakuryoku to include dispositions such as motivation, which do not seem well captured by the English word ‘attainment’.

3 The Japanese term ikiru chikara is translated in Japanese government publications and elsewhere as ‘zest for living’, but this is a poor translation, given that ‘zest’ means ‘enthusiasm’, whereas chikara means ‘power’ or ‘ability’.

4 Except for grade 7, where IS was allocated 50 h across the 35-week school year. Past and present curricula can be accessed on the MEXT website: https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/new-cs/1383986.htm. See also Cave (2016, 147, 188).

5 ‘Active learning’ is sometimes rendered in Japanese using the word nōdō-teki for ‘active’ and one of a variety of Japanese words for ‘learning’, but most often the term is simply transliterated as akutibu rāningu.

6 Minutes of these meetings, together with the documents presented at each, were accessed at https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo3/053/giji_list/index.htm

7 Curricula can be accessed on the MEXT website: https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/new-cs/1383986.htm

8 The encouragement of critical thinking through successive curricular revisions could be seen as in tension with parallel efforts by Liberal Democrat-led governments since the 1990s to promote patriotism through schools by means of enforced use of national symbols (the flag and anthem), revision of the Fundamental Law of Education (Cave 2009), History education (Saaler 2016) and change in the status of Moral Education from a ‘domain’ to a ‘special subject’ with government-approved textbooks (Bamkin 2022a), Though beyond the scope of this article, this tension deserves further exploration.

9 At junior high level, I examined the 2016 and 2021 editions of the market-leading first year Japanese textbook published by Mitsumura Tosho, and the 2016 and 2021 editions of the market-leading History textbook published by Tokyo Shoseki. At high school level, I examined the ‘Integrated Japanese’ textbooks published by Dai-ichi Gakushūsha, approved in 2016, and the ‘Contemporary Japanese’ and ‘Language Culture’ textbooks published by Tokyo Shoseki, approved in 2021 (these two publishers lead the market with similar market shares; I was unable to access textbooks from the same publisher for both editions). I also examined the ‘World History A’ textbook published by market leader Teikoku Shoin in 2017 and the same publisher’s 2022 ‘Integrated History’ textbook.

10 Information about the Common Test is available via the website of the National Center for University Entrance Examinations: https://www.dnc.ac.jp/kyotsu/index.html

11 Based on inspection of published past papers for university and prefectural high school examinations in October 2022.

12 See, for example, Table 6.9 of the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018: https://www.oecd.org/education/talis/talis2018tables.htm

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Cave

Peter Cave is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester.