This paper examines how teachers expressing their political views influence students' opinion formation and discussions in classrooms regarding controversial issues. We used the methods of Journell (2011) and built on the scholarship of Hess and McAvoy (2015) and Iwasaki (2021). As a case study, we observed a junior high school social studies…

Socio-scientific decision-making necessitates reasoning from multiple perspectives and the use of trade-offs. This study examines how students decide on socio-scientific issues when they engage in an instructional intervention to enhance their socio-scientific decision-making towards consensus building that, in this study, emphasises generating…

This qualitative case study sought to understand the extent to which Japanese high school social studies teachers grapple with controversial issues in their classrooms. Situated within a curricular-instructional gatekeeping framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews with eight respondents of varying backgrounds and schools in Okayama,…

Japan's educational system has undergone a series of reforms over the past decade or so. Through these reforms, the ruling party has strengthened the involvement of the government and local authorities in education. At the same time, there has been a growing tendency for teachers to avoid taking up political issues in classrooms, in order to…

This book explores the realities of feminist EFL teachers' lives through interviews and classroom observations with eight EFL teachers at Japanese universities. The data contained in the book broaden our understanding of feminist teaching in the language classroom while also providing suggestions for practice. The book examines not only how the…

This paper discusses how teachers explore teaching controversial issues in the Japanese language classroom to Japanese language learner (JLL) or culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students who have different cultural and political backgrounds. Assuring educational opportunities with consideration of JLLs' background is important…

In language education, controversial issues sometimes emerge in either planned or spontaneous ways. Based on a classroom episode, this article illuminates dilemmas of approaching controversial issues for teachers who embrace critical pedagogy. A review of interdisciplinary literature demonstrates a general agreement on presenting balanced views…

Informed by recurring international controversies, this study explores representations of the Second World War as official history in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean secondary-level textbooks and theorizes about how they influence and function as collective memories about this time period. Using grounded theory, it finds that the examined Japanese…

Industrial policy is a highly controversial issue. The European Union (EU) justifies its industrial policy on the grounds of common problems across countries, its capacity to coordinate and reduce duplication of efforts, its capacity to control and limit member-state subsidies to industries, and its mandate for foreign trade and competition…

Graphic design's messages can reach across streets and across the globe; they can bring together countries, communities and strangers for a common cause; they can also serve to divide otherwise amenable neighbors. Design students must fully understand this potential reach and thus the responsibility they have to create tolerant, informed messages.…

Although inter-religious conflicts have not yet surfaced as major social problems in Japan, religious education for peace and tolerance is needed in the country as much as in other countries. This article aims to disclose that, in light of political contexts, supposedly neutral "teaching about religion" can be as problematic as history…

Discusses some of the similarities and differences between the attitudes of Japanese and American citizens toward science. Reports on major discrepancies between the two populations' views about such things as evolution, the development of new plants and animals, and the effect of rocket launchings on the weather. (TW)

This curriculum unit introduces students to the topic of minority identity issues in the context of Japanese society, and it is expected that teachers will use this as an opportunity to segue into classroom discussions of minority issues in their own society. The curriculum unit broaches some sensitive and controversial topics that challenge…

Summarizes the results of an International Bioethics Education Survey conducted in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Compares knowledge and teaching of 15 selected topics with particular emphasis on the teaching of social, ethical, and environmental issues of in vitro fertilization, prenatal diagnosis, biotechnology, nuclear power, pesticides,…

Observes that, although textbook reform in occupied Japan originally supported democratic principles of openness and competition, it later became a mechanism for anticommunist censorship. Maintains that interpretations of Japan's military conduct remain highly politicized and controversial. (MJP)