Learning History Can Help Students Envision a Preferable Future: Teaching “Changes in the International Order and Mass Society” in the Future

This study addressed how history learning contributes to developing futures foresight and the ability to envision a preferable future by implementing a history lesson based on Hicks’s Citizenship for the future: A practical classroom guide. This included teaching future skills in a “Modern and Contemporary History” course at a Japanese high school. The study analysed two types of data to examine the relationship between history learning and futures foresight: (1) a comparison of student responses to pre- and post-lesson questionnaires, and (2) worksheets used in the lesson. An analysis of these materials clarified that history learning contributes to envisioning a preferable future, by raising students’ interest in the futures and their keenness towards contemporary issues, and helping them realize the temporal connection between the past, present, and future. I also argue that futures foresight-based learning should be viewed from the perspective of social studies education because it motivates students to take action to solve problems and consolidates the positioning of learning history, geography, and civics.